Two outstanding restaurants in Donegal have earned a place on the prestigious Sunday Times 100 Best Restaurants list for 2024.
The Olde Glen Bar was ranked the sixth top restaurant in the country, while Fisk Seafood Bar in Downings was listed in the Top 100 as a highlight of Donegal.
The influential guide is created by Sally and John McKenna of the McKennas Guides.
The Olde Glen Bar in Glen village, with local man Chef Ciarán Sweeney at the helm, is also listed in the Michelin Guide.
The Sunday Times guide heaps praise on Sweeney’s ‘transcendent’ food that stirs an emotional impact within the diner.
“Ciarán Sweeney is a gifted chef, one of the very best of his generation,” they said of the Downings man, who entered the Olde Glen kitchen in 2021.
The judges said Sweeney “weaves magic” from locally-sourced ingredients like Burtonport crab, Mulroy Bay scallps and Gortahork cabbage.
“This is some of the finest cooking in Ireland, expressive of its place, and pure joy to eat,” they said.
The McKenna’s had this to say about Fisk at the Harbour Bar: “Tony Davidson cooks like an angel. For more than five years, since he and his partner, Lina Reppert, opened this wee room at the Harbour Bar, up the hill at Downings, Davidson has shown that he has few peers when it comes to cooking fish and shellfish. He is a true maestro, alive to the nuances of the day’s catch and artfully creative in getting the seafood to be its best.”
Read the full reviews in the Sunday Times: www.thetimes.co.uk
