The Best Places to Eat Near The Oarsman, by the Record

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Neven Maguire's name is the reason people drive to a small town near the Irish border and don't complain about it. MacNean House is a formal restaurant with a tasting menu, plush dining room, and the kind of attentive service that suits an anniversary better than a Tuesday. The cooking leans on fine Irish produce and runs to real detail. A cookery school and rooms sit alongside it, should the journey feel too long to do in one day.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The bright green interior in Athlone has been packing tables for long enough that regulars stop reading the menu before they sit down. This is a neighbourhood restaurant doing modern Irish cooking with genuine care: local produce, seasonal menus, and a glazed ham hock with crispy hen's egg that never seems to leave, probably because nobody lets it. The service is warm without being performative. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant