Ardagh Hotel and Restaurant, Clifden, Connemara (Tel: 095-21384) Award-winning restaurant at first floor level overlooking the Atlantic. Six of the tables at the huge windows offer panoramic views of the rolling hills of Errislannan and the picturesque Ard Bear Bay. The combination of sophisticated menu and spectacular sunsets makes it the perfect setting. Even if dining with the most conversationally challenged company imaginable, the view alone could have you talking all night.
Avoca Handweavers, Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow (Tel: 01-286 7466) Self-service restaurant in a sylvan setting sandwiched between the two Sugar Loafs and offering a peek, through the trees, of the smaller of the two mountains. Really delicious, wholesome food can be eaten indoors, or on the large terrace surrounded by urns of flowers; gardens originally developed in the 1870s by the Jameson whiskey family. Lots of mature evergreens including a giant weeping cypress, believed to be the only one of its kind in the world. Byerley Turk Restaurant, Kildare Hotel and Country Club, Straffan, Co Kildare (Tel: 01-601 7200) Simply sublime classical French cuisine. The restaurant in this five-star hotel overlooks magnificent formal gardens originally laid out in the 19th century. Vibrant flowerbeds and gravel walks sweep down to the River Liffey. Lots of points of interest including a bronze fountain, one of only two in the world, and dozens of rare specimen trees. Casa Pasta, Howth Harbour, Co Dublin (Tel: 01-839 3823) Tiny, buzzy bistro on first-floor level overlooking the harbour. Fishing trawlers to the left, yachts and the ice-creamcone-shaped Yacht Club to the right. Ireland's Eye and Lambay Island straight ahead. Children kick football on the green and people promenade underneath, while overhead a steady stream of aircraft make their descent into Dublin Airport. Equally popular with jazz buffs and kids; the latter are given crayons to write on the paper tablecloths.
The Dome, St Stephen's Green Centre, Dublin (Tel: 01 478 1287) A touch of class in a lot of glass, this self-service restaurant is arguably the highest in the city, with a 180-degree bird's-eye view of the Green and a section of Grafton Street. Above the huge, draped Bernadette Madden hangings you can watch 37 kinds of Irish weather changing through the vast perspex roof. Wholesome Irish-style tapas served on pretty pottery atop bright mustard tableclothed tables.
Eden, Temple Bar, Meeting House Square, Dublin (Tel: 01-670 5372) Extremely trendy restaurant on Meeting House Square in the heart of Temple Bar. See and be seen through the floor-to-ceiling steel and glass window frames. Saturdays are particularly lively, as a mini Harrods' Food Hall is set up outside the window with stall holders selling everything from pate to pastries and pesto. Hayes' Bar, Glandore, Co Cork (Tel: 028-33214) Possibly the end of the rainbow, or something awfully close. Hayes' Bar looks down from a great height on a beautiful sheltered inlet framed with lush trees. Lots of activity in the harbour, with yachts and yachties coming and going. Tasty home-made pub grub served indoors and on the tables outside. Good wines sold by the glass.
Powerscourt House, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow (Tel: 01-204 6068) Stylish, new, self-service restaurant with indoor and outdoor tables. Cinematic views from the vast terrace take your breath away; choose from the world-famous Italian Gardens, the Sugar Loaf Mountain, the rolling Wicklow Hills. From the Lutyens-style teak benches and marble-top tables on the magnificent wide terrace, you can also admire the 19th-century garden statuary and the recently-restored Pepper Pot Tower folly.
La Cascade, Sheen Falls Lodge, Kenmare, Co Kerry (Tel: 064 41600) A formal and formidable Michelinstar hotel restaurant overlooking landscaped rockeries and subtropical woodland walks set in 300 acres of grounds. The waterfall always looks spectacular but is probably at its most dramatic when floodlit at night, or after rainfall when the river is in full spate. A new bistro and bar, Oscar's, (named after the heron which feeds there every evening) will open next month.
Smuggler's Creek Inn, Rossnowlagh Strand, Co Donegal (Tel: 072-52366) Seafood-oriented pub and restaurant perched high on a cliff over the vast and golden Rossnowlagh Strand. Watch the surfers pitching themselves against the huge Atlantic rollers during the day, and in the evenings the monks from the nearby monastery doing the Stations of the Cross along the cliffs.
