100 Best Restaurants Guide goes smart casual

Casual restaurants which exhibit flair and creativity have been the most notable innovation of Irish restaurant culture over the last 12 months, according to food writer John McKenna.

“Brilliant cooking is found in rooms where the focus is firmly on the ability of the kitchen to offer imaginative, original and unpretentious food, with a minimum of ceremony,” he said, speaking at the launch yesterday of John and Sally McKenna’s 2014 100 Best Restaurants Guide.

“From focusing on vegetable cookery to a brilliant sandwich offer, ‘creative casual’ restaurants are dissolving the boundaries of how we used to believe critically acclaimed food was served.