4 Best Restaurants in Athlone, The Midlands

One of Athlone's culinary highlights, this bistro is noted for its early-bird menu, which runs through the evening (except Saturday, when it ends at 6 pm), filled with such delights as bacon and colcannon mash with cider sauce, or chargrilled pork fillet. Later on, the beige-on-brown dining room fills up for the main dinner menu, which favors steaks, monkfish, duck, and rack of lamb. For lunch, the most popular dish is tandoori chicken breast on focaccia with sautéed potatoes, although the open sandwich of French brie with tomato chutney on brown bread (€9.95) runs a close second. Irresistible desserts include mud cake, banoffee pie, and lemon-and-lime cheesecake.

Ask joint-owner Annie McNamara about the Left Bank dressing, a specially bottled vinaigrette that people come from all across Ireland to buy.

Many regard this as the leading Thai restaurant in the Midlands, if not all of Ireland. Adam Lyons runs a slick first-floor operation in a 650-year-old building on the west bank where the extensive menu features dishes from the Isaan region of northeast Thailand, including the Crying Tiger (grilled fillet of beef on a sizzling hot platter with a hot chili sauce). Typical dishes include the signature steamed chicken curry while others come with beef, lamb shank, duck, and pork served with jasmine rice. It also serves a range of fish and vegetarian dishes. Main courses from €17. Ceiling fans and balloon bamboo lights help create the perfect gastronomic scene—it's not hard to imagine yourself in Chiang Mai.

Keep the water jug handy as the smooth richness of coconut milk doesn't offset this fiery food.

One of the Midlands food heroes, chef-owner Feargal O'Donnell uses fresh, locally sourced ingredients at his popular Irish restaurant in the town center, where you can sink into comfortable orange chairs made of cowhide leather for signature dry-aged steak. Starter nibbles to excite the taste buds might be crispy pig's ear or silver darlings (herring), while main courses may include panfried cod fillet, 30-day dry-aged beef tenderloin with a scene-stealing pepper sauce, or honey roast farmhouse chicken. If you have space, try the strong-flavored Young Buck blue cheese from County Down; for a divine dessert, an affogato with moondust espresso and a dash of Bailey's liqueur will leave a long afterglow on your taste buds. A notice on the wall advises "Keep Calm and Drink Wine," a small exhortation to sample the recommended French house red: Lue Lapeyre Amour Grenache Syrah, a rich and concentrated blend where the ripe tannins are said to dance across your palate and at €36 won't leave a large dent in your wallet.

Clusters of smoked glass pendant lights, aromatic candlelit tables, green banquette furnishings, and smooth music add luster to this always-busy riverside restaurant hidden down a side street beside the bridge. Tuck into some truly creative Athlonian food which might include glazed ham hock, Castlemine free-range pork loin with sausage dumpling, lamb with sheep's cheese polenta, Wagyu beef, or featherblade of beef (sourced from the shoulder blade of the cow). Craft beer, such as American Amber Ale or Seeking Sunshine IPA, comes from the Dead Centre Brewing company next door. The value menu is €38 and €58 for five courses.