The Southwest Restaurants

The Southwest can almost be described as one big culinary hot spot. Kenmare, Dingle, and Killarney all have a high density of restaurants and gastro-pubs serving locally reared meat, artisan cheeses, and local seafood. Kerry mountain lamb has a unique flavor imparted by the wild herbs and grasses that those sheep you see on every hillside are busy munching on. Adare, also has an array of tempting restaurants: choose between the low-ceilinged charm of the tiny rooms in the thatched cottage restaurant, the Wild Geese, and the genuine old-world hospitality at the blissfully comfortable Dunraven Arms, an old coaching inn still with some of its original antiques, that is now one of Ireland's leading hotels. For another kind of dining experience, check out the medieval banquets at Bunratty and Knappogue castles, near Shannon—they're an undeniably touristy good time.