Northern Ireland restaurant named amongst the best new restaurants in the UK

A Northern Ireland eatery has been named among the UK’s best new restaurants to open in 2023.

Condé Nast Traveller's inaugural edition of The UK’s Top New Restaurant Awards searched the country to find the very best openings from 2023.

County Londonderry restaurant Lir was the only Northern Ireland eatery honoured in the list of 23.

A spokesperson for the magazine, explained: “Opening the doors of a new restaurant is hard enough – keeping them open requires grit, talent and a little magic. To be named on this list of the UK’s Top New Restaurants is about more than Michelin stars (although you’ll find a few here) and big-name chefs (ditto); it’s about experiencing exceptional service; an atmosphere you can truly unwind in; storytelling you wouldn’t find anywhere else; and food that opens up a little slice of the world for you – whether that’s the West Country or West Africa.

“To create the inaugural list of The UK’s Top New Restaurants, we brought on board some of the most trusted foodies in the country to whittle down the vast swathes of excellent 2023 restaurant openings to an edit of only the most exceptional. During the process, chefs Angela Hartnett, Andi Oliver, Skye Gyngell, Gurdeep Loyal, Julie Lin and James Cochran; food writers Gizzi Erskine and Tom Parker Bowles; Instagram sensation Notorious Foodie and Condé Nast Traveller’s global editorial director Divia Thani debated and considered that question time and time again – what makes a restaurant one of the best?

"The list below – 23 restaurants scattered across the UK from Scotland’s Cairngorm Mountains to Cornwall by way of Yorkshire, Narbeth, Suffolk, Liverpool and beyond – answers that question in 23 unique ways that make us more excited than ever about the future of the UK’s dining scene.”

Becoming a firm local favourite the Coleraine diner is a sustainably-focused seafood restaurant highlighting the best, locally sourced seafood which is cooked to perfection.

Praising the Lir, the magazine, added: “After opening multi-award-winning The Pool, also in Coleraine, Stevie and Rebekah McCarry opened the ambitious Lir at the Marina in 2023. Menus change daily depending on the catch brought in from local boats, the organic vegetables available from the team's growers and foraged goods from the team.

“The tasting menu prepares ingredients thoughtfully, switching between whole fish butchery, fermenting, smoking and curing keeping in line with a nose-to-tail, zero-waste ethos. All of which is highly commendable, of course – but more importantly, the seafood is cooked in innovative ways, making up dishes such as Korean-fried ray wing or hake Kyiv with caper butter.

"Even Rick Stein is a recent fan (he visited for an upcoming BBC series). So many reasons to visit, and we haven't even touched on the element our judging panel swooned over the most – that view of the water over the Coleraine Marina.”