2017 Award Winners CASUAL DINING RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR 2017

4 Vicars, Armagh, Co Armagh

Our Casual Dining award aims to highlight the quality of (mainly) smaller establishment - ambitious restaurants with an informal style, and especially those serving outstanding daytime food.

How good it is to enjoy a sense of discovery when visiting a new restaurant, not long after opening, and then return a year later to find it purring along, sleekly and confidently, fulfilling its early promise.

In the summer of 2015 Gareth and Kasia Reid told us: “Our small restaurant is focused on serving the best local produce in a simple and elegant way. We source all our fish from Kilkeel, our beef from a butcher/farmer on the outskirts of the City, our salad comes from Loughgall and our apples and juice from the surrounding orchards.” Who could resist?

So we went, drank in the pleasingly modern ambience that’s been created in an old house up beside St Patrick’s the cathedral, liked the smart and friendly staff - and tasted the simple yet deliciously different food.

They are a talented and experienced team and, understated yet impressive, this is a place with a quietly consistent message of creative cooking and customer-focused service enhanced by relaxed surroundings and a sense of place. Well worth noting.