Lignum

Lignum will have you right from the get-go: the bread and butter course which Danny Africano and his team offer to begin dinner in their super-smart restaurant will have you ooing! and cooing! from the moment the artfully baked breads and breadsticks arrive at the table. 
All you have to do, then, is to surrender to what is one of the best food experiences Ireland can offer, an effortless parade of expert sourcing, cooking, plating and serving that aims for the stars.
Lignum provokes the most over-the-top responses from visitors  - “still revelling” “holy shit!” “The most exciting restaurant” - and every word of praise is genuine, for cooking that pushes at every boundary. 
The menus, which only list main ingredients - oyster; scallop; swede(!); duck; pumpkin; - give no indication of the level of artfulness and invention which the kitchen team bestow on every plate.
Mr Africano and his team use all the modernist techniques of cooking and plating, yet the food is centred on the most ancient culinary reality: dishes are cooked over wood fire. It is this, along with an expertise in both foraging and fermenting, that gives them their sense of rusticity, the flavours of nature, wildness and origin. And this wildness is what makes the cooking so magical. The food is primped and polished, yet it remains vivid and focused, concentrated and clean.
The smart option is to take a package that includes accommodation and transport in the nearby Ryan Lodges, choose the natural wine pairings, and get ready to go wow!