It’s more than easy to find a Chinese restaurant in Dublin, from the noisy, happy cluster on Parnell Street to longer-established and much-loved outlets in the city centre or suburbia. And the capital is blessed with quality, whether it’s hand-pulled noodles and dim sum, or modern fine-dining takes on classic dishes – there is something for all palates.
On the more traditional side, Ka Shing has stood confidently for 12 years on Wicklow Street in Dublin 2, decorated in old-school fashion, with a fish tank near the entrance. A regular menu and a dim sum menu greet diners, with classics such as chicken and sweetcorn soup and mixed selections with sauces such as black bean, “Chinese premium XO”, and king do.
Owner Bi Lian Liu explains that in Chinese, the phrase Ka Shing represents the idea of a good family. From 1982-2012, the restaurant was called Imperial. Liu bought it when it was closing down. She says Chinese people like to visit for its Hong Kong-style dim sum.
The man behind these is head chef Liu Lai Keung, who is from Hong Kong. He is a Cantonese speaker who jokes via translators that he’s in Ireland because he likes the weather.
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“Another reason for living here is that I have kids, and so I want to give them a good education,” he says.
Keung has been making dim sum for 48 years and has lived in Ireland for 18 of those. He says his cooking philosophy is about showing people what good food from Hong Kong is like.
Liu has solid perspectives on the sector, gained through both Ka Shing and its fine-dining cousin, Kaisen in Blanchardstown. He notes that the older generation prefers dim sum, while younger people find the layout of a fine-dining restaurant “more attractive”.
Like Ka Shing, Good World Chinese Restaurant on nearby South Great George’s Street is traditional in its approach, with decor featuring white paper table mats. It opened in 1991, and the head chef, Chi Chung Wai, joined the team a year later. He laughs when asked to describe his cooking philosophy, saying he’ll “take a long pause”, before concluding that “it’s to keep the customer happy, keep learning and trying to get better”.
Irish people have different tastes, he says, and so he changes some ingredients to suit that. “Sometimes you can’t get the right ingredient, so you get something similar, something that’s as close as possible,” he says. “We’re very old-style. The owner [of Good World], Alfred Ma, travels to China and sees what’s new and popular there, especially for the dim sum section. Western or Irish-style Chinese is very different, Wai says, with Good World serving Cantonese, Hong Kong-style food.
He sees modern Chinese restaurants as being “more stylish and fancy”, but with “the main bits” the same. “It’s just different cooking styles. Modern Chinese food is maybe more colourful, and the restaurant interiors are different.”
He wonders if cooking at fine-dining restaurants is easier than what he does. “They have more staff in the kitchen. We have to know everything and do everything ourselves. The chefs at fine-dining restaurants don’t have to chop vegetables; someone does it for them.”
“We do simple food, and we’re not pricey,” says Jino Fan, manager at Good World. “At fine-dining restaurants, the chef can really concentrate on cooking, and then everything has to be plated nicely. The expectations at fine-dining restaurants are higher.”
Good World sees customers not just from Dublin, but also from different cities and counties, says Fan. “We have a lot of regulars.”
Modern Chinese restaurants in Dublin have been able to draw in loyal crowds too. One hot spot is Big Fan on Aungier Street in Dublin 2, which shot to success soon after its opening in 2020.
“Big Fan was founded with a strong commitment to exploring beyond traditional boundaries, ensuring we are not confined to a single region or even Chinese cuisine as a whole,” says head chef Alex Zhang. “We know what ingredients and skills we have access to, and we play to our strengths and draw inspiration from a broad, diverse culinary landscape, embracing the idea that innovation arises from combining elements, techniques, ingredients, and flavours that excite us.”
Zhang is from Dalian in China, where he studied Chinese cookery, and says he will always try to incorporate aspects of his hometown’s culinary heritage into his creations, enriching the menu with authenticity and personal passion.
His menu combines Chinese cooking and Irish ingredients. “It shows the local people that Chinese restaurants are not just about fried rice and noodles,” says Zhang. “I’ve never seen any other Chinese restaurant do what we do. During Christmas or St Patrick’s Day, we use what’s in season. For example, turkey, which is not big in China, but we use it here, with Chinese cookery.
“Our menu is 50 per cent traditional and 50 per cent modern,” he says. “I’ve worked with Irish people in Irish restaurants for 15 years. I find that Irish tastes are changing. They don’t like big portions and they don’t like a lot of carbs. They prefer something smaller and want to try more variety.”
Zhang is clear about his cooking philosophy. “Things like satay and black bean are very ordinary. We try to pick something special, something that hasn’t been seen before. For instance, jellyfish, which is very popular in my city. Dalian is by the sea and we eat a lot of seafood,” he says.
“I said I’d make some dishes and get Rob [Robert Hayes, the owner of Big Fan] to try them. Our tables at Big Fan are small, so I don’t want the plates to be big. We don’t have starters, main course and dessert. Everything comes together. We do smaller portions so our customers can try more variety. We’ve designed it for European people.”
Big Fan has a traditional Chinese steamer, a wok-frying section, a deep-frying section, a pan-frying section and a pastry section.
“Normally, traditional Chinese restaurants have all these sections too, but most of the food there comes from the wok-frying section,” says Zhang.
He has experience with French cooking, and so likes to plate the dishes based on flavours. “You’ll get a combination of different textures. For Asian cuisine, spice is key. But if all you use is spice, people are going to say, ‘Oh, that’s very spicy’. So you’re going to need umami and soy-based dishes to break things up.”
Not all customers can take spice, Zhang says. “So we design things in a way that some dishes are spicy and some are sweet. We have spicy chicken and sweet chicken.”
Big Fan has a sister restaurant called Sister7 in Smithfield, the menu for which was also designed by Zhang. “The difference between Big Fan and Sister7 is that [the latter] is a bar,” he says. “So most people there drink. Some people might come and not order any food; they might just order beer. But when you have a beer, you might say, ‘Oh, I want some snacks’. With beer, people normally eat things like pretzels. In Chinese cuisine we have crackers.”
Zhang is still a fan of traditional Chinese restaurants. “Chinese cuisine is huge,” he says. “The regions are different. I go to Ka Shing or Good World if I want to eat dim sum or traditional Hong Kong or Cantonese-style food. They have been around for a long time. The chefs know the cuisine really well. If you make a dish 250 times a day, you will be an expert.”
As a chef, Zhang finds that some flavours are too mild and flat for him. “I like things to have a kick,” he says. “Each region of China represents different flavours. If you want more spice, you’d go somewhere like M & L [on Cathedral Street in Dublin 1] to eat.”
He reckons not all Irish diners might enjoy all of the Chinese food on offer in the many newer outlets available in the city centre.
“They might not be suitable for everyone because either the dishes are too big or the flavours are too strong. In China, most Chinese customers can take it,” he says. “But other people might find it too much, or find the ingredients strange. We do chicken feet, which everyone knows are very popular, but I can’t serve chicken feet.” It doesn’t matter how well he can make chicken feet, Zhang says, his customers wouldn’t like to try it. “In one week I’d probably sell two portions. It won’t be a success.”
He enjoys fine dining because he comes from such a background and enjoys “working with tweezers and little things like that”, but he acknowledges that prices can be high.
“It depends on the customer. We have loads of people celebrating at Big Fan. Birthdays, anniversaries, even stag parties. It’s more fun and relaxed. You‘re not thinking about wearing something formal or speaking softly. I can just enjoy with my friends. That’s most important. I don’t need to spend big money or order expensive wine.”
China Sichuan in Sandyford is one of the best-known Chinese fine-dining restaurants in Ireland. The head chef there, Jack Lew Kong Loy, has previously worked in Pakistan, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. “He’s going to introduce a lot more refinement to the menu,” says owner Kevin Hui.
“Our very first restaurant was called Lotus House in Dún Laoghaire. That was in the 1970s. It was very busy in its heyday. We were serving spring rolls and fried rice with curry sauce. You remember those days?” Hui asks David Soo, his kitchen manager at China Sichuan. “They were jumbo spring rolls that you couldn’t get into your mouth,” he recalls fondly. “And we had sweet and sour chicken, which was bright red. That was part and parcel of the early ’70s.”
China Sichuan opened in 2006. “We wanted it to be a modern-style restaurant, with modern-style service, serving Sichuan food, using the best of Irish produce,” Hui says. “We have a menu that’s 20 per cent authentic; the rest is modern. I don’t think any other Chinese restaurant takes the risks that we do.”
Head chef Lew Kong Loy says a lot of what he cooks at China Sichuan is South Cantonese cuisine. “We do a fusion of western-style, Japanese-style and Cantonese-style cooking,” he says.
“Unlike the modern ones, traditional Chinese restaurants have big portions. We [at China Sichuan] have to modify them into small portions. The presentation, along with garnishes, needs to look great.” He doesn’t want to lose the Cantonese style of doing things. “We want to keep that; especially the flavours,” he says.
Hui describes this as “taking a lot of Sichuan dishes and marrying them with a lighter touch.”
“To me, the cooking philosophy at China Sichuan is providing good food with the best of ingredients, and also interpreting local produce and bringing it along on a journey.”
Hui reckons the restaurant has “very refined” spice levels.
He sees Chinese food having been stereotyped as curry sauce and chicken balls in the past. “But it has moved on from that in the last 25 years and that’s good to see.”
