I spot King Skewer coming out of M&L Chinese in Dublin 1, full of deep-fried sea bass and green beans. Across the road, through a large window, I see sizzling trays and detect the faint sting of smoke. It immediately goes on to my must-visit list.
Months later, I’m back, at 7pm on a Wednesday, turning off O’Connell Street into the quieter stretch of Cathedral Street. I have no idea if you can book – the website is dedicated to takeaway. Inside, it’s all Chinese customers and not a single laminated menu is being explained to anyone. There are couples, parents with babies, grandparents, solo diners and at least one date. I like it already.
The menu is long, printed in columns, and divided by method – cold plates, skewers, pots, tinfoil trays – with prices ranging from €1.50 to €18. It includes duck tongue, pig’s ear, chicken gizzard, lamb kidney, bullfrog, and pig intestine, grilled over open flame or simmered in broth. One item in Chinese (the only one without a translation), turns out to be sheep’s brain with milk and enoki mushrooms.
There’s a wine list: glass €7.95, bottle €28.50. That’s all the information you get. Heineken is on tap and available as a two-litre or three-litre chilled beer pot, perfect for groups who prefer to pour their own. We go for a pint of Heineken (€7) and two cans of 0.0 (€5.50 each).
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We start with skewers. The chicken feet (€3), skin and nails removed, arrive first. Two of them on the bone, scorched on a skewer. They’re not puffed or made into snacks for the cautious, but spiced with cumin and a touch of heat. You gnaw each digit down to the bone, working the cartilage loose. When you’re finished, the skewers go into a brushed-steel skewer bucket.
Then the dried tofu roll (€5), five skewers. Thin sheets of tofu have been filled with cumin, spring onion and fresh coriander, rolled tight like vegetarian cigars, slicked with chilli and sesame oil, and finished on the grill. Superb work for €5.
The duck tongues (€3), two skewers, are coated in cumin and salt that catches in the gum. You pull the thin strip of flesh from the bone with your teeth and discard the rest. They are resilient, fatty and entirely worth it.
One large prawn (€2) arrives on a skewer, grilled until it’s molten copper. The flavour is in the char – that crustacean caramel that can only come from a scorching grill and someone who knows how to jostle with smoke. Then the oyster (€4.50). It’s enormous, grilled in its shell, covered in glass noodles and enough garlic to announce your arrival for days.
The sizzlers arrive in tinfoil trays. The sliced potato (€11.95) is crisp at the edge, glazed in chilli oil. The spice blend is close to a spice bag – heat, salt, crunch. There may be some sugar or honey in there. There’s definitely a burn – dry, low and persistent.
The corn and cheese tray (€9.95) is hot and bubbling. We see it on almost every table. It’s sweet – almost dessert-level sweet – and tastes like a cross between mac-and-cheese and rice pudding, if both were made with corn. The cheese is pleasingly stringy.
Quail (€8), spatchcocked and pinned open on three skewers like a butterfly dissection, has skin that is blistered mahogany. It’s the best thing all night. Fat in the legs, crisp under the wing, bone-in, full of juice. The meat is sweet, firm and slightly gamy. There is no polite way to eat it. You need hands. You need wipes.
The spicy lamb (€7), marinated and dusted in cumin and chilli, has been grilled to a deep crust. There’s a slight chew and a fat cap that smokes as it hits the skewer. It’s a classic dish of the Dongbei region in northeast China, reflecting nomadic and Mongolian roots.
The service is friendly, helpful, and quietly impressive. Everything’s well-paced – there’s no pile-up or lag and dishes are cleared when they need to be. The atmosphere is warm and chatty.
You could come here and spend €10 and leave happy, or rock up with a gang, get the beer pot, and keep the grill going until midnight. At King Skewer, it’s about meat and fire, coriander and salt. Your fingers will be sticky, your table a mess, and as you walk out that lipstick red door, you’ll be planning your return. But do book. I’ve since discovered there’s no online option, just a phone number.
Dinner for three with three beers was €75.40.
The verdict: Sizzling skewers with regional integrity.
Food provenance: Chicken feet and tongues from Irish poultry processors, Irish oysters, Irish chicken, not free-range, and Irish pork, with some free-range cuts.
Vegetarian options: Sizzling potatoes, sweetcorn and cabbage; dried tofu roll, king mushroom, garlic sprout and lady’s finger.
Wheelchair access: No accessible room or toilet.
Music: Barely audible Chinese music.
