This restaurant is from the same company as the DARUMA in downtown Dublin 2, but the menu is different. While the Dublin 2 DARUMA boasts a variety of delicate sake, cocktails, daily sashimi, and Japanese Izakaya-style skewers, the Malahide DARUMA is more of an all-rounder Japanese restaurant with more options of small and big hot plates and a larger wine list. The restaurant is also much larger than the Dublin 2 one.
The waitresses were very friendly and offered to close to door to block the chilling wind. I had three small plates: seabream sashimi, beef gyoza, and fried squid (geso karaage). I also had half pint of draft Kirin beer.
The seabream sashimi tasted fresh with mildly savory and umami flavor, but I had to say the cutting skills were quite disappointing, they looked like kids' paper-cutting homework. They were also annoyingly thin even for a small plate.
The beef gyoza tasted standard.
The fried squids were star of the night, bouncy texture, juicy on the inside, and the crispy pastry was nicely seasoned.
Overall I can only give 3 stars for my first time here. The ingredients tasted nice, the freshness and quality were at par with the Dublin 2 place. However, the cutting on the seabream was quite underwhelming, and I'd expect more from the peer of my favorite Japanese restaurant in Dublin. read more