Tempting, tasty bites with one of the capital’s best views

Kwanghi Chan has had an eclectic career. He was born in Hong Kong but brought up in Donegal and you can tell by his accent. He learned to cook with his uncle Sam, who still has a Chinese takeaway in Buncrana but after training at the celebrated Killybegs Catering College – where Conrad Gallagher started out – he worked his way up to being head chef at the Michelin-starred Cliff House in Ardmore, Co Waterford.

These days he’s best known for a series of food trucks, appearances on The Six O’Clock Show on television, for a range of spicy street food sauces, during lockdown for his clever dumpling meal kits and latterly for a number of cheerful, straightforward, somewhat panAsian outlets. The latest is Bites by Kwanghi in the Capitol Building, overlooking the East Link toll bridge. It adjoins the Fresh supermarket, in which you can get his takeaway offerings. But it’s in the restaurant proper, with one of the best heated terraces in the capital – almost certainly the one with the top view – that you can really have fun.

And I want to emphasise fun. The menu is short, the cooking playful and packed with punchy flavours. The food doesn’t stand on ceremony and nor should you; it’s all about enjoyment. I don’t care a whit that the purists would roll their eyes at some of what’s on offer, nor the fact that there can be a somewhat heavy hand with sweetness. This is food for sharing, companionship, letting your hair down and, yes, having a bit of much-needed fun.

This is greatly assisted by the fact that, notwithstanding a short wine and beer list of its own, Bites By Kwanghi will charge you just €7 a bottle for wine bought from Fresh’s excellent selection right beside the entrance. And €4 for beers. I reckon a bottle of something reasonably serious, partnered with the dumplings and maybe a side of kimchi, would be a very inexpensive and enjoyable way to while away an hour or two in good company.

This is the Dublin Docklands, where the big law and accountancy firms rub shoulders in enormous, somewhat clinical new buildings. Names that we don’t know, but that we assume speak much money, appear on signs outside quiet, lofty reception halls. They will provide a good audience for this kind of food and wine when the be-suited ones depart from their usual expenseaccount feeding troughs.

The menu is short and to the point. I’d love to see a few more dumplings – this is one of Kwanghi’s real strengths and a good dumpling is a thing to be celebrated. But the three that we had were good, the star being the succulent, slippery steamed pork and chive (€9) ones served in a dark, spicy broth, red with chilli oil. Okay, I’d have liked more chilli oil in that this looked much more attractively dangerous than it actually tasted, but I’m not really complaining.

Fried chicken dumplings (€8) are pleasantly blistered outside but moist within, while vegetable gyozas (€8), heavy on cabbage I think, were

THE MENU IS SHORT, THE COOKING PLAYFUL, PACKED WITH PUNCHY FLAVOURS

perhaps a little dry. Again, not complaining.

The ‘spice bag chicken bao bun’ (€10) was a bit of a misnomer. I can’t claim to have eaten many spice bags, that endemic and unique creation of the Irish Asian takeaway, but I enjoyed them all: a combination of chips, chilli, scallions, spices and occasionally fried chicken. The bao bun – pillowy and suitably soft – was filled with strips of crisply breaded chicken, anointed with ‘hot sauce’ that was actually pretty mild, scallions, coriander and sesame, and it was fine. But its relationship with the classic – okay, usual – spice bag was pretty tenuous. It was no hardship, though.

Sticky hoi sin pork (€14) came in a bowl, long-cooked pulled pork liberally lathered with a dark varnish of hoi sin sauce and was rich and sweet and maybe would have benefitted from a little sharpness. However, some was provided by good piquant kimchi, not quite fiery enough to frighten the horses, but refreshingly tart and earthy.

This all came atop asmine rice, with miso mayonnaise and lovely black garlic and peanut chilli oil, more of which is provided in a jar on the table.

It’s a clever formula and it’s designed for the widest possible audience, including those who might generally shy away from the chilli heat and sheer savouriness of what is usually served as Chinese food in Ireland, especially where the accent is on Sichuanese elements. In this sense, I believe that Kwanghi is doing missionary work, something that is perhaps needed more outside the big cities in Ireland. But it’s good food, it’s inventive and well done, and the view from the terrace is wonderful to behold, as we did, on a cold but brilliantly sunny day when all of the local office workers seemed to be having a sandwich at the desk. We had the place entirely to ourselves, which was rather lovely.

Will I be back? Most certainly, but not for the spice bag bao bun. Dumplings and a good bottle of wine, though? That’s a very compelling thought.