{"id":202644,"date":"2025-11-27T08:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T08:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/202644\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T08:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T08:04:12","slug":"restaurant-that-taught-dublin-about-sushi-shows-why-it-has-thrived-for-30-years-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/202644\/","title":{"rendered":"Restaurant that taught Dublin about sushi shows why it has thrived for 30 years \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yamamori <\/strong> <\/p>\n

\ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Address:<\/strong> 71\/72 South Great Georges Street, Dublin 2<\/p>\n

Telephone:<\/strong> 01 475 5001<\/p>\n

Cuisine:<\/strong> Japanese<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> https:\/\/www.yamamori.ie\/southcityOpens in new window<\/a><\/p>\n

Cost:<\/strong> \u20ac\u20ac\u20ac<\/p>\n

Yamamori feels like one of the last survivors in a city that has been reinvented several times. The name alone unsticks the decades \u2013 that distinct red logo emblazoned over the restaurant near the end of South Great George\u2019s Street. <\/p>\n

I first came here in 1995, the year it opened, when eating Japanese food<\/a> in Dublin<\/a> felt quietly subversive. I was already a fan of sushi and sashimi. My daughter Katherine was a one-year-old when I first brought her to Yamamori and, with the unhinged enthusiasm of someone meeting their true calling, she quickly proved it must be genetic. I sat there glowing with parental smugness, convinced she was destined for sophistication \u2013 until I ruined it by feeding her a thumb of nigiri hiding a generous whack of wasabi. Within seconds she was shrieking, face blotched, eyes streaming. Few sounds clear a diningroom faster than a toddler screaming over raw horseradish.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m back with her again. Yamamori is marking 30 years in business, and Katherine still loves Japanese food. The room is more refined. The benches are gone, replaced by booths of dark red leather divided by panels of frosted glass. The bar runs the length of one wall, and cane-shaded lamps hang low over the tables.<\/p>\n

Menus arrive, an edible record of Dublin\u2019s long education in Japanese food. It has changed a lot. What began as a lean menu of tempura, udon and bento has expanded into a catalogue of sushi, sashimi, ramen, teppan and grill dishes, each carrying some trace of the old Yamamori. The tempura no longer comes with a bowl of udon in broth, and the prices have climbed from casual to grown-up \u2013 more special occasion than spur of the moment. We go the small-plates route, focusing on sushi and sashimi, steering clear of salmon, which is farmed now and rarely worth eating.<\/p>\n

Akami \u2013 four pieces of bluefin tuna (\u20ac21.75) \u2013 carries a punchy price, as does the hamachi \u2013 yellowtail \u2013 (\u20ac20.25). The sashimi is cleanly cut \u2013 the tuna holds its shape, dense and cold, with that subtle clean edge that signals quality. The yellowtail is looser, finer, a soft pulse of sea and salt. Two pieces of unagi foie gras nigiri (\u20ac11.75) are burnished like cr\u00e8me br\u00fbl\u00e9e, the torched foie melting into the soy-glazed eel and the judiciously seasoned rice beneath. The rice isn\u2019t served blood-warm, as Jiro in Jiro Dreams of Sushi<\/a> would insist, but it\u2019s delicately perfumed with mirin. I get to relish it all while nudging the vegetarian gyoza towards the pescatarian across the table.<\/p>\n

The six handmade Japanese pumpkin gyoza (\u20ac13.25) come lightly blistered, their edges sealed in neat half-moons and the bases crisped to a fine gold. The wrappers are thin enough to show the filling\u2019s outline \u2013 a mix of chopped pumpkin, onion, pumpkin seed and kale. The first bite breaks with a quiet snap, releasing steam and an involuntary intake of breath. These are outstanding gyoza.<\/p>\n

The tempura that follows \u2013 soft-shell crab (\u20ac15.25) and vegetable (\u20ac14.25) \u2013 is swathed in lacy batter, crisp and uneven, as it should be, clinging in thin translucent layers that shatter with each bite. The crab is stretched in a loose ring, legs curled inward, one claw missing as if it escaped mid-fry. Inside, the meat is soft and delicate, a contrast to the brittle shell. The vegetables are bright and distinct \u2013 aubergine fanned into thin slices, courgette broad and juicy, sweet potato warm and earthy, and a single spear of broccoli.<\/p>\n

We drink warm Shiro sake (\u20ac45). It\u2019s clean and lightly floral with just enough rice sweetness to lift the salt of soy and the heat of fried batter. Sake here isn\u2019t an afterthought tacked on to a list of wines and cocktails. The selection runs from crisp Junmai to silkier Daiginjo, served warm or chilled depending on the rice polish and mood of the table. <\/p>\n

\"RainbowRainbow roll at Yamamori. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill \"TempuraTempura at Yamamori. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill \"SashimiSashimi Moriawase at Yamamori. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill \"YamamoriYamamori on South Great Georges Street. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill \"YamamoriYamamori on South Great Georges Street. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill \"YamamoriYamamori on South Great Georges Street. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

Dessert arrives \u2013 green tea and raspberry ice cream (\u20ac8.95) in three small ramekins, the matcha earthy and cool, the raspberry sharp enough to wake you up. Matcha, when done well, tastes like the air before rain \u2013 grassy, mineral, faintly electric. This one is just that: clean, cold, precise.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible not to think about time in a place like Yamamori. Restaurants aren\u2019t meant to last this long \u2013 especially not the ones that introduced a cuisine to a city still eating its way out of salad cream. Yamamori survived everything the past 30 years have thrown at it, and, with a younger generation of the family now running it, looks good for a few more decades. <\/p>\n

Dinner for two with a bottle of sake was \u20ac150.45.<\/p>\n

The verdict:<\/b> Yamamori\u2019s secret isn\u2019t nostalgia \u2013 it\u2019s getting the basics right for 30 straight years.<\/p>\n

Food provenance:<\/b> Larousse, Kish, Glenmar, Jim Franey, and Japan Food Company.<\/p>\n

Vegetarian options:<\/b> Vegetarian sushi rolls, nigiri platters, ramen and vegetarian bento.<\/p>\n

Wheelchair access:<\/b> No accessible room or toilet.<\/p>\n

Music:<\/b> Lo-fi beat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yamamori \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d7 Address: 71\/72 South Great Georges Street, Dublin 2 Telephone: 01 475 5001…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,67859,18,64254,19,17,361,5281,33646],"class_list":{"0":"post-202644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dublin-2","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-food-month","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-magazine","15":"tag-restaurant","16":"tag-restaurant-reviews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115620627697193849","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}