Food trend watch: Are dumplings Dublin’s newest obsession?

Fiona Frawley

When a new Supreme rises, the old one fades away.

For the past decade or so, Dublin has been a city dictated by specific, timely food trends. 2014 – year of the burrito. 2015 – year of the donut. 2018 – year of the wood fired pizza. 2020, for obvious reasons – year of the horsebox café.

While carefully observing the comings and goings of the Dublin food scene, it’s become clear to us that one particular dish is currently coming out on top – carefully folded, meat-and-veg filled dumplings.

Roast duck dumplings, image via Instagram/Little Dumpling

The presence of dumplings on the Dublin food scene isn’t new – there’s been dim sum in dining rooms for decades and pot stickers popping up plentifully, but in the last year or so the demand seems to have been upped significantly.

In the past few months on Aungier Street alone there have been two new openers specialising in dumplings – Okky, an exciting new street food spot which has also introduced Okonomiyaki (a traditional savoury Japanese pancake with an infinite variety of toppings) to Dublin, and Boss Stop, a new Asian fusion restaurant with an impressive roster of homemade pork, beef, prawn, duck and vegan pot dumplings.

Japanese gyoza, image via Okky Dublin

Around the corner on Stephen’s Street, Little Dumpling and Bullet Duck & Dumplings sit side by side and are both consistently busy, while Lucky Tortoise which is known and loved for its comforting potstickers has only recently moved away from the area to open a larger premises in Temple Bar.

Dumplings have become a larger part of home cooking too – nearly every Dubliner has a packet of frozen gyoza at home, ready to throw in the pot with their ramen of choice and every Irish foodie from Donal Skehan to Colm O’Gorman has an online recipe for how to make your own from scratch.

You can even pick up a packet for lunch at the boujie sushi section of Dunnes, which is how you know a dish has really made it in Ireland. And of course, you can find tv chef and author Kwanghi’s famous dumplings at his restaurant by Grand Canal Dock, his pop up in Fresh of Camden Street and any Irish food festival worth its salt.

Sichuan style pork and chive dumplings, image via Bites by Kwanghi

Unlike other food trends in Dublin where we’ve seen a quick burst of dish-specific restaurants opening in close succession, dumplings are more of a slow burner – there are so many varieties and ways to enjoy them, they’re not the kind of food you could see yourself having too much of. For that reason, they’re probably not going to fall out of favour like other food trends gone by – their rise to the top has been steady and subtle, and the fact that they can be filled with pretty much anything (case in point, Kwanghi’s bacon and cabbage dumplings from this year’s Me Auld Flower Festival) means there’s endless room for growth.

Are you here for the rise of the dumpling? What variation would you like to see on offer in Dublin next?

Header image via Instagram/Bullet Restaurant

– Thousands sign petition to remove bike rack installed outside busy Dublin gay bar