Kaizen

What's the story with Kaizen?

The Chinese restaurant specialising in dim sum opened on the outskirts of Blanchardstown shopping centre last October. While we don't make a habit of going to shopping centres for our dinner, we'd make an exception here for two reasons. 1) It has the same owners as city centre dim sum den Ka Shing on Wicklow Street, serving their now famous food since 2013. 2) Dublin 15 is one of the worst suburbs in the capital for exciting places to eat, and if we had a euro for every reader complaint we get about how "there's no where to eat here!", we could retire from food writing.

Where should we sit?

We were taken aback by how beautifully appointed the upstairs room is (there is a lift and wheelchair accessible toilet for anyone who needs it). There's a very grand feeling to the marble effect floor, black chairs and gold accents, including on the dividers separating the tan leather booths.

There's every type of table configuration you could want in here, but for groups of four we'd ask for a booth at the window. For larger groups, or if you have a buggy or other extraneous materials, you'll be more comfortable on the circular tables in the centre surrounded by plenty of space. Of course there's a large table with a Lazy Susan for easy sharing of dishes, and we saw a separate room in the back where it looked like a child's birthday party was taking place - beats the food at Funky Monkey's any day.

What's the menu like?

There are two menus in here - the dim sum one, and the Cantonese one. Our advice is to go all in on dim sum, and forget the rest.

Two of our favourites were the char siu cheung fun (€7.50) - slippery lengths of rice noodle filled with smoky, sweet pork and greens; and the deep-fried taro croquette (€7.50) - a crispy croquette filled with the yam-like root vegetable, encased in the most delicate wisps that dissolve as soon as they hit your mouth. Stunning pastry skills.

Xiao long bao (soup dumplings, €8.50) had deeply flavoured pork inside a chewy dumpling case, but in some the soup had already seeped out, while pork and prawn siu mai (€7) were a decent example of one of dim sum's most popular dumplings, with chunky pieces of prawn.

Make sure to order the cucumber with black vinegar (€6) - crunchy, refreshing lengths of green veg in the tangiest dressing with little punches of garlic and chilli. Salt and pepper squid "whiskers" were the oily antidote to its freshness, but with tender tentacles and salty veg tossed through.

We've never met a BBQ pork bun we didn't like (€7), and that didn't change here, the soft, fluffy buns encasing sweet, smoky chunks of char siu pork. Use the chilli oil on the table to amp up the heat. The swan puff pastries might look more like dessert, but there's a savoury and a sweet version. The savoury (€9.80) comes deep-fried, filled with custard surrounded by the crispest pastry layers and an edible neck and head, and they are so delicate, and so delicious, you may need all of your willpower not to order a second round.

Beef balls with tangerine peel (€7.50) were a curveball order that paid off. Despite their semi-raw looking appearance, the juicy spheres had deep layers of savoury flavour, and the tangerine, vinegary dipping sauce was the lift it all needed. Pork ribs with garlic (€7) on the other hand would not be on our reorder list, with too much bone and fat and nowhere near enough meat.

What about the Cantonese food?

We got the feeling this isn't why they get out of bed in the morning, and it's more a case of giving the people what they want, than giving them what they need and they just don't know it yet. There's plenty here to satisfy diners, but it's not the reason we'd be making a special trip to Dublin 15.

Firstly lots on the online menu wasn't available in the restaurant (we really wanted that meat floss), so prepare for possible disappointment. We love the semi-healthy feeling we get from prawn yuk sung (€12), with the finely chopped stir fry served in lettuce leaves that you roll up and scoop into your mouth. The one here is excellent, with all the expected flavours of oyster, soy and rice wine and sesame coating those chunks of prawn, pork and veg.

A hot and sour soup passed the litmus test, but won't be winning any awards any time soon for outstanding flavour or generosity of ingredients, especially for €9.50.

Barbecue spare ribs were too sweet for our palates, with not enough complexity in the flavours to make up for the sugary slant. The meat was as tender as you would hope for, but it didn't feel particularly generous for €10.

We were hoping the Cantonese roast meats with rice (three for €30) might be another reason to hightail it to Blanch, but we didn't find anything travel worthy there either. The roast duck, honey roast pork char siu, and Macau-style roast pork belly were all drier and less juicy than we were expecting, and they felt more like a tick box exercise than something that's someone's staying awake nights trying to figure out how to improve.

Beijng-style lamb (€25) is one dish we would order again, with rich umami flavour and plenty of veg, although research suggests this should be more of a slow-braised style, than Irish takeaway-style, complete with plenty of cornflour to increase the gloop factor. Tasty? Yes. Authentically Chinese? The jury's out.

Last for the Cantonese mains was Beef Ho Fun (€25), a smoky, charred, oily mound of flat rice noodles with tender beef, onions and beansprouts. The beautifully charred flavours make it hard to stop going back for more, but the high fat content makes this one to share, or your stomach will tell you all about it.

Desserts are worth saving space for, and were considerably more interesting in the restaurant than online's "deep-fried banana" and "sticky toffee pudding". Staff tried to turn us off ordering the "trendy little white jelly bunnies" (€7.50), and they are just a watery/milky jelly with little flavour, but kids will love the fun factor.

The pandan and pumpkin sponge cake (€8.50 is where the big flavours are at, with an airily light swiss-style sponge and layers of pumpkin caramel in between. Served barely warm, it's all too easy to eat.

What about drinks?

The wine list is predictably commercial and uninteresting, but we had a (just about) drinkable glass of Albariño. We couldn't bring ourselves to try the cocktails, which include "Pornstar on the beach", and the long lost "Long Island Iced Tea". 2005 called - they want their cocktails back.

How was the service?

Quiet and uneffusive, but efficient. They're also happy to let you order at your leisure, a few plates at a time, which means you can make your meal as short or as drawn out as you like.

How much should we budget per person?

With dim sum coming in on average at €7 - €8 per plate, a spend of €25 per person will supply a feast of dumplings, buns and cheung fun, which sounds almost ludicrous in today's market. When we went back to try the Cantonese menu our bill was double, for far less impressive food.

What's the verdict on Kaizen?

You'll forget about the shopping centre surroundings as soon as you climb the stairs into Ka Shing's grandly-appointed sister restaurant, and it's not often the toilets are a highlight of a dining visit, but it's another thing to look forward to (we won't ruin the surprises). Our advice is to go all in on the dim sum, and take advntage of what has to be one of the best value dining experiences in Dublin.