Our dream
of Japanese 2.0.
Dublin deserved a real izakaya. Ireland deserved a new chapter of Japanese food. So we built it — plate by plate, pour by pour.
Inspired by real izakaya
in Japan.
Drinking culture in Japan is more than just a pastime — it's how togetherness and honesty are built between friends and coworkers. The izakaya is the room that makes that possible.
DARUMA was built with that same idea. A casual hangout for after-work socialising, sharing food across the table, and the kind of conversation that only happens once the second drink lands.
Robata, charcoal,
and A5 wagyū.
Our menu opens with robata dishes from the binchō-tan grill, alongside small bites you'd find in any proper Japanese izakaya — the kind designed to share, to graze, to keep the table going.
Our specialty is A5 wagyū from Japan's Shiga, Gifu, and Miyazaki prefectures. The variety changes with the season and what's available — currently we're serving A5 Miyazaki-gyū, the multiple-time champion of Japan's Wagyu Olympics.
What makes ours
different.
Premium fresh bluefin tuna. Hamachi. Irish organic salmon. All sustainably sourced from highly reputable local suppliers.
Then comes the part most places skip: every fish goes through a traditional Japanese dry-aging process to draw out impurities and concentrate the flavour. The result is sushi with depth and clarity — the way it's meant to taste.
The sake list
everyone whispers about.
It started, like most obsessions, simply enough — one good bottle. Then another. Then the realisation that almost no one in Ireland was treating sake the way it deserves to be treated.
Today, two of our team are certified kikisake-shi — the Japanese sommelier qualification for sake. We import directly. We serve at the right temperature, in the right glass. We can guide you through the list whether it's your first cup or your hundredth.
House of Sake in Ireland. We mean it.
Two restaurants.
Temple Bar opened in 2022. Malahide followed in 2024 — by the water, with a different rhythm.
Same care. Same standards. Different stories.
Why
Daruma.
In Japan, a daruma is a small round doll, hollow and weighted at the base. Knock it over and it rights itself. Push it again, it rights itself again. The Japanese have a phrase for it: nanakorobi yaoki — "fall down seven times, stand up eight."
It seemed like the right name for a restaurant. For a team. For an idea that took stubbornness to build.
When you start a daruma, you paint in one eye and make a wish. When the wish comes true, you paint in the other.
Two locations.
Mon–Sun · 12pm – Late
Wed–Sun · 12pm – Late
