Furama Chinese Restaurant

Bad decisions often get made in haste. My wife daughter and I went to the movies — Hugo was great, by the way — and after the movie we wanted to find a restaurant relatively close to where we live that would give me a chance to run home and feed our dog dinner. Well, Furama, worked in terms of proximity to home, sadly it was only okay in every other way. Have you ever walked in to a restaurant and requested a table to meet a disapproving look from the «seater» and the question «have you booked» — while the place was busy, it was not packed. We were seated immediately — disapproving looks notwithstanding. My daughter loved the «footbridge» over the Koi pond (?). The rest of the décor was okay — it had a bit of an 80s office park feel to it complete with ceiling tiles — oh yeah. There were a few raised booths as you got over the bridge — which offered a bit of separation from the masses. As for the crowd„ there really were very few people under ⁵⁰⁄₆₀ in the restaurant. Once seated we were presented a bowl of prawn crawkers — a genereous gesture, if you like the taste of greasy styrofoam. The menu seemed to be oddly limited — few noodle dishes, not many rice dishes, only a few pork dishes, but lots of fish and seafood. We ordered shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings (our daughter loves dumplings), spareribs, steamed sea bass with ginger and garlic and duck in plum sauce. The dumplings were okay, the spareribs were, as well — the duck was fine and the sea bass was good — very simple and tasty. We finished off with a lemon sorbet served in a lemon which my daughter promptly acquired from me and I had a bit of her chocolate and strawberry ice cream with wafers. Also, the service was good (after I recovered from being reprimanded for not booking). All in all, furama is okay.

One of suburban Dublin’s original Chinese restaurants, Furama may seem a little antiquated to the modern customer. You are greeted at the front door, where someone rather insistently takes your coat and then escorts you over the little bridge (I kid you not) and into the dining room.
Aim to sit at one of the round tables, as they come equipped with an inbuilt Lazy Susan type of arrangement. This allows you to spin the prawn crackers around to your side rather than having to keep asking for them.
The food itself is just how Chinese food should be — I have known people to return for the starter of minced pork in lettuce alone.
My own Chinese favourite — beef in black bean sauce — comes to the table sizzling on a little platter which they put beside your plate. This allows you to achieve your own ideal rice-​to-​beef ratio and also to kid yourself that you are not going to eat it all. You will eat it all, it is melt-​in-​the mouth stuff, accompanied by a sauce that has been reduced to perfection.

There was a time when this was deemed to be one of the best restaurants in the city, time has moved on and opinions have changed but the reason Furama has slipped down the listings is not because they have let things slip, more that there are so many more noteworthy eateries in the city.
Furama is still a great place to dine, the food is great but the atmosphere is… well, clinical. It is probably a personal thing, go, make your own decision, no question you’ll enjoy!