Hakkasan, 8 Hanway Place, London, W1T 1HD
I've been meaning to celebrate my 30th birthday with one of my best friends, who turned thirty shortly after me, since we hit the big 3-0 last year. We *finally* made it to Hakkasan with our other halves at the weekend to do this, and what a feast we had!
There are two Hakkasan restaurants in London - the original Hanway Place restaurant, where we went, and a Hakkasan in Mayfair. Both have a Michelin star, so we knew we'd be in for a treat either way. After having a cocktail in the bar - I had the rather tasty lemongrass aviation cocktail (Tanqueray No. Ten gin, lemongrass,
lemon, maraschino and crème de violette mist) - we made our way to our table to begin the fun task of choosing our food.We were going to be good, and then saw the signature menus... we picked two different signature menus between the four of us (it's a minimum of two people per menu). This meant we ended up with a very indulgent four starters, eight mains (seven different mains, with double portions of one main as it featured on both menus) and two sets of desserts between the four of us. The mains also came with sides of steamed jasmine rice and some very yummy asparagus, so we had the rather marvellous joy of eating ALL THE FOOD! We also chose a few bottles of Sauvignon Gris Casa Marin, a really nice white wine, to drink over dinner.
All the food was beautifully done - truly scrumptious - but my favourite dishes (if I *had* to choose) were the roasted chicken in satay sauce and the roasted silver cod in a champagne and honey sauce. The champagne and honey sauce was ridiculously yummy (I could never be a proper restaurant reviewer with my descriptions); the cod was flaky and moreish. As for the satay sauce, BEST satay sauce ever, and the chicken was roasted beautifully. Even though the dish is one of the cheapest mains on the à la carte menu(!), it packs some serious punch and I wouldn't think twice about ordering it next time. (If I can avoid the lure of the signature menu.)For the starters, we enjoyed a dim sum platter (above left), salt and pepper squid, crispy duck salad and sesame prawn toast - all were delicious, but the prawns in the prawn toast were especially juicy. As for the other mains, we feasted on pan-fried silver cod, stir-fry black pepper rib eye beef, spicy prawn with lily bulb and almond (above right), Mongolian-style venison and stir-fry Australian lobster in XO sauce. The venison, lobster and spicy prawn dishes were, for me, slightly more special than the remaining beef and cod dishes. (But those two were still very nice!)
The only dishes I didn't really like were the desserts, though the rest of the table did. Apple tatin is not my cup of tea so I didn't have any, and whilst the chocolate orange delice (left) was nice, it wouldn't have been my pick if we'd ordered from the à la carte menu.All-in-all, I was very impressed (and stuffed) with my visit to Hakkasan Hanway Place - it's somewhere we'll definitely be returning to. It is pricey - more expensive than The Hand and Flowers which has two Michelin Stars to Hakkasan's one - but, I admit, we were very indulgent on this visit!
Have you eaten at Hakkasan? x
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