HAKKASAN HANWAY PLACE

Hakkasan Hanway Place needs little introduction and is the first of the Hakkasan restaurants to open. Hakkasan was designed by famed interior designer Christian Liaigre and embodies the height of sensuality with its wooden screens intertwined with black and gold traditionally-drawn panels. Opening in 2001, in 2003 Hakkasan was awarded a Michelin star, which it has retained to this day.

Hakkasan offers both an a la carte menu as well as a dim sum menu. On Sundays, it has a special ‘Dim Sum Sundays’ menu which is priced at £58 per person (with a minimum of two people sharing) and which I thought to be really good value. The menu included a selection of dim sum as well as cooked dishes. Moreover, the menu included a choice of a starter cocktail, half a bottle of Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV Champagne each, and a choice of after dinner cocktail. We all agreed it was a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon, enjoying some good food with good company and with lots of booze.

Hakkasan – Louis Roederer champagne

The menu begins with a crispy duck salad with pomelo, pine nut and shallot. The salad was really lovely. The duck was, as the menu suggested, nice and crispy, and it worked well with the sweetness of the pomelo.

Hakkasan – Crispy duck salad

The salad was followed by the first of the dim sum items, the fried and baked ones. There was a smoked duck and pumpkin puff, a baked venison puff, a golden radish crab meat pastry and a royal king crab and truffle roll. They were all good, with the pastry on all of them being well made and crispy. My particular favourites were the duck and pumpkin and the crab and truffle roll. The duck was really delicious and the use of the truffle in the crab roll was very aromatic. The vension puff was perhaps the weakness of the lot in terms of flavour.

Hakkasan – Selection of fried dim sum

A selection of steamed dim sum of har gau (prawn dumpling), scallop shumai, Chinese chive dumpling and a duck and yam bean dumpling was next. These too, were also very tasty. The pastry was a touch thick on the dim sum, but very light in texture and delicious nevertheless.

Hakkasan – Steamed dim sum

We moved onto the cooked dishes next. There was a stir-fry black pepper rib eye beef with merlot which was delicious. The beef was tasty and tender, and there was a nice caramelisation on the beef from the heat of the wok.

Hakkasan – Stir-fry beef

A second main course was a dish of XO seafood and water chestnut with lettuce wrap. While this dish was spicy, it was also rather bland. Accompanying the main courses was some seasonal vegetable which unusually was some stir-fried asparagus. These were well cooked with a good bite to them. Finally some ginger and spring onion fried rice was delicious and very fragrant.

Hakkasan – XO seafood

The savoury courses are followed by a choice of desserts, and I went for a yummy Jivara bomb made with milk chocolate, hazelnut praline and popping rice krispies. It was a great combination of flavours of chocolate-y with and the creamy texture being excellent.

Hakkasan – Jivara bomb

Dim Sum Sundays at Hakkasan Hanway Place proved to be a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The food was solid, and with its generous booze offering, it was great value at £58.

SUMMARY INFORMATION
Likes:
1) Great value menu.
2) Overall the food was very good.

Dislikes:
1) The XO seafood and water chestnut dish was bland.

Food rating: 4/5
Service rating: 4/5

Price: Dim Sum Sundays is £58 per person, excludes service.

Website: http://hakkasan.com/hanway-place/