Hakkasan (london)

izoneiz · 17 Aug 2008 at 11:30

Went to Hakkasan for the first time last night - a load of my friends keep droning on about it but I never bothered to visit.

I was pleasantly surprised - will be going there again.

Anyone here with opinions on the menu?

neil3k · 17 Aug 2008 at 11:31

Some kind of restaurant?

Van Hellseek · 17 Aug 2008 at 11:37

izoneiz said:
but I never bothered to visit.

I've never bothered to visit either. Largely because I have no idea what you are talking about.

Failz · 17 Aug 2008 at 11:45

Sounds like its Halal.

Urrgghh..

KNiVES · 17 Aug 2008 at 11:49

Thank you for telling the 99% of clueless OcUKers what Hakkasan is.

izoneiz · 17 Aug 2008 at 11:50

Failz said:
Sounds like its Halal.

Urrgghh..

Have you heard of Wagamama? It's a high-end chinese restaurant that was started by the same chap. Pretty much the best chinese food in London. Not cheap though

izoneiz · 17 Aug 2008 at 11:50

http://www.theworlds50best.com/restaurants/restaurant_19.html

siandtina · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:00

izoneiz said:
Have you heard of Wagamama? It's a high-end chinese restaurant that was started by the same chap. Pretty much the best chinese food in London. Not cheap though

Have you heard of Wagamama? How can you class it as a chinese restaurant when it serves gyoza and ramen, and no egg fried rice or lemon chicken?!

Its name is derived from the Japanese language, and I wouldn't classify it as particularly high end either...

Van Hellseek · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:03

siandtina said:
Have you heard of Wagamama? How can you class it as a chinese restaurant when it serves gyoza and ramen, and no egg fried rice or lemon chicken?!

Its name is derived from the Japanese language, and I wouldn't classify it as particularly high end either...

Because sad as it is, most British just lump Chinese/Japanese/Korean all in the same category. Basically, if they look a bit "slitty eyed" then they're Chinese.

xarr · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:19

siandtina said:
Have you heard of Wagamama? How can you class it as a chinese restaurant when it serves gyoza and ramen, and no egg fried rice or lemon chicken?!

Its name is derived from the Japanese language, and I wouldn't classify it as particularly high end either...

I think they ment

"Have you heard of Wagamama? It's (Hakkasan is) a high-end chinese restaurant that was started by the same chap (that started Wagamama). (Hakkasan has) Pretty much the best chinese food in London. (Hakkasans) Not cheap though"

That is how I read it anyway.

It was my understanding that egg fried rice and lemon chicken were the chicken tikka masala of the Chinese world, not normally seen on the average menu...

Never been to Hakkasan, what are the menu & prices like? I would have thought in the region of £70-80 a head?

Raymond Lin · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:25

izoneiz said:
Have you heard of Wagamama? It's a high-end chinese restaurant that was started by the same chap. Pretty much the best chinese food in London. Not cheap though

LOL, wagamama is not chinese word, and as for expensive, i mean you can get a meal for under a tenner, i wouldn't call that high end.

izoneiz · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:27

xarr said:
I think they ment

"Have you heard of Wagamama? It's (Hakkasan is) a high-end chinese restaurant that was started by the same chap (that started Wagamama). (Hakkasan has) Pretty much the best chinese food in London. (Hakkasans) Not cheap though"

That is how I read it anyway.

It was my understanding that egg fried rice and lemon chicken were the chicken tikka masala of the Chinese world, not normally seen on the average menu...

Never been to Hakkasan, what are the menu & prices like? I would have thought in the region of £70-80 a head?

Correct. I should have been clearer. The chap who started wagamama also started Hakkasan. The menus are not the same or similar & are not styled to represent the food of the same geographic region - the two restaurants were merely started by the same person.

Drinks: cocktails £9.5 for most. Wine £25 upwards. Champagne, £75-£1600.
Food: excluding booze aim for £40-£60 per head anything up to about £100.

Even going there just for a few cocktails is worth it - every single one is Hakkasan's personal interpretation of a "classic" cocktail - you won't find them anywhere else. + the atmosphere is brilliant. Just ignore the ominous nature of the entrance.

oli collett · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:43

Is Hakkasan still delivering the goods without Alan Yau behind the scenes? I'm not sure how much influence he really had in the kitchen.

What's it like to book?

I went to the fat duck last night - it was mind blowing. You set your expectations but it just blows you out of the water. Problem is i can't imagine another meal ever coming close to it.

oli collett · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:45

izoneiz said:
http://www.theworlds50best.com/restaurants/restaurant_19.html

There's a big flaw with that list. It doesn't have a single restaurant from Japan.

skiba · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:45

Hakkasan is overrated but ok. Now Fat Duck is somewhere I have been meaning to go for ages, had a reservation but had to cancel :/ surely you have to try the Waterside Inn now also?

izoneiz · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:46

oli collett said:
Is Hakkasan still delivering the goods without Alan Yau behind the scenes? I'm not sure how much influence he really had in the kitchen.

What's it like to book?

I went to the fat duck last night - it was mind blowing. You set your expectations but it just blows you out of the water. Problem is i can't imagine another meal ever coming close to it.

Is it really that good?

Raymond Lin · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:48

Not a lot of people know that:

Alan Yau is a Hakka, a Chinese nomadic ethnic group, and San is the Japanese way of addressing someone.

I knew that, my grandmother is a Hakka, which makes me one too, but why on earth do you mix it with Japanese ?

oli collett · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:48

skiba said:
Kakkasan is overrated but ok. Now Fat Duck is somewhere I have been meaning to go for ages, had a reservation but had to cancel :/

doh!

spare a thought for my friend, though.

i invited her some time back but she had to decline because she had already agreed to go to v-festival with a friend and they had bought her a ticket and everything. She was gutted but thought it would be unfair on her if she turned around and said she couldn't make it.

She called me up yesterday - her friend had posted the ticket first class (not recorded/special delivery) and it hadn't arrived and so missed out on both!!

Housey · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:56

The Fat Duck is exceptional, I have eaten there twice and have not been dissapointed and the Hinds Head is also great too for a pub meal and shouldn't be overlooked.

oli collett · 17 Aug 2008 at 12:56

izoneiz said:
Is it really that good?

Yes. I'm a huge heston fan admittedly, i knew all the tricks and what to expect from the place but it still blew me away. I've been to a lot of nice restaurants but i usually find one or two dishes are just "ok", especially on tasting menus. Nothing stood out at the fat duck, because everything was simply perfection. Every single course a different experience.

I can imagine a lot of people think dishes like snail porridge, bacon and egg ice cream are gimmicks - but every single ingredient served on the plate is there for a reason. More importantly, the whole experience is so much fun, some of the courses leave you giggling like a child and the atmosphere is great.

The only course that wasn't universally enjoyed was the "sounds of the sea". Personally i thought it was great but one of my friends was not a big fan - but then he's not a big fan of seafood!

skiba said:
surely you have to try the Waterside Inn now also?

I'm not in a great hurry to do so - i'm sure i'll go there sometime but i much prefer the atmosphere and style of cooking at places like the fat duck. I'm going around europe in a few weeks so i'm hoping to go to some nice places there.