Decadent Chinese at Hakkasan Hanway Place

Hakkasan was founded in London in 2001 and now has locations across the world. In fact, the first one we visited was in Miami in the fabulous Fontainebleau hotel. We’ve been to the one in Hanway Place before and it’s probably this reason that I got the location wrong! I’d actually booked the one in Mayfair but just assumed it was the one in Hanway Place (although I did think it odd that they’d called it Mayfair) so when we arrived they of course didn’t have our booking. This obviously happens a fair few times as it was quickly worked out that we’d booked the wrong location but luckily they had a table for us.

We started at the bar and had a rossini (raspberry purée topped with prosecco) each. The rossini was delicious but it took an awfully long time to arrive. In fact, it took so long that we were at the bar for almost 40 min before we then sat down at our table. I was ravenous by then!

Hakkasan Hanway Place has a Michelin Star and the food is definitely worthy of one – the service, however, is not. It’s not very attentive and can sometimes take a long time to be served or to just get your waiter’s attention. Hakkasan is also unusual in that it has a club-like atmosphere – there’s a DJ spinning tunes while you eat. It’s a very vibey restaurant and is great for groups but if you’re looking for a romantic, quiet spot then this is probably not the place for you. The design of their restaurants is very exotic – quite dark with lots of intricate wood paneling. It does transport you to Shanghai!

We started off with some prawn crackers (I don’t know about you but no trip to a Chinese restaurant is complete without prawn crackers!), the crispy duck roll and the vegetarian dim sum platter. We ordered a bottle of prosecco to go with our food as it works so well with Asian cuisine, plus we really love prosecco. It’s definitely our drink of choice.

Prawn crackers with a chilli dip.

Usually when we eat out at a Chinese restaurant we order crispy duck with pancakes to have between our starter and main. Although they do have Peking Duck with pancakes on the menu, it’s a whole duck which is just far too much food for us so the crispy duck roll was a very tasty alternative.

Crispy duck roll on a bamboo leaf.

I absolutely love dim sum and as my husband is not a huge fan of seafood, we opted for the vegetarian dim sum platter. It was wonderful and visually appealing with all the vibrant colours. It was a rather generous portion too with four portions each.

Colourful vegetarian dim sum platter.

For some reason, whenever we eat Asian food we always order three mains to share between the two of us. Of course this is far too much food… we never learn! It’s so delicious though that it’s hard to just stick to one dish each. For our mains we chose the roasted chicken in satay, the Singapore vermicelli with prawns and squid and the stir-fry black pepper rib eye beef with merlot, which is served in a delightful crispy rice basket.

Roast chicken in satay sauce.

Singapore vermicelli with prawns and squid.

Although all the food is absolutely delicious, I cannot recommend the stir-fry black pepper rib eye beef with merlot highly enough. The beef is succulent, rich and heavenly… in fact, we order this dish every time we eat at Hakkasan – even our waiter recommended it.

The succulent stir-fry black pepper rib eye beef with merlot.

If you’re looking for delicious Chinese in a trendy, vibrant and attractive setting then definitely give Hakkasan in Hanway Place (or any of the other locations) a try. I doubt you will be disappointed!