Ben's reviews
Review of Hakkasan
07 Aug 07, 09:41
Not your local chinese takeaway 
Hakkasan is very cool, and boy does it know it. I took my better half there for her birthday one year, and for this sort of event dining it is pretty good. You wouldn't have thought it when you first arrive, located as it is in a side street round the back of Tottenham Court Road. When you make the way down to the restaurant though, it's a different story. It's full of teak blinds, black walls, and subdued lighting. We were ushered to the bar, where we ordered a couple of glasses of champagne whilst they prepared our table. So far, definitely not the Golden Gate takeaway in Hackney.
Apparently Hakkasan is owned by Alan Yau, who turns out to be the guy behind wagamamas. After selling that, he made Hakkasan, and more recently Yauatcha in Soho, which is a similarly trendy tea and dim sum place. Both have Michelin stars, which is again something that the Golden Gate is unlikely to attain. There are some things that grate with Hakkasan though. Firstly, you are told that you can have the table for only two hours (it's less at 90 minutes at Yauatcha). They really do take themselves seriously, we ordered food, then a french sounding sommelier came to ask us about our wine order. As good as the food is (and it really is quite special), I'm not sure chinese food needs a sommelier.
We had dim sum to start, which were the best I've had anywhere. We also ordered prawn toast, mainly to see just how good prawn toast could be at 8 quid a portion. turns out pretty bloody good. We then had venison in chilli, seafood platter, and bok choi in oyster sauce. All the food was top-drawer stuff, but you'd expect that from mains that cost 26 quid, in the case of the seafood. It is worth mentioning though that they do have shark's fin soup on the menu. Now I know this is an authentic chinese delicacy, but it has all sorts of moral difficulties, and some people object to it so much that just the thought of it might put them off their prawn toast, which would be a shame...
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