Hakkasan Hanway Place was seriously one of the first restaurants I ever went to in London as an adult. (My 1993 London visit while I was in university doesn’t count for anything. One day, I’ll tell you about the sleeping arrangements.) My first visit to Hakkasan was in 2001 when I was here from the States for six weeks for work and the “Design Guy” came over and took us all out to Hakkasan and paid too. He must have read about the restaurant in one of those design magazines because this was 2001 after all, before blogs and Yelp and all those other Internet-Web-App things. My, how times have changed.
All these years later though and Hakkasan itself has not changed all that much. It’s still the darkly sexy place it once was and I still get a little freaked out when I try to find the door to the loos. Ah! They’re behind that wall/door thing! I get it! Hakkasan has also expanded, thanks to our friends at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a very sovereign and very wealthy sovereign wealth fund. If I were Mr. Yau, I would roll around in all my money all the live long day. Maybe, just maybe, I’d buy a small island somewhere. A tropical one.
Although I don’t have Mr. Yau’s money, I did find myself at Hakkasan Hanway Place the other weekend, thanks to the kind invite of Fiona from London Unattached and the lovely PRs behind Hakkasan. We were joined by A Girl Has to Eat too, and as with our Duck & Rice experience, I was happy to let AGHTE do all the ordering. She’s very, very good at it!
Only we really didn’t have to order much except for some cheung fun. Because Hakkasan Hanway Place is offering a new Sunday set brunch special. And it’s an amazingly good value, even though this is going to seem like a big number when I tell you the number…
It’s £58 quid. And it is so so worth it because…
For £58 quid, you get all this…per person!
Drinks…
- Choice of cocktail
- Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV Champagne, France 12% half bottle
- Choice of after dinner cocktail
Food…
- Crispy duck salad with pomelo, pine nut and shallot
- Har gau
- Scallop shumai
- Chinese chive dumpling
- Duck and yam bean dumpling
- Royal king crab and truffle roll
- Baked venison puff
- Smoked duck and pumpkin puff
- Golden radish crab meat pastry
- XO seafood and water chestnut lettuce wrap
- Stir-fry black pepper rib eye beef with merlot
- Seasonal vegetable
- Ginger and spring onion fried rice
- Selection of dessert
If that’s not amazing, I don’t know what is. For £58 quid!! I mean, like I said, I know that’s a big number, but talk about getting your money’s worth!! Sure, there are some misses on the menu — I didn’t die over the lettuce wraps — but there are more hits than misses and that counts for something. Check out the full menu online and then drop into Hakkasan on a Sunday afternoon and then roll yourself home! Vegetarian menu available.
The Verdict: Nothing not to like!
I was a guest of Fiona’s and Hakkasan. I did not pay for my meal but I did tip on the full amount.
