Hitting the Top 50 – Hakkasan: Soho, Saturday 12th December, 2009

I don’t eat enough Asian food. It’s a problem I’m trying to rectify, but it’s set to be a long process of rehabilitation. As an interim, what’s the best way to get a snob like me to a Chinese? Put it in the top 100 UK restaurants.

I’d heard of Alan Yau’s Hakkasan before the other half mooted that we try the food there, and I was relatively interested. After all, good Chinese food is still cuisine that holds its own with anywhere else in the world. Especially good dim sum, which is what we went for, given that it was a Saturday lunch time.

Around £80 later (which included two pricey non-alcoholic cocktails and some water), we were full as could be and pretty satisfied. The short story is come to Hakkasan if you want to eat just about the trendiest Chinese food in London. It’s occasionally spectacular, at times a little lacklustre but more often than not, they’ve got it right. I am speaking from the experience of one meal here, but after the money we spent and the number of courses we got, I now feel like a Hakkasan veteran.

I will provide some pictorial evidence of the very good side of things, because my layman knowledge of Chinese food just isn’t going to be able to describe how good some of this stuff was. Here are some quite excellent barbecue pork puffs:


These are brilliant for two reasons: 1) The tender chopped barbecued pork inside the puffs; 2) The flaky, buttery and tremendously sweet pastry that makes the puff. When you bite into these, you almost expect to be eating dessert, but there’s something better afoot. Maybe it’s my unsophisticated western taste buds, but these always taste great to me.

On the right is something I’ve eaten before, but not really. Um… That is to say I’ve eaten dim sum roast buns before, but not venison ones. This really is my kind of Chinese. Needless to say, they were superb.

Some Taiwan-style dumplings (left) were also as liquid-filled and correctly fleshy as tradition requires. The method of eating these always entertains and challenges me: you have to slit the side of the dumpling and then drink the thin soupy sauce out of it before eating the pork and/or seafood filling.

You now have a luncheon top three from Hakkasan. Leading me to a final verdict, I’d have to say that the food wasn’t as stellar as the £80 price tag suggests it should’ve been. Other bits and pieces we got through were at times delicious, and at others just misleading. (How can duck and pumpkin puffs look and sound amazing and taste so banal?) Still, I did enjoy myself and I didn’t feel cheated, so make of that what you will.

There are a few reasons to go to Hakkasan. It’s very hip and popular and the décor is exceptional: think like a kind of spotlit dojo. It’s also worth visiting just to walk down Hanway Place with its utterly decrepit surroundings and wander into a sliding-door warehouse of luxury: think private members’ club. Lastly and most importantly, the food is rather good. It’s also exceptionally fresh. However, it can be a bit of an either-way affair, as our lunch was, and as various associates have mentioned to me. Check it out if you can, but if budget restrains, try this.

Hakkasan