Hakkasan Mayfair

So I met up with my brother last night who also has a love for food. Especially fine dining. He is a massive fan of Alan Yau's restaurants. If you don't know who he is, he opened up Wagamama in the early nineties then sold it off & opened up Hakkasan Hanway Place, a Michelin starred chinese restaurant off Tottenham court road & has since opened up a string of amazing restaurants http://www.alanyau.cn/.

Salty Crab

So anyway we went to try the new Hakkasan Mayfair branch. First impressions when walking in is it's very darkly lit & I keep on thinking I'm going to walk through a glass door. Everyone is very friendly & we get shown to our table which is not unlike the old Hakkasan. We only order glasses of white wine because of heavy nights the night before & we both decide to have the soft shell crab as a starter. Unfortunately when it comes it's a little disapointing. The Crab is cooked very well but it's very salty & can't actually taste much apart from the salt! My brother couldn't finish his crab.

The mains came not to far behind & were a lot better. We had the grilled wagyu beef with enoki mushroom which was deliciously tender & flavoursome, Steamed New Zealand lobster wrapped in glass vermicelli was beautifully fine & fragrant with a hint of chilli just giving it a little heat & the sweet & sour duke of Berkshire pork with pomegranate which was really tangy & sweet which is what it's supposed to taste like I suppose. My brother thought the pork tasted to vinegary & wasn't as refined as the other dishes that we had ordered. I have to say I enjoyed it though & finished the plate off. 

For dessert I had a Grand marnier mousse concoction. Unfortunately I can't remember the full name of it but it had a chocolate disc at the top of the glass that i had to pierce in to which then revealed underneath a mousse & ice cream with some sort of apricot jam dollops here & there. It was amazingly tasty! My brother had the petit fours  which came in 3 different sections containing mini ice cream cones, madeleines & fruit jellies. It looked very impressive.  

Petit

The service was a little lax & I did have to wait for 10 minutes for my glass of wine & that was after reminding the waitress but overall it was a very good meal, not excellent but good & I would definitely go back as there are lot's more delicious dishes to be tried.