Hakkasan: Eating Out in Mayfair
Hakkasan is a Michelin star restaurant that serves award winning Cantonese dishes in 12 different locations world wide, Mayfair being one of them! It was founded in London in 2001 and since then, it’s been known as “one of the world’s most distinguished global restaurant, lounge and nightlife brands".
My first impression of the restaurant (I must be living under a rock because I had never heard of it before), was that it was fancy as hell! We ordered water for the table and I was expecting a nice enough jug of tap water but no! They were bringing out Voss bottles, that’s when I knew this meal was going to different to anything I’ve had before. As soon as you walk in, you’re greeted by staff and there was even a cloakroom to put jackets and bags away, this only surprised me because I didn’t realise it had a bar area as well!
At first, I wasn’t that excited to go as I hadn’t been to a restaurant with a dress code before and for work, I live in trainers but my annoyance went away as soon as we got inside. The restaurant is beautiful, quite dark but not in a way that disturbs your eyes too much, it kind of makes you focus on who you’re eating with rather than the other diners which is exactly what you want when you go out to a place like this. Everything looked so sleek and clean, it was difficult not to get excited over the menu itself! We started off with some cocktails, I got one called Floating Goddess and it was unlike any cocktail I’ve had before, I usually only enjoy really sweet ones but this one tasted so fresh, like they just literally grown the fruit themselves and then made the cocktail right that second!
Now on to the food, we got a lot of small plates, I got the Salt & Pepper Squid and the Crispy Duck Roll, Shahna got the Duck and a side of egg fried rice and Katie & Jasmine shared the Dim Sum Platter. It didn’t take too long for the food to arrive at all, the service was amazing but more on that later, as soon as it did, I knew it was going to be delicious:
Not only was the presentation beautiful, it tasted absolutely incredible. The salt & pepper squid was definitely my favourite, I was afraid it would be too oily and not have much flavour but it was delicious! It could have been the only thing I had and I still would have been happy!
The duck rolls were great as well but can duck and hoisin sauce every go wrong? Now for the service, the waiter we had was so friendly and extremely attentive, we didn’t have to wait long for anything, as soon as we needed drinks, he was there and was always on had to top up our glasses. Everything he did was with a smile and the whole wait staff as a whole were amazing!
I would absolutely recommend going Hakkasan, even if you don’t want to have a sit down meal, the cocktails were great and the vibe of the restaurant was really relaxing. Don’t let the prices put you off, everything was worth it and I promise you won’t leave disappointed!