Hakkasan, Mayfair, London, UK

Hakkasan in Mayfair must be the most reviewed restaurant in London as of late.  It calls itself the modern Chinese restaurant, but the food I found there seemed to me like a mix of the Chinese, Indonesian and Malay fare.  Being popular with the assorted British celebrities who are famous for, well, being well known in the UK, must help in general, but it makes getting a reservation close to impossible.  Nevertheless, my pal managed to do that!  The place is relatively spacious, and has two dining levels.  The dim lighting creates a feeling of intimacy though, and one does not feel like sitting in the middle of a football field (a feat easily achieved though at “Ale Gloria!” in Warsaw).  On our level, I think there must have been close to 100 people dining, but what was really interesting was that the various service staff was pretty much everywhere.  When leaving, I have asked how many people work on that level, and I was told that it is close to 200 (!).

We have decided to go with the selection of starters first with a mix of dim sum, duck spring rolls, fried and spicy calamari, and some greens, all washed down with a designer sparkling water that tasted like… water.  The starters though were truly amazing.  The calamari were not too chewy, and not burned to a crisp; spiced just right.  The spring rolls were done perfectly.  The dim sum selection was very interesting and also tasty (yes, it had a variety of great flavors!).

For the main courses, we went with the truly delicate ribs in, what seemed like, spicy honey glaze; the fried shrimp surrounded by almond and sesame; and a cod roasted in champagne and honey. 

I do have to concur with most of the reviewers at this point: everything was amazingly good.  The service (with 200 people buzzing around) was swift and surprisingly quick and organized.  The price tag at the end was at the level of the best London restaurants, but it was definitely well worth it.

http://www.hakkasan.com/mayfair/