Hakkasan Mayfair

Hakkasan Mayfair is the younger sister of the original in Hanway place, which opened back in 2001. It cruises on, producing its highly consistent take on Chinese food in slick surroundings. No chicken’s feet or chillied intestines here, just crowd-pleasing dishes, skilfully made. Today was a lunch visit and we chose from the dim sum menu, though there were numerous options including a set dim sum menu at £35 as well as various tasting menus.

Chicken with black truffle rolls actually had a distinct scent of truffle, crisp on the outside and with nicely flavoured chicken inside (15/20). Baked venison puff is a classic dish here, a trio of delicate pastry containers containing minced venison with spices (15/20).  Har gau was a lovely version of the classic prawn dumpling, carefully folded with soft dumpling and nicely cooked prawns (15/20). The same goes for scallop shui mai (15/20) and prawn and chive steamed dumplings with their respective fillings (15/20). Gai lan uses just the tender, baby shoots, lightly cooked with garlic; simple but lovely (16/20).  Char sui buns were light and fluffy, filled with slightly sweet minced pork (15/20), and we finished with pleasant morel spring rolls, served with edamame beans (14/20).

For dessert, yuzu tart had good pastry and was an interesting variant on lemon tart, with sugar and acidity in balance (15/20).  Service was as slick as ever here, with every little detail attended to. The staff training program here must be a case study in how to produce top class waiting staff. The bill came to £48 per person with jasmine tea to drink. If you came for dinner and drank wine then the bill would be mich higher, perhaps £85 per person. Hakkasan never has an “off day”, and although it is not cheap it nonetheless always delivers a classy experience.

Further reviews: 02nd Aug 2024 | 02nd Aug 2023 | 14th Jan 2023 | 12th Sep 2021 | 02nd Aug 2020 | 23rd Feb 2020 | 24th Mar 2016 | 17th Sep 2015 | 21st Jan 2015 | 08th Mar 2011