For this Chinese New Year, Hakkasan, one of the top 50 restaurants in the world, is honouring the Chinese wishing tree tradition by offering a family feast and collecting written wishes from diners to hang on the lattice screens in the restaurant. The wish collection menu runs from Sunday 8th February to Sunday 1st March at £88.88 per head.
Hakkasan Mayfair
Hakkasan’s limited edition menu created by Executive Head Chef Tong Chee Hwee includes signature dishes as well as a contemporary interpretation on authentic Chinese New Year fare.
We tried it and it’s certainly a feast – you’ll be wishing for more, it’s delicious and a great mix of comfort food and Michelin star flourishes. There’s a dish, taste, and texture for everyone in the family. It’s the celebratory meal elevated – dim sum with caviar, Chilean sea bass, luxury a la king, tender beef in expensive wine, glowing chip shop curry prawns, veggies of sliced lily bulbs and exotic fried rice with sea snails. Classy and decadent.
Inspired by the Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees in Hong Kong, guests to share their hopes for 2015 by writing their wishes on red wishing ribbon
The restaurant is buzzy and incredibly lit – dark with pools of light and corridors between the rows of tables so you don’t disturb the other diners taking your seat. It feels intimate, but a bit cramped and the service is quick and efficient.
Small Eat
Dim sum platter – the family traditionally makes these together and can be quite big like these ones – too large to fit between the chopsticks!
Dim Sum Platter
Spicy lamb lupin wrap – pinched in a flower-shape and garnished with dill and brightly-coloured petals. The delicious taste comes from getting the duck sauce and the lamb lupin sauce balance right. 2015 is The Year of the Sheep so these fit perfectly with the menu.
lamb – one of the key dishes in the Year of the Sheep
Golden fried soft shell crab with red chilli and curry leaf – another elevated dish, the rich man’s deep-fried seaweed.
soft shell crab with curry leaf
Main
The wishing tree feast at Hakkasan Mayfair – beef, abalone and dry scallop fried rice, stir-fry lily bulb and garlic shoot & spicy prawn
Spicy prawn with lily bulb and almond – a generous, juicy portion in a familiar curry sauce.
Stir-fry black pepper rib eye beef with merlot – the tastiest tenderest beef in a fancy but pointless noodle cone.
black pepper rib eye beef with merlot
Grilled Chilean seabass in honey – a light taste on the palate but a beautiful looking dish with plenty of it, although typically would be served as a whole fish, symbolising abundance.
seabass in honey
Stir-fry Lily bulb and garlic shoot with preserved olive and dry chilli – fancy, crunchy stir fry.
Abalone and dry scallop fried rice – a highlight of creamy consistency and childhood comfort food taste.
Dessert – the wow factor!
Kumquat wishing tree
the perspex wishing tree
Towards the end of the meal a blue wishing tree with a candied kumquat covered in orange chocolate is brought to the table. Orange or kumquat trees during Chinese New Year are thought tobring good fortune. And then this beautiful plate appears. Chocolate marquise, kumquat sorbet and fruits.
Bury me under this tree.
chocolate, caramelised macadamia and cocoa rocks
All washed down with a potent cocktail of cachaça, Campari, kumquats, orange juice and lime.
[…] You can tell it’s Yau by the care that goes into elevating everything – like the green tea macarons at Yauatcha, good-looking wood-fired pizza at Pirinci or the sensational Chinese New Year dinners at Hakkasan. […]
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[…] You can tell it’s Yau by the care that goes into elevating everything – like the green tea macarons at Yauatcha, good-looking wood-fired pizza at Pirinci or the sensational Chinese New Year dinners at Hakkasan. […]