This is the last of our notes on the three Michelin One Star Chinese Restaurants in London. Earlier we posted Kai Mayfair, Interpreting Chinese Cuisine and Yauatcha, Interpreting Dim Sum.

Legendary restaurateur Alan Yau opened Hakkasan in 2000 returning the taste of Chinese cuisines to its place where before Chinese restaurants in England served bland foods.

Yau recruited Chef Tong Chee Hwee from Ritz Carlton Singapore to become head chef and within one year, Hakkasan won a Michelin star, the first for a Chinese restaurant in London. It has retained the accolade until today.

Sitting in a London black cab on a chili Monday night we went to Hakkasan at Hanway Place, interested to see where the Hakkasan Empire began.  After passing several small streets, off Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road we were greeted by a gentleman and a lady holding a board to see whether our names were on it.

We went down two flights of stairs into the dark where bright lights mostly focused on dining tables. It was exactly like what Alan Yau promoted:

“Hakkasan feels like a cinematic vision of the sexiest nightclub you'd never been to. Often imitated but never bettered, Hakkasan's design divides the bar, with its team of cocktail shakers and soundtrack setting DJ, from the central dining area via a lacquered lattice of carved Chinese screens, from behind which impossibly glamorous waiting staff emerge to deliver dishes from a Michelin-star winning, modern Cantonese menu created by chef Tong Chee Hwee.”

Our eyes tried to adjust to the black wooden chairs, tables and lattice screens, balanced by blue lights and waiting staff in elegant red dress. Although we do not drink alcohols, we could not ignore the impressive bar, 16 meters long, described by The London Evening Standard as a bar that has created an innovative range of Asian inspired cocktails and has one of the best award wining wine list in London.

One of Chef Tong Chee Hwee signature dishes that has been served for years is the stir-fry black pepper rib-eye beef with merlot. Presented in an edible bird’s nest, the succulent beef looked and tasted deliciously peppery with a tinge of sweet and hot.

Hakkasan Dubai’s Chef de cuisine Pang Pin Lee Sam disclosed the ingredients and method behind the rib eye black pepper beef, but without using Merlot.  The recipe for the black pepper sauce calls for cracked black pepper, butter, tomato sauce, Maggi liquid seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, chicken stock, and sugar. Ordinary ingredients that become extraordinary under Hakkasan’s way of cooking 

In a group of four at dinner, along with egg fried rice we ordered more main courses. We enhanced the hot chilli prawns in Jin-Chuan sauce and spicy roast Ma Ce chicken with tofu, aubergine and Japanese mushroom clay pot.

Through a story about Chef Tong Chee Hwee, published by The Independent, we learned that the chef was inspired mostly by his grandmother and learned about cooking techniques for 14 years from chef Chen from Hong Kong, the master chef of Cantonese cuisine in the 1980s.

The Epoch Times enlightened readers that Cantonese cuisine has 21 styles of cooking with attention to the fire temperature, the color and flavor of ingredients and the fragrance and flavor of spices. Another crucial aspect is the harmony in texture such as tender but not raw, and oily but not greasy.

We experienced the texture and taste harmony again in our choice of desserts and Hakkasan’s non-alcoholic cocktail, the Kowloon Cooler.  Three kinds of berries: strawberries, raspberries, blackberries mixed with lychee, apple, cranberry juice and club soda made an exclusive cooler.

The warm pear & pistachio jalousie is a mixed of sweet and sour, warm and cold, harmonizing caramelized pears, pistachio puree, lemon curd and vanilla ice cream.

Equally exciting is the Jivara Hazelnut Bomb. In this gradation of synchronization, hard but crunchy rice coat smothered with warm dark chocolate enveloped soft hazelnut ice cream. Sweet popping grains decorated the plate as part of the dessert’s presentation.

In 2008 Alan Yau sold Hakkasan to an Abu Dhabi investment authority and it now has become a global empire under the leadership of CEO Niall Howard.  Hakkasan has two restaurants in London and one each in Miami, New York, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Mumbai, and soon to be opened in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.

A friend who is a patron of Hakkasan in Dubai told us that the eatery there is as comparable as its London restaurant. However, since it doesn’t serve pork, Dubai has to compensate in other dishes by focusing on the tastes.

Hakkasan in London is already considered a high-volume operation for a Michelin star restaurant with around 500 customers on a busy Saturday night. This number is nothing once the Hakkasan Las Vegas opens in Spring 2013 at the MGM Grand. Hakkasan will be transformed into a different dining concept in a five-floor establishment able to attend to 3000 guests in its restaurant, two bars, and a nightclub. 

To feel Hakkasan ambiance, please view this Video 

Although the Hakkasan dining experience at 8 Hanway Place, London W1T 1HD maybe different than at the upcoming 3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, Nevada 89109, we truly hope Hakkasan will maintain its exquisite Cantonese fare.  Especially since Chef Tong Chee Hwee who began his career 50 years ago as a fryer chef is currently the Executive Head Chef of Hakkasan Group.

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Images: Hakkasan, Omar Niode Foundation