My next target for Restaurant Week was Hakkasan, a modern Chinese restaurant that originated in London in 2001 and opened its doors in Hell's Kitchen in April 2012 and earned a Michelin star. I was thinking that the $38 deal for dinner was a good way to try out that place as, the lack of prices on the menu often indicates a pricey meal...
This 11,000 square feet place is pretty impressive with its modern decor and deep blue lighting. The photo above is the lounge area and the one below part of the dining room.
Even more impressive is the long corridor at the entrance that reminded Jodi of a scene in The Shinning. Scary!
They sat us fairly quickly at our table and I admit that I really was not sure what to order as lots of dishes seemed very appetizing.
For instance, for the appetizer, I hesitated between the steamed dim sum platter and the fried one. Well, first I did not know what har gau was and discovered later that it was a shrimp dumpling. Then, they had a fried dumpling with duck and, as I love duck, I decided to go with the fried platter.
There were three dumplings: shrimp, mashed duck and pumpkin, scallops. The presentation was beautiful, especially the duck dumpling that had the shape of a pumpkin. They were delicious: slightly crispy and tasty, the dough was perfect, not too greasy. My favorite was the scallop one, then the shrimp and last the duck (I did not get as much duck taste as I would have loved to).
Jodi got the stir-fried mushrooms with lettuce wrap.
I loved that dish, with or without the lettuce that, as the name of the dish suggests, is used as a wrap.
It was full of pistachio and pine nuts that added a nice flavor to it. But know that it was slightly spicy...
For the entrée, I ordered the spicy prawn, served with Lilly bulb, almond and jicama.
I was surprised how much large shrimp were on the plate as I thought that, being a special deal, portions would be small.
I ate that dish with some egg fried rice that was quite good.
Imagine the sauce of the prawn being like a curry, with the spiciness of a curry in fact. Fortunately, mixing with the rice and eating the jicama that not only gave a nice crunch, but had a slight cooling effect that helped. It was so good that, even if my mouth was, at time, on fire, I went back to it.
Jodi ordered a vegetarian dish: three-style mushroom stir-fry with macadamia nuts, water chestnuts and gai lan that is Chinese broccoli.
It was good, but I admit that I found the dish a bit boring, missing texture if not for the presence of macadamia nuts, and taste. She also got fried rice.
For dessert, we shared:
Vanilla ice cream with strawberry sorbet, strawberries, meringue and...black pepper.
Ok, I admit that we did not really taste the black pepper, and I wondered if it was not just simply used to enhance flavors. But overall, it was a delicious dish, the high point being the vanilla ice cream that had a texture very close to a mousse.
We also tried a lemon infused consommé with peach ice cream, a huge cherry, and some fig.
That was a fantastic dessert, well balanced and very refreshing. I could have eaten more of it! Well, I also could have eaten much more of this amazing shortbread!
We had a delicious meal at Hakkasan: the food was succulent, the presentation stunning and appetizing, and the service perfect and courteous. Know that there is loud music there, like in a club, but even with that, I cannot wait to go back there for another dinner, that is what the spirit of Restaurant Week is about: discovering places.
Enjoy (I did)!
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And Remember: I Just Want To Eat!
