Hakkasan

Reviews 4

RO

Roy Chi

Honestly, the last time I had a $100 per person dinner at a Chinese restaurant was... never. For that reason, I was REALLY skeptical about Hakkasan. I mean, Chinese food is at its very best when its dirty and grungy, cooked homestyle by an old Chinese man with a long hair twirling out of the penny-sized mole on his neck or by an old Chinese lady with a voice that sounds like shed been smoking since birth. I knew Hakkasan would look and feel amazing (which it does), but would the food justify the $$$$? After having dinner here, I would have to say that although its still debatable, it definitely comes pretty damn close to being justified. Im actually quite surprised at how much they did with so little space and with such low ceilings. The ambiance is incredible -- definitely one of the nicer restaurants Ive been to in SF. Naturally, its filled with business professionals and super wealthy Silicon Valley icons, which could make tech nerds starstruck (we saw Gurbaksh Chahal sitting next to us). --------------------------- FOOD: Steamed Dim Sum Platter: - Very well-done dim sum with the perfect amount of chewiness of the dumpling skin and interesting flavors. Is it worth $26 for 8 little dumplings? Probably not, but it was still pretty good. Braised Kurobuta Pork Belly: - Hands down the best dish of the night. Hakkasans braised pork belly might just be the best of its kind that Ive had outside of Asia. The thick layer of fat was perfectly cooked, the meat was fall-apart tender, and the sauce was delicious without being overpowering. I would come back just for this. Truffle Oil Duck: - So disappointing. It had so much going for it: the skin was perfectly crispy and how can you ever go wrong with truffle oil? Unfortunately, the duck was overcooked, so it was tough and lost all of its fattiness. If the duck was just cooked a bit better, the flavors wouldve made this dish awesome. Hakka Noodles: - Definitely not worth $12. The noodles were good, but it was just nothing special whatsoever. The flavors were a bit bland and it wasnt very satisfying. In fact, I had to drench it with chili sauce and chili oil to give it any pop of flavor. Chocolate Orange: - Incredible dessert for chocolate lovers. The dish comes with a round chocolate shell that breaks gently when the waiter pours the molten lava-like chocolate sauce on top. Theres a scoop of chocolate ice cream on the side, on top of this delicious mixture of nuts, cocoa crumble, and... Pop Rocks (or at least it felt like pop rocks because SOMETHING was fizzing and popping on my tongue). Everything about this dessert was great. --------------------------- All in all, Hakkasan was a good, memorable dining experience, with an excellent ambiance and great service. The food was a hit or miss, but when it hit (like with the Braised Pork Belly or Chocolate Orange) it DEFINITELY hit it out of the park. It was the first time I ever thought to myself: "Hmm, maybe paying $100/pp for Chinese food isnt so crazy after all..."

SH

Shawn Besabella

Such a let down. Usually, when I agree to go to a 4-dollar-sign restaurant, its because Im going for an entire experience. Unfortunately, because of the service here, my rating just fell for them. We came to the restaurant early to enjoy some drinks, and I have to give it to their drink menu, because it was a good selection of drinks on their menu. I particularly liked the Green Destiny and the Hakka. Our reservation was from 9PM, but we were waiting around for another 15-20 minutes waiting for our table to open up. At that point, I was like OK, Ill let this one slide, because Im hoping theyll make it up within the next hour. We sit down, and like every other restaurant, after returning with our drink orders, the waitress asks if were ready to order. We say we need another couple of minutes. Couple. Not 15 which is what happened. We were literally sitting there waiting for a waitress - any waitress, not just ours - to walk by, so we could flag one down with an arm or make eye contact - but nada. Nobody. It was rather strange to be honest. That was strike 2. We ordered a bunch of dishes, and I was really impressed with the pork belly and lamb. You have to remember that even though this is dim sum, you only get little sum sum. Portions are small, but thats to be expected the more expensive a restaurants gets. I would say that this is probably not the kind of restaurant you should go to expecting to leave with your belly full. Given how large the serving plates were, compared to the actual serving, I got the impression that it probably isnt encouraged you order a ton of food, even though its family style. The biggest let-down for me was the duck. I had heard so much hype about the duck at this restaurant, and I was surprised to taste how overcooked it was - just wasnt a good duck IMHO. If I come back here, it would probably just be for drinks, but as for the food ,and sit-down experience, Id probably pass.

KA

Karen V Chin

This is not your parents kind of Chinese restaurant. Fancy-pants Cantonese food with $$$$$ prices. More expensive than Yank Sing - and soo good, so worth it! Hip, urban, trendy, clubby are the first things that come to mind as you go up in the elevator to the restaurant floor then you are hit with the strong pungent fragrance of sandalwood as you walk from the lobby to your table. Service was impeccable. Discreet, but always there in the background, ready in anticipation for your next move. For lunch, we sample through Hakkasans signature dim sum and dishes: Crispy duck salad with pomegranate, pine nut and shallot (the crunchiness of 5 spiced duck while biting into slices of pomelo and watercress was divine), Seafood dumpling soup (like eating a huge, delicious Shanghai Dumpling in rich, Chicken broth), pan-fried turnip cake (beautifully seared, but surprisingly not greasy), chicken and abalone sui mai (tender abalone never tasted so good in this combination), XO scallop dumplings (you get a juicy squirt of XO sauce when you bite into the dumpling that is resting on a scallop shell), Spicy Prawns - served in a basil and lightly flavored curry sauce - the prawns were fresh, meaty, flavorful, and capped off the meal with Hakka noodle with mushroom and Chinese chive (loved the mushrooms!). Its a toss up between the Crispy duck salad or the XO scallop dumplings. You have to order both! I cant eat here often, but for special occasions or on a fat expense account, I would highly recommend this place for just the food and the service you receive here alone!

RA

Randy Joseph

Yes, the food was delicious and our server was great. But.....the lady next to us by mistake (we have no idea how) flung a wine bottle and much of the wine onto my tablemate. Because she was traveling for business this outfit was ruined for the trip at least. The wine was dripping down her face and on all of her clothes and on the seat and glass all over the floor. The wine flinger was apologetic but didnt offer anything in the order of dry cleaning. And didnt speak much English so we couldnt talk to her. The restaurant manager attitude was: This isnt our fault - do you want a towel? Eventually they compted us our drinks and our dessert. But at these prices let me tell you our evening was ruined, her cloths were wet with wine and we paid $130. Before this incident we also had trouble with the reservation - they said they didnt have it and then they found it. And during the meal a staff person brought us a dish we hadnt ordered. He came back a second time to insist we HAD ordered it and we sent him away. Our server came over later and apologized and said it was his fault - he had pushed a wrong button. This two above things didnt bother us AT ALL - I just mention them to add on to the BIG incident. My friend comes to SF all the time and has been to this restaurant 4 times. They could have saved a repeat customer but chose not to. They didnt care.