Golden Week at Hakkasan.

In case you didn't already know, this week is Golden Week, the biggest holiday in the Chinese calendar, so to celebrate Michelin-starred Hakkasan have a special menu in place until 12th October. On Monday Dani and I headed along to the Hanway Place Hakkasan in London to test it out, and to see if it was as good as everyone is claiming it is. It was a pretty special meal indeed. 

As it was Dani's birthday on the weekend and I had missed her party due to having the flu, we had cocktails to start with and to help prepare us for the huge amounts of delicious food we were about to consume. I had the 'Walking Buddha', which was a gorgeous fruity concoction and the perfect refreshing start to the meal. 

We started with a Dim Sum platter. I love Dim Sum so so much, but I find it so awkward to eat - do you shove it all in your mouth, or take small nibbles and risk knocking it out of the clutches of your chopsticks?! Personally I just shove it all in my mouth, but then I feel like a greedy pig as I struggle to chew down on it all. Anyway, the dim sum at Hakkasan is some of the best you will ever eat. It was Dani's first time at Hakkasan, and her face went all wide-eyed, before she exclaimed 'Oh my goodness, this is incredible!', and then very quickly polished off the rest of her share.

Next up was the Peking duck with Hakkasan special reserve ‘Qiandao’ caviar. The first course came with pancakes, baby cucumber and spring onion, and despite sounding like something you'd get from the local Chinese (minus the caviar), this really was something different and special. The crispy duck crunched satisfyingly in the mouth, and the caviar and pancake gave it the perfect balance of different textures. Despite sounding like something from your local takeaway...it definitely didn't taste like it. I think this was possibly my favourite course of the whole night.



After the starters it was then onto the mains, which included the second round of the duck, but this time it was cooked in our chosen sauce. We chose ginger and spring onion as neither of us are huge 'spicy' fans, and the ginger sauce was the mild option. The meat was juicy and tender rather than the dried out duck that is so common in restaurants, but a little uninspiring after the incredible first round of duck we had.

Out of the mains the Fried Rice with Abalone and the Hakka Stew Pork belly were the favourites, the Seabass we weren't a huge fan of mainly because we weren't warned that it was full of bones...cue a mouth full of bones and me spitting them out as fast as I could while half choking delicately trying to pick them out so as not to disturb/horrify people around me with my rudeness *ahem*. I'm not very good when it comes to bones in fish, ask my mother.

After spending ages eating our way through the mains due to our inability to stop talking and just eat the food, we eventually ordered some more cocktails and then waited for dessert to arrive. As a good main-to-dessert cocktail, I had the Black Forest Gateau Martini. It was literally like an alcoholic dessert in a glass. It was heavenly. If you're ever in Hakkasan and in need of a sweet cocktail, you need this in your life.

I think dessert was my least favourite course out of the whole meal. It's a shame, because we started on such a high, and then ended on a 'meh'. Dessert was deep-fried sesame balls with green tea and peach. I found them quite bland and tasteless, and a bit too savoury for my liking. So many people around us had these incredible looking desserts; brightly coloured sorbets, and extravagantly decorated chocolate concoctions that made my stomach grumble despite the huge amounts of food we'd just eaten. Compared to those sumptuous looking puddings, the sesame balls were slightly lackluster, and I left feeling as though I desperately needed a palate cleanser, and something sweet and refreshing to 'finish' the meal.

Luckily we'd been given little goodie bags to take away with us (everyone who orders the Golden Menu gets these), and inside were three beautifully presented macarons covered in gold glitter. Upon biting down on the soft outer of the macaron, the taste of champagne hit my mouth and all of a sudden popping candy exploded all over my tongue. There is one word for this, erm, YUM! These definitely made up for the lackluster sesame balls. 

The Golden Week menu is available at Hakkasan's in the UK, US, and UAE, so if you fancy trying something new or just really love Chinese food, call them up, book a table, and get down to your local Hakkasan ASAP to try out this delicious feast! I wasn't overly enamored with the seabass and sesame balls, but the rest of the nine-course meal was truly sublime and a total treat. At £88.88 each it's by no means cheap, however for nine-courses in a Michelin-starred restaurant, it's a pretty good deal if you ask me - especially if you have a special occasion that needs celebrating! 

*We were invited along to Hakkasan as guests to try out the Golden Week menu, and received our meal complimentary. However my views remain my own as always.