Again, an amazing dinner! \n\nWe've dinned here last may and a few days ago. Both experiences met our expectations.\n\nThe great service starts at the moment your reservation is made. Not only asking for the occassion, but also inquiring for any special preferences and allergies.\n\nI can't remember what we ate last may, so I'll focus on the last visit (this week). From last may I only remember that my love had something with duck (of course, he always does) and we had a nice Viognier. And, the server accidentally brought us a wrong dish. Not knowing what we could expect we started eating thinking it was the right dish. The waitress noticed it and made sure we also had the dish we ordered. Quickly. And the wrongly served dish was not charged. Nice way to make up for mistakes.\n\nSo, this week, party of three. We decided to share 2 appetizers, take 3 entrees and a side dish. But, between deciding that and determining what to take.......Pff..The Hakkasan has a very extensive menu and we had different wishes (yes/no to fish, yes/no bones) and my culinary English is (I think) pretty good but there parts of the menu that weren't completely clear like har gau. But this was no problem for the waitress, she took al the time to help me enhance my vocabulary. Finally we orderded the short ribs and the dim sum as appetizers. Bot excellent. The only thing that can be remarked is that the staff takes the meat from the bone at the table. That didn't look very professionel. They should start with given the waitresses a little bit more of practice and a sharper knife (the lady used standerd, not very sharp cutlery). I really feared that it whould end up on my dress..........\n\nWe had the Pipa Duck, the Shanghai lamb tenderloin and the beef with Merlot as entrees and the Udon Noodles with duck as a side. All entrees were excellent. Nicely presented and a normal portion. Only the pipa was not that much. We all agreed that we liked the beef with Merlot most of all. very tender meat, nicely seasoned. The pipa duck was as remarked, a very small portion. Excellent flavours, but because it resembles Peking Duck so much I think we will not order that again. The Shangai lamb was also good, altough some peoplie might think it's a little hot. One member of the party suggested a Pinot Grigio as a wine to start with. We ended up choosing one from Italy and drinking this with the entire meal.\n\nWe skipped desserts, because I remembed from last may that once you eaten real European style macarons (La Duree....to die for) American's macarons just don't match up. Not chewy enough, not enough 'macaron-blood' in their veins ;). So we just ordered coffee (and a cointreau). This was the only dissapointment of the evening. Don't order coffee. My love send his cappucino back the first time and yes, it was better the second time around, but not what you'll expect after the amazing dishes. Same thing applied for the lattes.\n\nSure, this luxery doesn't come cheap. But I rather pay a little bit more for a nice ambience, good service and excellent food than just fill my stomach. And if you're a little aware of the prices you can have an excellent dinner for an fair price. We ended up with a check of $330 (including gratuity) for 3 persons. Not too bad. \n\n(Note: I'm no native speaker so please excuse all grammar and spelling mistakes).
places reviews