Hakkasan

Hakkasan is located on 110 - 2188 No.5 Road, Richmond BC.

This restaurant is located in an industrial area. Unnoticeable from No 5 Road, you can easily miss it if you do not know what you are looking for.  They emphasize authentic chinese cuisine with a modern twist.  


First impressions: spacious restaurant, western decor with asian accent pieces.  The waitress was friendly and explained the menu to us.  The concept is a tasting menu but in a banquet style.  If you want to have one of the tasting menus offered, then everyone at the table will need to have the same menu.  Alternatively,  you can order dishes individually at more expensive prices.

My suggestion would be that they limit the tasting menu to a minimum order of 2 or 4 people.  That way more tables would be likely to chose the price fix tasting menu.



Escargot in puff pastry

A refreshing plating for an often predictable escargot dish.  The contrast of the puff pastry adds to the dimensions of the dish.

Honey glazed pork cheeks with green beans

This is a twist on the traditional Chinese roast pork.  The use of the pork cheeks makes this a leaner alternative. Definitely a good remake of a classic. 



Braised Egg Tofu w/Greens

The tofu broccoli looked nicely plated,  but taste wise was the same as the dish offered at other Chinese restaurants.  This I would pass.

 Steamed Chilean Seabass, light soya

The Seabass was cooked to perfection.  Not exactly steamed but the lightly fried exterior kept in the juices and made the inside moist and tender.  A difficult dish to master. Definitely worth ordering.


Uni Fried Rice

The fried rice was a nice combination of Chinese and Japanese flavors. The fried rice was nicely cooked with spring onions and Chinese sausage.  The addition of Uni made the dish richer.  Although the flavors did go well together,  the dish was on the heavy side. 

Liked:

• The tasting menu concept  adds a visual element to the dishes
• Quiet and intimate atmosphere
• Needs more vegetable dishes. The selection was limited and not very innovative.

Disliked:

• Vegetable dishes- limited and uninteresting
• Limiting the whole table to participate in the tasting menu.  
• Location was out of the way in an industrial area.
• Pricing : expensive unless you are ordering from the price fix menu

  This is definitely a restaurant worth trying once.  Mind you this is quite an expensive restaurant,  even for downtown standards.  Without the trendy downtown crowd and situated in the highly competitive Chinese restaurant neighborhood of Richmond, I have to wonder how this restaurant will survive.   Only time will tell.