My life revolves around food but there needs to be a bit of balance so we tend to eat in on a work (school) night then eat out all weekend. That means during the week I research, plan and book where we’ll eat by scouring websites reading blogs and asking for recommendations. I already had a breakfast reservation on Saturday but then an email arrived promoting a new menu at Hakkasan available only on a Saturday afternoon. It was a no brainer as I adore Hakassan, so I invited some friends and booked a table on the terrace in the hope it wouldn’t be too hot.

All 5 of us opted for the ‘Taste of Hakkasan’ menu priced at 168QR. For this you get 4 courses consisting of a choice of soups, a small eat, a main course served with rice and vegetables then a selection of ice creams and sorbets for dessert. This price also includes unlimited water, soft drinks and Chinese teas. For an additional 110QR per person you can also select a half bottle of wine each. For my soup I chose crab and sweet corn and others chose hot and sour with chicken. Both of them were delicious. Mine had lovely thick chunks of crab and wasn’t too salty which I often find with this type of soup. We were also given a complimentary portion of crab cakes which were amazingly crunchy on the outside but melted in your mouth.

For my appetizer I chose salt and pepper squid which I’ve had at Hakkasan several times. Others chose dim sum and crispy duck rolls. I was impressed at how big the portions were, everything came out hot and freshly cooked. My squid was crispy and not all all rubbery, luckily it wasn’t too spicy either as I’m not a huge fan of really spicy food. The dim sum and crispy duck were also described as ‘fantastic’.

We asked for a break at this point, as I said the portion sizes were generous and we needed time for the soup and small eat to digest. Thoughout our meal the service was very friendly, a couple of times we were asked how our food was – I’m sure the clean plates indicated how much we were enjoying ourselves. Our drinks were constantly being topped up, perfect service. For my main I chose Mongolian stir fry rib eye beef, others chose prawns in a spicy Assam sauce. All were served with garlic lettuce and edamame egg fried rice. I have never tasted lettuce so good! Again, everything was swiftly demolished with lots of sounds of satisfaction.

We couldn’t believe we still had dessert to go! However, the selection of ice creams and sorbets were perfect as the ice creams weren’t too rich and the sorbets were zingy and refreshing. We were also given a lovely light chocolate and coconut shell filled with chocolate mousse.

Wow, what a meal. The food and service were faultless, it was beautiful sitting outside enjoying the Spring sunshine and everything added up to make for a perfect afternoon. I really can’t recommend Hakkasan highly enough. If you haven’t been before I’d recommend the Saturday afternoon ‘Taste of Hakkasan’ menu as an introduction to the food and I bet you’ll go back time and time again. Hats off to the Hakkasan team, we all loved it!