Hakkasan, a giant upscale Chinese restaurant in Hell's Kitchen, opens to the public tonight. Consider this New York's Chinese cuisine answer to Nobu, the chic Japanese restaurant in Tribeca. There are a number of Hakkasan locations the world over, including in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Mumbai, and the flagship in London, and the restaurant is Michelin-rated, so open wide for what promises to be a world class menu, with everything from an $888 Braised Japanese abalone with black truffle (made to share) to Mongolian style venison ($42).
We stopped into Hakkasan for a lunchtime press preview yesterday, and it's quite spectacular. Floor-to-ceiling blue glass doors open to a marble-lined entryway, which radiates indulgence. Beyond that you'll find a seemingly infinite 60-foot bar, fully stocked with every kind of liquor and manned by bartenders who can mix any kind of cocktail—especially the tropical kind, using homemade purees and spumes, fruits, herbs, and spices. The dark wood furniture, made by Brooklyn-based Olollo, is artfully arranged in an almost labyrinthine, dramatically-lit dining room. Lunch at Hakkasan feels (deliciously) dark, like a hedonistic journey, a world away from the grime and glare of midtown and Hell's Kitchen.
Executive Chef Ho Chee Boon's sprawling and filling menu, which you can peruse below in its entirety, has something for everyone—everyone who can afford it (or expense it), that is. While not outrageously expensive by NYC fine dining standards, you should know going in that even most of the items on the "Small Eat" section are in the $20 range. Hakkasan is aimed at the "global resident," as Hassakan Ltd's CEO Niall Howard calls them, in other words, those affluent enough to call more than one country home. "We tend to locate ourselves where those global residents go," Howard said. The first U.S. locations are in New York and Miami, though Howard says the company is also looking to the West Coast.
Hakkasan // 311 West 43rd Street // (212) 776-1818
