8 Hanway Place,
London,
W1T 1HD

0872 148 4222

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Whilst cocktails are popular all around the world, it is amazing how little they have been influenced by regional flavours and traditions.

Perhaps this is because your “man on the street” isn’t really interested in peculiar and wonderful alcoholic concoctions: he’d rather get stuck into a cold beer, glass of wine or fermented yaks milk.

Cocktails like the Singapore Sling might have been invented in an exciting location, but the recipe isn’t exactly mind-blowingly exotic (gin, cherry liqueur, orange, lime, etc.) No, cocktail bars around the world grew up so that Americans (and a few Europeans) could get a taste of home.

Even native cocktails, like the Brazilian Caipirinha or the Polish Tetanka (actually a Native American word used to describe the Polish mixture of bison grass vodka and pressed apple juice) are by and large indistinguishable in concept from the classics invented by Americans abroad (the Daiquiri) or Americans or Brits at home (the Manhattan or the Russian Spring Punch).

Hakkasan is remarkable because nearly every cocktail on its menu features an oriental twist of some sort. Conceived by Alan Yau (Mr Wagamama), it houses the only Chinese restaurant in the country to receive a Michelin star, as well as a very swanky bar.

The place was designed by Christian Liaigre, whose previous projects have included New York’s Mercer hotel and Calvin Klein’s house. A combination of dark stained oak, backlit coloured panels and oriental embroidered fabrics lend an air of mystical sophistication, and there is a definite seductiveness to it all too. The design input even extends to the staff uniforms – those worn by the bar staff have been designed by Timothy Everest and Hussein Chalayan.

Back to the drinks. The cocktail list was put together by Dick Bradsell, and is arguably his greatest ever. Not only is it breathtaking in its diversity, but it also shows how extensive his knowledge and mastery of spirits and flavours really is. Simple cocktails are often the best, as mixing more than a few flavours requires a lot of skill, and it’s easy to get carried away. However, certain complex cocktails (the Mai Tai for example) work superbly. Most of the cocktails at Hakkasan are fairly complex, and all the ones we tasted were sublime.

The Kumquat Javu was a fruity mix of Appleton rum, Mandarine Napoleon, Southern Comfort and kumquats, and had a deliciously complex flavour. The Jasmine FonFon was another fruity number, combining fresh strawberry and pink grapefruit juice with rum, cinnamon and passion fruit, which are all shaken together and then topped up with champagne.

We also tried the Plum Sour (Chinese plum brandy, Chivas Regal and sours), the Georgia Julep (bourbon, peach liqueur and mint syrup) and the Green Destiny (bison grass vodka, cucumber, kiwi and pressed apple juice) – all were excellent.

Hakkasan is without doubt one of London’s finest cocktail bars. The list is unbelievably good, and I can safely say that I’ve never struggled to make a decision quite so much as I did with my first round. It’s not cheap however. In fact, when you’ve added service to a round of drinks costing around £8 each, it’s positively extortionate. That’s not really the point though – it’s a place to sit, sip and chat, not to gulp, grope and pass out… Hakkasan has gone straight into my top 3 bars in the capital, and I can’t see it getting knocked off its perch in the near future.