Sake No Hana
| Address: | 23 St James's Street SW1A 1HA | |
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| Tel | 020 7925 8988 | |
Price:
£88.00 
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Champagne: £73.00 |
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| Opening Hours: | Mon-Sun 12N-3pm 6pm-12M (Sun -11pm) |
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Square Meal review of Sake No Hana:
Make no mistake: this new restaurant from Alan Yau is no Japanese re-run of his groundbreaking (& recently sold) Chinese, Hakkasan. The inspiration is an izakaya, the low-seating sake bars where workers gather to drink & graze &, although the cedar-wood decor is striking, it’s also rather austere. Food comes from a long & hard-to-navigate menu, on which portion sizes are unclear (some dishes feed four, others are just enough for one) & ingredients a long way from the Western-friendly assemblies of Zuma & Nobu. Hits include the sweet & salty flavours of marinated lotus root salad, braised pork rib in a tangy broth with sugar snap peas & carrots, & stonkingly fresh sushi & sashimi. But the flavours of Chilean sea bass with miso & ginkgo nut were muted & udon noodles covered in an icy broth were cold & unpleasant. Yau’s refusal to conform to expectations is to be applauded, but the high prices are hard to swallow given the mixed quality of the food. Champagne & cocktails aside, the drinks list is entirely focused on sake.
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