Simon's review of Hakkasan

Unless you are a Russian oligarch (of whom there were several there the night we went), I've found that you have to ignore the “how much??” screetching alarm that keeps going off when choosing to dine at somewhere like Hakkasan, otherwise the enjoyment is somewhat soured by the prices. Once this state of mind is achieved, it does leave you free to concentrate on the experience better.
Previous reviews have lauded the lychee martini, and these did it no justice; words can't explain the explosion of complementary flavours; others in the party were similarly positive about their cocktails; to put this into context, my choice of pre-prandial drink is generally a pint of bitter, or a glass of wine if I'm feeling sophisticated.
The six of us chose a selection of starters all of which were very good, the highlight being the salt & pepper squid; the fried soft shell crab was pretty special too.
For main course, we again shared a selection; the baked lotus leaf sea bass Honk Kong style was strikingly unusual, but none the worse for that. Our other choices included stir-fried Welsh black beef, grilled Wagyu beef with enoki mushroom & soya, atlantic scallop & prawn cake, and roast duck with chinese herbs. All were really good, wonderfully cooked, and well presented. Wine list offers a wide choice, and also a wide range of prices (relatively!)
Hakkasan is a must for people watching; the Russian oligarch on the table next to us looked as if he treated the place as his local chinese; no attempt to dress up, and the only evidence of pre-planning was the DVD player for his small child.
Overall, a very good experience. Service generally excellent. The 2-hour per table policy was applied, but not aggressively or discourtiously. Only black mark was refusal to order cabs at the end of the evening; the only option on offer is to use the restaurant's own private car service – which has a minimum charge of £15.