HAKKASAN

We had nothing booked for Wednesday noon so after spending more than an hour window shopping and buying a few things at Marc by Marc Jacobs, we went back to the hotel to dump our shopping bags and think about where we were going for lunch. Since we hadn't had Chinese food yet, we decided to have some dim sum at another Alan Yau restaurant - Hakkasan.

Booking a table at Hakkasan is not for the faint-hearted - you have to get through their automatic phone system and more often than not, a table is hard to come by. On that day though we were lucky as it was mid-week in the summer and we didn't need a table until 1:30 so as soon as we called, we got our confirmation.

I had been to Hakkasan when they first opened in 2001 when the concept high-end Chinese cuisine in very modern interiors, more like a nightclub than a restaurant, was a novelty. Now, modern Asian restaurants are the norm rather than the exception and Hakkasan has proven to be on top of it's game even after almost a decade while still holding on to it's one star Michelin status.

The entrance to the restaurant at the end of the alleyway on Hanway Place just off the end of Oxford Street is almost a secret location. Going down the stairs into the dark interiors makes for a very mysterious first impression. The large bunches of orchids are still there and the rich colors of purple, orange and red from the Christian Liaigre designed interiors are still beautiful (n.b. Alan Yau's other restaurants Yauatcha and Busaba were also designed by Christian Liaigre).

We asked to be seated in a quiet area (was it called the Ling Ling lounge bar) rather than right by the bar where it was packed. There were only a few tables occupied mostly by Chinese having dim sum. We settled into our purple velvet-upholstered banquette and started to look through the leather color-coded menus - orange for dim sum, red for the a la carte selection and purple for the wine list.

I chose one of their teas - a light one called Classical Beauty while T had an exotic cocktail from their very complete list (Martinis, Bellinis, Juices, Champagne etc) called a Pink Mao Mao made of fresh watermelon, strawberries, Belvedere vodka, Akashi-tai sake, strawberry liqueur) in a glass rimmed with crushed black pepper.

While we were looking at the menus and deciding what to have, I started to take some photos of the table set-up and interiors and was told by our not-so-friendly waitress that taking photos wasn't permitted (excuse me!) which is why this post doesn't have any food shots. You'll just have to imagine what we ate.

We ordered three dishes from the dim sum menu: XO Scallop dumpling with asparagus and mushroom; stir-fried snow pea shoots; salted fish and salted egg fried rice. From the small eats section of the a la carte menu, we chose the fried soft-shell crab with red chili and curry leaf. All the dishes arrived almost at the same time and were all piping hot, the way they should be.

The scallop dumpling was a delicately-flavored dim sum of scallops with tiny chunks of asparagus and mushroom which we dipped into the chili-garlic oil (one of the two sauces provided, the other was a red chili sauce). The snow pea shoots were fresh and still had the crunch of something quick-fried in a very hot wok. The fried rice was perfect - yellow from the salted egg yolk and full of flavor from the salted fish yet not oily at all. It's a dish hard to come by in most Chinese restaurants. Last but not least was the soft shell crab which was crunchy, spicy, salty and delicious.

As usual, we had our fill and didn't save enough space for dessert so we sipped the rest of the tea and lingered at our table before we went back up into the street and into the hustle and bustle of London. Hakkasan is a sexy oasis that serves fantastic Chinese haute cuisine in boudoir-like surroundings. If only they could get their staff to smile more, but then I guess that wouldn't be authentic enough.

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Hakkasan

8 Hanway Place

London W1

+44 020 7927 7000

Open for lunch and dinner daily

Ling Ling Lunge Bar open till very late

Dim sum for lunch only (*a great bargain)

ROKA

One of my favorite London restaurants is trendy Zuma in Knightsbridge with it's sleek interiors, good looking crowd and fantastic food. On this trip though, I wanted to try Zuma's little sister, Roka in an up and coming area where many other hip, new restaurants line the streets.

We arrived for our table booking on time but since I requested to be seated at the bar where no reservations are taken, we decided to wait and have a drink downstairs at the dimly-lit Shochu Lounge. We had just chosen something to drink - some cold sake for me and a champagne cocktail with rose petals for T. After just one sip, we were led upstairs to the best seats at the bar on the corner so we could still talk to each other face to face and at the same time not miss any of the action from chefs hard at work on the robata (grill).

As the menu is quite large, we had a difficult time narrowing down our choices to a few dishes since we wanted to try so many things. While we were looking through the menu, we had some edamame (baby soybeans) with our drinks then ordered quite a feast.

We started with some raw fish: salmon and toro (fatty tuna) sashimi and two rolls: Age Watari Gani (soft-shell crab, cucumber, kimchi and chili mayonnaise) and Ebi No Tempura maki (crispy prawn, avocado, chili, chrysanthemums and dark sweet soy). We also had a salad of spinach leaves in a sesame dressing. The toro was fantastic, the soft-shell crab roll delicious and the spinach salad was presented in new way with the leaves piled one on top of another instead of the usual squashed in a box-shape way.

The next few dishes arrived one after another hot off the robata (grill): juicy chicken wings heightened in flavor with a spritz of lime juice and dipped in a bit of sea salt, sweet smoky ko nasu (eggplant in Mirin, ginger and soy) and simply-grilled tofu with chives. We also ordered the ubiquitous gin tara (black cod) marinated in yuzu miso (citrus and soybean paste) just to see how it compares with the one made famous at Nobu - quite similar but not one of my favorites. Other diners were looking at the many dishes crowding our very full corner and we did try our best but couldn't finish it all in the end. We were so full we had to skip dessert although we did see some wonderful ice cream and fruit presentations in hollowed-out bamboos shared by most other diners.

When we finally left close to midnight, the restaurant was still more than half-full with a younger, more casual crowd than Zuma's. We wandered up to the corner of Charlotte street and back, peeking into the very busy bar of the Charlotte Street Hotel and at other restaurants still filled with diners on that weekday evening. After a quick walk, we hopped into a cab and headed back to our hotel in Mayfair.

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Roka

37 Charlotte Street

London W1

Telephone: +44 020 7580 6464

Open daily for lunch and dinner

BUSABA

Our first meal in London was supposed to be at Yauatcha, Alan Yau's funky dimsum restaurant so we hopped into a cab and went straight to Broadwick Street in Soho. When we arrived, we were surprised to find a very quiet restaurant and were greeted by the not-so-friendly hostess who informed us that only the tearoom was open while the restaurant kitchen was undergoing renovations.

Since we were quite hungry, we walked around to try and find another restaurant. At the end of the road was Wardour street where there was a Busaba, another Alan Yau creation, which was on my list of restaurants for lunch the next day.

Walking into Busaba's modern interiors was a pleasure. The restaurant was filled with square tables, benches and large pendant lamps over each table focusing on the three bottles of essential sauces in Thai cooking - Sriracha hot sauce, soy sauce and Squid brand fish sauce. We were seated at a corner of the large table making it much easier to have a conversation during the meal instead of being seated side-by-side on the long bench. Each place was set with a simple brown paper mat in the same color as the wood of the table and some chopsticks (although Thais don't eat using chopsticks but forks and spoons, which we were given later on).

The menu is divided into: salad, soup noodle, wok noodle, stir-fry, grill, rice, curry and side dishes. We wanted to try several dishes and just share them all. From the wok noodle, we had the Sen chan pad Thai (a twist on the usual Thai rice noodle dish because of the addition of crab meat and green mango). From the stir-fry section, we had rose-apple and chicken stir-fry, a side dish of Chinese broccoli with garlic and shiitake mushrooms and coconut rice. All the food arrived quickly piping hot and served in simple white crockery. The vegetables were crisp and not overcooked, the stir-fried chicken was sweet from the fruit with a hint of spice and the coconut rice was delicious but the best dish was the pad Thai which was a large portion of rice noodles with prawns and crab meat, crushed peanuts, egg and the tangy twist from the slices of green mango - an excellent Thai flavor combination of sweet-sour-salty and spicy. We were pleasantly surprised with the bill which came to £15 each for n excellent lunch.

The next day, we were supposed to meet up with another friend, C, for lunch at the Busaba on Bird Street near our hotel. Instead of going to another restaurant, we decided to eat there again since we had such a delicious lunch the day before. This time since there were three of us, we were able to order more dishes from the menu and just place them all in the middle and share them all. We tried the pat prik king prawn (stir-fried prawns with snake bean, lime leaf, ginger and red curry), the char-grilled duck in tamarind sauce with Chinese broccoli, a side dish of Thai calamari with ginger and peppercorn, a non-noodle Mai sai-sen pad Thai made only with Chines chive, tofu, bean sprouts, egg, peanut and lime plus our favorites from the day before: the Sen chan Pad Thai, Chinese broccoli with garlic and shiitake mushrooms and coconut rice. We also tried the Unif iced green tea which was very refreshing and a nice alternative to fizzy drinks or regular iced tea.

As usual, the food arrived quickly and piping hot - the new dishes we tried were all very good: the prik king prawns were spicy, the grilled duck was sour-sweet from the tamarind marinade, the squid, crisp and hot with the whole black peppercorns and the non-noodle pad Thai an unusual yet delicious option for vegetarians. Everything else was exactly as they were the day before with the crabmeat and green mango Mai sai-sen pad Thai again standing out for its' original flavor combination. We thought we would never be able to finish all that food but we somehow managed to eat every last morsel which was useful as we needed the energy for our afternoon of retail therapy. Again, the bill was very reasonable at £20 each, excellent quality-price ratio.

We hit the shops on Oxford street all afternoon starting at Selfridges stationery department and food hall then heading off to M&S, Russell and Bromley, Mothercare and back again to Selfridges women's fashion and shoe floor where we spent a few hours escaping the heat and trying tons of Christian Louboutins, LK Bennett's and Havaianas. It was a perfect girl's day of lunch, shopping and catching up on gossip.

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Busaba

106-110 Wardour St.

London W1

+44 020 7255 8686

* perfect for hanging out in Soho

8-13 Bird St.

London W1

+44 020 7518 8080

* great for shopping on Oxford Street

another on:

22 Store St., London WC1

+44 020 7299 7900

Open daily, all-day long.

Monday-Thursday 12 noon to 11 p.m.

Friday-Saturday 12 noon to 11:30 p.m.

Sunday 12 noon to 10:00 p.m.