Hakkasan

110 - 2188 No. 5 Road

Richmond, BC

 

I saw a Groupon that advertised a 4-course pre-fixe menu for two at Hakkasan for $48 so I asked W to purchase it for our dinner. I made reservations and when we arrived at 6:30pm, the place was quiet but there were a few tables of customers enjoying their meals already.

 

Kobe beef meat ball lollipops (left)

Slow cooked in tomato sauce

Jumbo tiger prawns (centre)

House cocktail sauce

Organic mixed salad (right)

Fresh greens with house dressing

For our starters, we chose the 2 items that interested us the most. The soft meatballs were bathed in a savoury tomato sauce and there were about 6 of them in the bowl. Though they were tasty, we found them a bit ordinary...nothing really special about meatballs in tomato sauce. And we thought that grinding the Kobe beef was sacrilege because the texture and flavour of the prized beef was lost (unless it wasn't Kobe beef at all).

We were a bit surprised (and not in a good way) with the tiger prawns. The flesh of the prawn was nicely cooked as it had a "bounce" to the bite but when we see the word cocktail sauce, we envisioned the red kind. Their house cocktail sauce was creamy and pale and it resembled a ranch dressing more than a tangy, zippy, refreshing dipping sauce.

The salad greens were just generic spring mix with the addition of some fresh strawberries and cherry tomatoes and drizzled with a simple balsamic vinaigrette. 

Fraser Valley Duck

Lathered with a sweet harvest plum glaze

Seasonal greens and Jasmine rice

We chose 2 mains to share between the two of us. First was the Fraser Valley duck. The meat was not bad; it wasn't mushy and there was not too much fat underneath the skin. I half expected the skin to be crispy, kind of like the Chinese style BBQ duck. This one was soft but it was still good. The plum sauce was sweet, as expected, and it went well with the white rice we had. Overall, the duck didn't wow me because it kept reminding me of the take-out BBQ duck and plum sauce that I often eat at home.

The seasonal veggies in the background tasted bland and plain. They seemed like they were either steamed or boiled since the texture of the broccoli and cauliflower was way too soft for my liking. I like my veggies to still have a slight crunch with the actual vegetable taste still intact. W, on the other hand, likes his veggies soft and mushy so they were fine for him.

Crispy Berkshire Pork Loin

Served with tonkatsu sauce

I liked the second main much much more. The pork cutlet was perfectly fried so the meat was still juicy and the exterior was crispy and dry. The tonkatsu sauce tasted like it was home-made. It wasn't as tangy as the ones that come from a bottle and it was on the sweeter side as well. I give them props if they did make their own tonkatsu sauce.

Chef's Daily Sweet

Mango pudding

We had no choice for our dessert. They offered mango pudding to us to end our meal. Of course, if you fork over an extra $5, they will upgrade the dessert for you (a chocolate lava cake, I believe). The pudding was simple with a few chunks of real mango on top. The texture was on the watery side (not stiff and creamy-like) so it was actually kind of refreshing and acted as a palate cleanser.

If we didn't have the Groupon, I don't think our meal would have been worth the original price. Even though the food was tasty and was well prepared (except for the soft and bland veggies), the selections in this menu seemed so ordinary. It's like comfort food but made with higher end ingredients.