Hakkasan, Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Finally authentic Hong Kong style cuisine in Abu Dhabi. I have been looking for so long and never quite satisfied with many of the Chinese restaurants in UAE. Every year I go back to Hong Kong to get my fill and satisfy all my cravings. But a short car ride away, you can find authentic Cantonese eats at this well known 7* star property known as Hakkasan. We delighted in the Hakkasan Brunch on their newly opened terrace. Read on further for my experience and photos from my blogger friends.
The brunch cost AED 318 for non-alcoholic package which includes soft drinks and voss water. AED 438 for unlimited punch cocktails, house spirits, wine, beer and voss water.
I was invited along with other fellow bloggers of Abu Dhabi to experience the Brunch at Hakkasan. We sat in a lavish area of the terrace on looking towards the magnificent Etihad Towers. It was a beautiful day for a brunch, blue sunny skies. They have ample seating area inside, which is a complete contrast as they have very dim lights and dark traditional furniture. I noticed that a lot of the Chinese tourist prefer to sit inside as it is comfortably air conditioned with grand seating and private booths.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgYoVxfHWDa/?taken-by=paulieeepocket
Appetizer
The Brunch is a sit down style, 5 course sharing style meal. We first got to enjoy our crab and sweet corn soup which came in quite a large portion for brunch servings. It tasted quite amazing – super flavorful and rich but I found it to be too hot to consume on a hot sunny day outdoors.
Peking Duck Buffet
We were directed to indoors where we got to see the buffet set up of the peking duck being assembled. As we were taking photos, they also brought a whole duck to our table. As we were such a large party, I would recommend in the future for them to skin the duck right at the side of the table. This is often the custom at Chinese restaurants back at home. The whole duck comes right to the side of the table and is skinned and immediately served to you with all the fixings. This will also create more of an entertaining and interactive element for the restaurant. As well, I would suggest them to bring all the fixings to the table and allow guests to assemble the peking duck pancakes themselves. I often eat peking duck with my family and each guest in my famiy enjoys it differently. I love it with tons of sauce, and only a little meat whereas my husband love the skin without the cucumbers.
Dim Sum
Next came our dim sum platters – I really enjoyed the wonton, har gau, the crystal wagyu beef dumplings. The wrappers were made perfectly! This is really hard to find in Abu Dhabi, and Hakkasan does them just right!
We also ate Pan fried taro cake (new taste for me) and Wagyu Beef Truffle Puffs. The puffs reminded me of BBQ Pork Puffs – the taste and flavor was so similar I wouldn’t of guessed it was chicken. Some of the other favorites of the day was the Crispy Prawn Dumping with Foi Gras Sauce.
All of the dim sum was done amazingly, some had a modern fusion mix but also tasted delicious! It really makes me miss going to dim sum on the weekends – up next I’d love to get some beef balls, chicken feet and beef rice rolls please!
Mains
Everyone was already super full when the mains started to come. I enjoyed the family sharing style of the mains. We had a taste of the Stir Fry Black Pepper Rib Eye Beef, Steam Wild Prawn in Chili Sauce and Stir Fry Sugar Snap with Cloud Ear and Ginger. The prawns were my favorite, fresh ingredients, super savory and makes me wanting more. The Beef I felt was too chewy, id suggest to cut the meat into smaller portions. The black pepper sauce was sublime. Lastly the Sugar Snap dish was lovely, I often eat this dish frequently, it would be perfect if it was served with some seafood element like scallops.
Desserts
We were presented with tea sets for the dessert portion of the brunch. Within this tea set was a dozen of delectable cakes, macarons, mousses and fruits. I felt it was quite a drastic change of cuisine as we were enjoying such lovely and authentic Chinese dishes for hours but the desserts had no hints of Chinese elements. I was looking forward to getting egg tarts, glutonious rice balls/cakes, sago, and yellow custard buns (I am drooling!). I am really hoping there can be some sort of fusion or mix so that we can get a taste of some Chinese desserts too at Hakkasan, else I hope Chef Lee of Hakkasan can give me some private tasting sessions! Until next time.
For more information:
Table booking recommended by phone: +971 02 6907739; or Online
