Celebrate your Chinese New Year at Hakkasan

In celebration of Chinese New Year 2018, Hakkasan, the brand known for its modern interpretation of authentic Cantonese cuisine, will usher in the Chinese New Year with festive celebrations commemorating 2018 as The Year of the Dog. Upholding the brand’s proud Chinese heritage, Hakkasan will welcome the new lunar year with a limited edition signature menu created by Hakkasan chefs from London, USA, the Middle East and Asia.

This year, Chinese New Year falls on Friday 16^th February 2018. In the spirit of celebration, the exclusive menu will be available at Hakkasan Dubai and Hakkasan Abu Dhabi from 29^th January to 4^th March 2018.

Priced at AED 598 per person, guests opting for the menu will enjoy dishes using ingredients which are thought to bestow happiness, longevity, luck and prosperity. Starting with Szechuan wind dried oyster with lotus root with crispy rice in man tou, the oyster traditionally symbolising fortune and good luck. Other small eat dishes include braised beef and caramelized walnut with asparagus and mint.

Main dishes include Grilled Chilean sea bass with kumquat glaze, as eating fish at Chinese New Year is said to bring increased prosperity, andWok-fry native lobster in superior stock with edamame and caviar, lamb in seaweed soy with celery and enoki mushroom. To complete the main course dishes, Abalone fried rice in bean curd wrap with mushroom which contains fai cai (fat choy), an ingredient which in Chinese means to ‘get rich and grow wealth’. 

To finish, guests will indulge in the Golden Fortune dessert with ginger caramel, roasted macadamia nuts and lemongrass. A special cocktail has been created to mark the festival: the Happy Daisy comprises Tanqueray No.10 gin, Chartreuse Yellow, lemon, spiced mandarin jam, egg white and soda water.  For those wishing to indulge in a mocktail, Hakkasan offers a series of fruit blends such as Xingyun, a mix of mandarin and lemon juice, spice mandarin jam, passion fruit and soda water, garnished with a fortune cookie.

As part of the festivities, Hakkasan will continue their annual Chinese New Year wishing tradition by inviting guests to write their wishes on red ribbons that will be hung around the dining areas. This custom is said to have begun hundreds of years ago in Lam Tsuen, Hong Kong.  During Chinese New Year, villagers would travel for miles to visit the sacred Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees (two ancient banyan trees) and hang notes on the branches using red ribbon.  These notes contained wishes for the year ahead and it was believed that the wishes that were successfully hung on the trees would come true. 

Executive Head Chef Tong comments, “Chinese New Year is an incredibly important time for Hakkasan and our guests. Each year we look for new ways to celebrate in the restaurants around the world through food and traditions. This year, I wanted to bring together our chefs as this time of year traditionally brings together family and friends. I am very proud of them and what we have achieved together with this menu.  Here’s to a happy and prosperous 2018!”