Hakkasan

Boasting the first Michelin Star ever awarded to a Chinese restaurant, Hakkasan can justly claim to be the best of its kind in London. The food here really is exceptional. Straying from the traditional route to provide Western variations on Chinese staples the cuisine is both modern and mouth-watering. Also described as the "sexiest" restaurant in London, Hakkasan's appeal doesn?t just rest with its food. Lurking underground at the end of a fairly unappealing (bordering on dingy) side-street, initial impressions aren't great. However, as you walk step by step down the dimly lit staircase, surrounded by cooling slate walls embedded with tiny ruby red lights, a whole new world opens up before your eyes. Bathed in a mysterious, icy blue light, the dining room's discretely placed arrangement of tables appear to emerge gleaming under the moonlight of an exotic Oriental night. Carefully placed screens create an air of privacy and subterfuge, further enhanced by the shadows created by flickering candles and dramatic spots of light. The suavely dressed waiters who slip silently in between tables and behind screens provide an appropriately unassuming yet attentive service, which is key to this whole dining experience. Expensive this is - it doesn't deserve to be anything else ? but it's worth every penny.