Sake No Hana

Despite reading the reviews of Sake No Hana, I still felt it was territory in the London Restaurant World that I had to concquer as it was Alan Yau's new 'feat'. With Wagamamas, Hakkassan, Yauatcha, and Busaba, there was no way that this restaurant could be that bad. The décor by Kengo Kuma was definitely to be admired, the escalaters, wooden ceilings and its traditional japanese style of sitting on tables embedded into the floor were something original to London.

The menu is organized by cooking styles rather than portion sizes, this has received lots of criticism by reviewers and critics, but a simple query to the waiter can clear all this up for you and you are given the opportunity to sample a variety of different dishes all cooked differently. The waiter even points out which dishes are extremely large, and if that is not enough a £3 dish is obviously smaller than a £15 one.

The dishes worth recommending are the nasu iridashi (aubergine), the sashimi, and the sea bass. Definitely do not order the black cod rice as both my boyfriend and I are now scarred from eating our favorite japanese dish (black cod miso). The food is well presented and clearly of good quality.

I would recommend this restaurant to someone who loves dining in London restaurants, and to someone with a small appetite!
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 5
Monday, February 04, 2008

This was one of the most disappointing dinners I've had in a long time. Aside from the susi and sashimi, which were excellent, the food was mediocre at best (tempura was soggy, rice was tepid, cold noodles on ice with broth had virtually no taste).

The waiter was inattentive (I ordered 3 bottles of water over the course of the meal and each time he either set the unopened bottle on the table, or opened it and poured a glass for just one of us). After prompting, however he did explain the menu.

What he did not explain was that most of the dishes are not big enough to share. In fact the rice dishes consisted of no more than a heaped tablespoon of rice ...

We ordered 9 or 10 dishes for the table. And then we waited. And waited. After 25 minutes the first dish arrived (the sushi and sashimi). 25 minutes later, after calling the waiter over twice to find out if in fact he'd misplaced our order, the tempura arrived. Then the seabass (okay, but miniscule). At this point we were two hours into dinner having eaten little more than a snack. Nearly three hours after we sat down, and a half hour after the last food sighting we cancelled the rest of our order, paid our (expensive) bill, and went in search of something to eat.
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Michele
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Thursday, January 31, 2008

We too were really disappointed. We ate in a group of eight and our meal was a long, drawn-out and painful affair - in fact, the whole experience really started to grate after a while.

The waitresses didn't take the initiative in getting the ordering process moving, and the service, which involved the presenting of lots of small dishes and commesurate levels of plate-changing was time-consuming and made the evening feel stilted. Another 15 minutes was wasted when one of the gas burners broke down whilst the waitress was cooking the shabu-shabu next to our table (at least I think that's what happened - no explanation given).

Then there's the whole matter of the loos - a ridiculous situation, already addressed by the previous reviewers.

Whilst the food was of good quality and well presented, there were no "stand-out" dishes like there are at Nobu, Zuma, Hakkasan et al and the bill certainly seemed heftier than I have experienced at any of these equivalent places (although perhaps inflated by the price of the champagne).

Yau has obviously gone for a more traditional-style than the other restaurants in his stable and I frankly don't think it's going to work. The bamboo covered surfaces are visually eye-catching upon entry, but the sharp angled lines and the spacing between tables don't help to create atmosphere. The restaurant feels sterile. There is no vibe, no buzzing bar area.

I honestly can't see people returning to this place time and time again as they do the other restaurants I've mentioned.
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Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 3
Thursday, January 10, 2008

The food was of good quality. The service is overdone. Atmosphere still a little cold.
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Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Sunday, January 06, 2008

Really, really bad. Not sure where to start - the 10 minute round-trip in the World's slowest lift to the Gents probably the most appropriate. No-one has a problem paying incredibly expensive prices for excellent food - but thats the real problem here, the food is mediocre at best. When you frame this problem with a dining room of zero-atmosphere, and make the drinks menu so pretentious that there's no wine (only Sake) other than £30 a glass house champagne, you get the picture. Amazingly disappointing - save your money and go elsewhere.
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Sharkey77
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Friday, January 04, 2008

The food is fine. None of the maki rolls were available. Perhaps in Japan it is customary not to offer a wine list but this is London. But they do serve champagne - starting at £30 A GLASS. Beer £9 A GLASS. Service was haphazard. Toilet procedure is a shambles - walk to the lift, wait for the lift, slow ride down to the basement, then back again - takes 10 minutes. Our table had a prime view of the office next door - so we spent the evening watching an IT guy fixing a printer.

The bill for 3 came to £400. I dont object to paying good money for outstanding food but this is a disgrace - worst value for money meal I have had in London for a long time.

The London restaurant scene has come leaps and bounds in the past 10 years and Alan Yau is responsible for much of the progress with Hakkasan and Yauatcha, but I am not convinced this is a winner. In summary, very mediocre food in an incredibly pretentious setting.
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, January 04, 2008

We first heard of Sake No Hana because of it's connections with Kengo Kuma so when it finally opened we decided on an early visit. The design is interesting although in places it seems a little B&Q.

The staff are good but the nature of the restaurant is that you get small dishes requiring a lot of service, this, the slightly over dense table arrangement and the constant shuffling on and off of shoes for the staff leads to it feeling crowded and unrelaxed. Given the space having burners for shabu shabu was over ambitious.

The menu is priced down to the individual stick of asparagus so you need to ignore that each piece of vegetable is costing £2 and think of the whole price of the meal - at which point it doesn't feel too expensive. All the food we had was excellent, I would particularly pick out the toro and the eel. Good sake (even at the cheaper end of the list) and a very nice plum wine based aperitif.

All in we loved the food and drinks and think they just need to get over teething difficulties and take out a few tables.
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NiCK - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 8
Sunday, December 09, 2007