Sake No Hana

took advantage of 50% off to see this new Japanese opened by the famous owner.

going up on escalator was not at all a good start for up-market restaurant but the inside decor was absolutely great!, all those woods on wall and ceillings make the atmosphere so good. cocktails are very creative, well presented and accordingly overpriced. ordered some starters, Sushi, Tempura and main for 3 of us, each dish was well presented but v/small portion (wondering cos 50% off?). taste good but none of them was impresive to charge full price.

toilet was clean but wish the elevator was made in Japan so it'd come much quicker!. they had a great range of Sake & Shochu with zone1 prices but wonder when all the stock will be turned over with that quiet restaurant. (I am sure some of them won't be touched unless stock take happens).

overall it was good night out, hope they will continue the offer for a long time.
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Kevin
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Monday, September 15, 2008

Using the 50% offer on this website we thought we'd give Sake No Hana a try.

Like Hakkasan & Yauatcha, Sake no Hana is really dark, but nice. The staff were friendly and the place was pretty busy for a Tuesday evening.

We were not offered any help on the menu- good job we know our Jap food! In total we ordered 9 portions of Sushi 9pcs of Tempura & 10 other dishes, which just about filled 3 of us up! (If you're wondering I'm a size 8!)

Majority of the dishes were fine, my fav was the Uni Udon, toro sushi & the cocktails, there were some other dishes that really disappointing & somewhat funny....

We ordered Botan Ebi sashimi, when it came- I couldn't stop giggling, I've never seen such tiny winy Botan Ebi's and why did they look just like Ama-ebi?( ....that would be because they are! ) The waiter overheard me say 'these are so baby' he told me 'because they are so fresh, they are small' that confused me!? So Fresh=Small?

We had Wagyu beef with mustard sauce, the sauce is lurrvley, the Wagyu beef was clearly a lower grade beef, there were really chewy bits in it,

The Chilean seabass was extremely tasty but extremely small! It was so small I wondered if it was down to the fact that we had 50% off- so the portions were also 50%!

We had Grilled Onigiri with Unagi- the presentation is just so cute, but the chef had forgotten to turn off the grill! The Unagi was so burnt that all we can taste was burnt stuff in the rice & fish, the Unagi was sooo dry! :(

The quality of the food does not compare to other Jap restaurants such as Sumosan (my fav) and is on par with Sakura. this place has nice decor and nice taps in the restrooms. Overall I'm satisfied, but probably will not return!
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lalala
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Tonight we took advantage of the 50%-off offer and certainly did enjoy the evening.

The restaurant is very pleasant but has its slightly odd touches like having to take a lift to reach the toilets two floor down. Music reminds of Hakkasan which is not too surprising given the man behind Sake No Hana. Service however was much better than Hakkasan and Yauatcha. Very pleasant and helpful. When I was eyeing up the food at the neighboring table and asked my wife what it might be I was immediately and discretely informed of the dish's name. This was lucky as these scallops with spinach were absolutely delightful and easily the best dish of the day. The food in general was consistently nice but not necessarily outstanding. We enjoyed the yellowtail terryaki but found the crab wrapped with seabass less succesful but still nice. Courgette flower tempura were delightful, Shimeji mushroom tempura very nice and japanese green pepper nice but we did not enjoy much the baby aubergine tempura. We meal had started with excellent but veryvery pricey sushi. £7 for a single piece of seah urchin sushi felt a little steep but they were really very good. Sashimi of turbot and eel was fine.

We behaved like westerners do and asked for wine rather than sake. I am sure Alan Yau must be depressed about so much lack of adventure. The selection of wine by the glass is very limited really. We took the two possibilities, an Alsacian Riesling that was fine and a Pouilly Fume which was very well received by my wife (perhaps the first time ever she finished her wine before me).

All that and a bottle of still water set us back £90 making use of the 50% offer and would have come to £140 without it. We may well go again thanks to a combination of a nice place, excellent service and generally enjoyable dishes.
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Martin - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Completely and utterly the wrong price. There are definite sparks of genius amongst the food on offer. But ruined by the fact that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the pricing. An £8 dish of rice arrives and is barely a spoonful, yet a £3 starter might be enough for three to pick at.

Our bill came to well over £100 a head yet we all left hungry and sober. I like the decor contrary to many other reviews, but I simply dont have the patience for the ridiculous ten minute round trip via a lift to the toilets.
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LG
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Visited Sake No Hana on a very quiet wednesday evening. Some football match was on apparently.

The venue itself reminded me of some fine dining restaurants I'd been to in Tokyo. Clean, sparse decoration that gave a slightly chilly ambience. Whilst it's nice not to have music for once, it's not a very cosy place.

The menu seemed straightforward, and our waitress took great care and time to explain various dishes, and make sensible recommendations.

The food was fine. Again, clean and sparse, but nothing terribly special. Amused that one of the wagyu dishes was a bit like a french pot-au-feu! Crab gratin and spicy tuna rolls were too heavy on mayonnaise, but sesame spinach had a good smoky taste. Sake No Hana's version of 'black cod' was with Sea Bass - nice tasting but didn't have that etheral melting in your mouth that Nobu or Cafe Japan manages to achieve. All was too simply presented though - again, sparse.

I'm glad I visited to try it out, but its lack of warmth, and lack of wow in the actual food meant I won't go back. We ended up cabbing it over to Roka (actually the Shochu Lounge) to warm ourselves up.
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Paul Cockerton
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 6
Thursday, May 22, 2008

I was really looking forward to venture into Yau's new stylish japanese and I was particularly excited about the authentic japanese style of dining. Last night unfortunately I was left unimpressed and disappointed.

The decor & surroundings are cool blabla, let's get to the food:

The aubergine and the sashimi (toro, yellowtail, scallop) were very good and so was the chilean seabass.

However the wagyu beef dish (the small not the large one) was served a la' 'meat&two veg' with potatoes, carrots and some weird jellied cubes - very bizarre. And my favourite fish yellowtail (the marinated & grilled one) was dry and tough. I also thought that the black cod rice was a touch too sweet.

What left me curious to go back though is the amazing sake list. Who cares about wine when you have a choice of such various and delicious sakes.

The service was overall good and efficient, even though I had to wait for 10 minutes for a little wasabi.

I will give this restaurant the benefit of the doubt and go back to just eat raw dishes next time - I have the feeling my experience will be much tastier.
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Mimi
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Sunday, May 11, 2008

I was truly disappointed by this restaurant. The food was bad, bland, soggy and not what you expect - i am a huge fan of Yautcha and Hakkasan. The braised beef had no flavour and i think i will be having nightmares for a long time about the mushi sushi or sushi mushi...ths sushi was okay but expensive and not as good as nobu or zuma.
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Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Friday, April 25, 2008

I booked a table over the bank holiday at Sake No Hana completely by mistake (I got the name confused with another restaurant), following a quick review on this website I prepared myself for the worst. The reservation I made (on Friday night) was only for the Sushi Bar, be warned that post lunch it is a set menu at £95 per head however the restaurant and bar was very quite and they swiftly got a table organised on the first floor.

The evening was very quiet and extremely over staffed (probably in response to some of the reviews on this website!) and the menu was quite overwhelming given my knowledge of Japanese food is limited to Sushi. The staff were extremely kind and they put us at ease in the very stylish environment with views down on James St.. The price of the food varies quite dramatically (not as much as Hakkasan) and does not correlate to size, however the quality remained consistantly high.

It is worth knowing that the food is served in the order of the menu and I found after sharing 10 dishes (5 each) that I was pleasantly full and left with a reaonable bill. If you want to keep cost down focus on the sashimi (amazing), sushi, tempura, soups, a few grilled dishes this should keep the bill under £50 per head however the Seabass is amazing and should be tried/shared.

I would highly recommend going in the early evening when the restaurant is quieter and to actively engage the staff in what you want to order and don't be afraid to ask how big the portion is! I very much lookforward to going again, perhaps at a lunchtime in the sushi bar as there is no set menu and I can get the cooks busy making their delicious sashimi and sushi!

Overall I rated the Food, Service and Atmosphere 9 and value for money at an 8 given some dishes do pinch your pocket but is part compensated with a variety of delicious flavours!

Enjoy!
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Giles Dunn
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Chilean seabass and the pork rib pot were both tasty. The unique shiso soufflé with soya ice cream was brilliant! But all the sushi and sashimi were disappointing. Not worth £60+ per person.
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FineDiningExplorer - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Thursday, March 13, 2008

After reading some rave reviews I hastily added this place to my list of restaurants to go to. Only being allowed to book 14 days in advance only added to this allure!

With an 8.30pm reservation we turned up 20 minutes too early and were lead to the bar where we watied for 10 minutes without being given a drinks menu. We were told at 8.35 that the diners who were eating at our table were just finishing up. At 8.50 I became quite annoyed and had to ask a member of staff for an update. At 8.55 a waitress came and took us to the table without apologising for the delay. We then sat at our table with the menus for another 10 minutes before someone came over to take our order with no assistance offered for interpretting the 'different syle' menu. However, our waiter was very good and in the end he reedemed the night for us some what.

The food was good, but for the price that we paid and the scant regard given by the staff I would not go back here!
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Nafisa
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Sunday, February 24, 2008