Hakkasan Mayfair

A Subterranean Mayfair Stage

The entrance on Bruton Street gives almost nothing away. A discreet door, a brief descent, and then the full visual grammar of Hakkasan Mayfair announces itself: carved oriental screens catching the low light, spot-lit tables arranged for maximum theatrical effect, and a soundtrack pitched closer to a late-night club than a conventional dining room. The atmosphere is deliberately constructed, and it works on its own terms. This is a space that signals intent before a single dish arrives.

London's premium Chinese dining tier has widened considerably since the early 2000s, when very few restaurants were attempting to make high-end Cantonese cooking feel genuinely aspirational rather than simply expensive. Hakkasan, launched by restaurateur Alan Yau in 2001 near Tottenham Court Road, changed the calculus. The Mayfair branch, opened in 2010 on Bruton Street, carried that original ambition into a neighbourhood that arguably suits the format better: Mayfair's density of high-spend dining rooms and international clientele aligns more naturally with Hakkasan's price point and presentation than the original's central London location ever did. The Tottenham Court Road original closed in February 2025 after 24 years, making the Mayfair address the brand's London flagship by default, alongside 10 international locations from Miami to Mumbai.

Within London's Chinese restaurant peer set, the positioning is distinct. Where Hunan operates as an intimate, chef-directed experience and Barshu focuses on regional Sichuan specificity, Hakkasan Mayfair sits in a different category entirely: luxury-ingredient Cantonese cooking delivered inside a venue that places equal weight on atmosphere. Kai in Mayfair and Imperial Treasure operate in the same general price bracket, but neither has quite the same nightclub-adjacent energy. Four Seasons on Gerrard Street represents an entirely different proposition: a Chinatown roast specialist with a loyal local following, no design pretension, and prices that sit several brackets below.

Two Services, Two Different Restaurants

The most useful editorial frame for Hakkasan Mayfair is the lunch-to-dinner divide, because the two services function almost as separate venues sharing a building. Understanding this split will determine whether your experience meets or falls short of expectations.

During the day, natural light filters into the ground-floor dining room, which operates as a lounge bar and dim sum space. The atmosphere is considerably calmer, the crowd more mixed, and the format more accessible. This is where some of London's better dim sum is on offer: the ground floor's lighter, less cavernous feel suits the pace of a dim sum lunch in a way the basement cannot replicate. Regulars who know the room tend to treat this service as a separate recommendation entirely, and it warrants that treatment. One consistent note from diners is that the Taste of Hakkasan set menu at lunch represents a markedly different value proposition from the dinner card.

After dark, the dynamic shifts. Requests for basement tables are answered with the full theatre of the lower floor: the throbbing soundtrack, the scarily good-looking front-of-house staff (a phrase that appears in multiple independent accounts), the mirror above the staircase reminding you that appearances are, in this environment, part of the contract. Tables are tightly packed enough that conversation requires some conscious management. The wine list, style-led and priced accordingly, will at minimum double a dinner bill built on food alone. The crowd skews younger and more international at dinner, and the Instagram-crowd criticism levelled at the restaurant in various reviews is not entirely without foundation, though most diners who engage with the food rather than the backdrop report a strong overall result.

The decision, then, is less about whether Hakkasan Mayfair is worth visiting and more about which service to choose and what to expect from each.

The Kitchen's Register

The cooking operates in a Cantonese register that regularly incorporates luxury ingredients as deliberate differentiators. Roast duck arrives with caviar as an optional addition. Slow-roasted ibérico pork char siu comes coated with black garlic glaze, mustard dressing, and pickled daikon. Pork ribs are smoked over jasmine tea. Singapore noodles, often a dish that suffers at this price point through over-familiarity, are reportedly built around jumbo-sized prawns rather than standard specimens, alongside soft-shell crab and Dover sole. Pak choi is timed to retain a fresh ginger zing. These are not radical departures from Cantonese tradition but precision renditions of familiar formats with ingredients upgraded across the board.

Kitchen under Chef Tong Chee Hwee has maintained a consistent standard across both services. Independent reviews converge on balance as the organising principle: sweet-and-sour preparations that achieve genuine contrast rather than the one-note versions common at mid-market Chinese restaurants, hot-and-sour dishes that register both temperatures clearly. The Duke of Berkshire pork sweet-and-sour and the hot-and-sour crispy freshwater prawns with chillies and cashews both draw specific mention in multiple accounts as the kitchen at its most assured.

Broader Mayfair ££££ peer set provides useful context. Compared to the French and Modern European restaurants that dominate the neighbourhood's highest price bracket, including The Fat Duck in Bray, L'Enclume in Cartmel, and London rooms like The Ledbury and CORE by Clare Smyth, Hakkasan Mayfair is not competing on the same tasting-menu, chef-as-author axis. It is a different proposition: an à la carte Cantonese restaurant where the price reflects ingredients, atmosphere, and address in roughly equal measure. Internationally, it competes in a different frame from restaurants like Restaurant Tim Raue in Berlin or Mister Jiu's in San Francisco, both of which operate with a more chef-driven editorial identity.

Awards and Track Record

Restaurant holds a Michelin Plate (2024 and 2025) and currently sits at number 480 in the Opinionated About Dining Casual Europe ranking for 2025, having ranked at 303 in 2024. The broader brand's peak recognition came through the World's 50 Best Restaurants, where the original Hakkasan ranked as high as 14th globally in 2004 and remained in the top 40 through 2009. That trajectory places the original among the most internationally recognised Chinese restaurants of the 2000s, a period when very few Chinese addresses were being discussed at that level outside Asia.

Current awards position reflects a restaurant that remains professionally consistent without generating the kind of critical momentum that drives it up rankings. The Michelin Plate signals food worth eating without reaching starred territory. For a room with Hakkasan's history, that is a considered assessment rather than a dismissal.

For readers building a broader London dining programme, our full London restaurants guide covers the city's current range across price points and cuisines. Context on where to stay sits in our London hotels guide, and pre- or post-dinner drinks options are mapped in our London bars guide. Those travelling further in the UK will find the country's landmark dining rooms covered across Moor Hall in Aughton, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, and Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton. London's wine and experiences scenes are covered in our wineries guide and our experiences guide.

Planning Your Visit

Hakkasan Mayfair operates dinner service from 5:30 pm Sunday through Wednesday with last orders at 10 pm, extending to 11 pm Thursday through Saturday. The address is 17 Bruton Street, W1J 6QB. The ground floor handles dim sum and acts as a lounge bar; the basement dining room carries the evening atmosphere the brand is known for. For special occasions or dinner, request a lower-floor table. For a calmer, better-value experience, the daytime dim sum service on the ground floor is the stronger argument. The wine list should be treated as a significant budget variable at dinner.