Drink and Dine
Laying the table.
The second star, behind 16,000 square feet of carved screen
Hakkasan
Restaurant
Hakkasan is dark, and it is very big.
The main dining room is built as a wooden cage around backlit blue glass on a steel frame, which sounds absurd written down and is not when you are standing in it.
Gilles & Boissier did the interiors, working from the same idea as the London original and turning it towards the Emirates: embroidered furniture, marbled Chinese forms, low light throughout. The terrace outside seats 108 over the palace grounds, with a bar of its own, cabanas facing the city skyline and DJs through the evening.
Two things run here that do not run the rest of the week: dim sum at lunch on Saturday, and a brunch on Friday night. Peking duck with caviar and a crisp duck salad are on the list every day.
The main dining room is built as a wooden cage around backlit blue glass on a steel frame, which sounds absurd written down and is not when you are standing in it.
