Duck & Champagne Menu at Michelin-Starred HKK - The Rolls Royce of Peking Duck Experiences at Unbeatable Value

Name: HKK - Duck & Champagne Saturday Lunch Menu

Where: 88 Worship Street, London EC2A 2BE, http://hkklondon.com/#home

Cost: The Duck & Champagne menu is available for Saturday lunchtimes only, at a cost of £49 per person. The menu is for two to share and includes a bottle of Louis Roederer Brut Premier NV Champagne (which alone costs £79 on the a la carte menu) as well as a 4-course meal including a whole cherry wood roasted Peking duck (valued at £88 on the a la carte menu).

The Duck & Champagne menu cost £98 plus service for 2; if the Peking duck and bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne were to be ordered together from the a la carte menu, they would cost £167.

About: Tucked away in the City, a 5 minute walk from Liverpool Station, the 1-Michelin starred HKK is part of the renowned Hakkasan Group of restaurants. I was intrigued to learn of HKK’s new Duck & Champagne menu, launched in October 2015, and so hurried along to give it a try.

The menu features a whole HKK’s signature cherry wood roasted Peking duck, which takes 48 hours to create, using myriad cooking techniques - each 1.8kg, 65-day old duck from Southern Ireland is marinated in a glaze of Chinese five spice, lemon grass, sugar, and garlic, then showered with boiling water, vinegar and lemon juice. It is then hung to dry for a minimum of twenty-four hours at 3°C a procedure that ensures that the flesh separates from its skin so that it can be made so divinely crisp during cooking. After this drying process, the duck is placed in a custom-made glass-windowed firestone oven for one and a half hours over a cherry wood fire until the meat is succulent and the skin glossy and crisp.

What We Ate: We went of the Duck & Champagne menu which includes a Blue Crab salad, a whole cherry wood roasted Peking duck served three ways, egg-fried rice in a duck & abalone supreme stock and dessert. 

The Blue crab salad, dramatically served on dry ice, featured a pani puri shell filled with dragon fruit, pineapple and melon. On top sat a chicory leaf, and a piece of meaty blue crab, served with a dressing of vinegar, coconut, chilli and peanut. Pop the whole thing in the mouth for an explosion of crunchy texture, tropical fruit and sweet crab - sublime.

The main event was the cherry wood roasted Peking duck. The chef brought the whole duck to our table on a trolley (I loved this element of theatre when dining at HKK), and cut three choice delicacies for us to start with.

Crispy skin from the duck’s shoulder which we ate with organic brown sugar; breast served with a cress salad in sesame and vinegar & a streak of oyster sauce; and finally a manto bun filled with duck leg, leek, cucumber and hoisin sauce, with imperial caviar from Osetra.

While enjoying these delicacies, the rest of the duck was taken back to the kitchen to be carved. It returned expertly sliced and boned, served with slivers of cucumber and spring onion, plum sauce and freshly made sesame pancakes.

HKK’s Peking duck is in a league of its own – the crispy duck skin cracked in my mouth like thin caramel, the meat so utterly succulent, flavoursome and sweet. I've eaten Peking duck with pancakes hundreds of times, but never had anything approaching this level of sophistication and flavour.

To accompany, we were each served a little sphere of egg-fried rice stuffed with Palma ham, topped with dried XO scallop, and a deliciously rich duck and abalone supreme stock.

The dessert was a Nashi pear and Champagne mousse - a base of white chocolate mousse with pear puree, topped with a Champagne sorbet, and finished with cocktail candy and 24 carat gold leaf, bathed in a Chinese honey and Champagne consommé. This was a stunningly beautiful, refreshing dessert, served in a solid stone bowl - a reminder (as if it were needed) that these guys can cook.

What We Drank: We started with a couple of cocktails, both priced at £12.50. The pomegranate margarita blended tequila and plum sake with pomegranate and grapefruit juice, agave syrup and Absinthe. This had rich plum and pomegranate aromas, and a crust of Himalayan salt and grapefruit gave it a stimulating grip.

The Boulevardier was a reinterpretation of the Negroni, blending bourbon, cocchi di torino and Campari. I rarely drink a whisky-based Negroni, and this was an interesting and appetite-stimulating variation on a much-loved (by me, at any rate) theme.  

With the lunch menu, we shared a lovely bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne - elegance in a glass.

Likes: The Peking duck is sensational - a truly extraordinary elision of taste and texture, and probably the finest duck dish I have ever eaten. For a very reasonable price, the menu also includes imperial caviar, XO scallop, blue crab and a fine bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne. Elegant dining room, excellent service. 

Dislikes: None

Verdict: For the Rolls Royce, crème de la crème of Peking duck experiences, I can't think of anywhere else but HKK. For melt-in-the-mouth duck skin that crackles like caramel, meat that is sweet and tender as ambrosia, and a bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne thrown in at under £100 per couple, HKK’s Duck & Champagne menu is the place to be. It is excellent value for money too. Very highly recommended.

Moshi Moshi - Twenty Years On & Still Going Strong

Name: Moshi Moshi

Where: Liverpool Street, Unit 24, Liverpool Street Station, London, EC2M 7QH (above platform 1, behind M&S), http://www.moshimoshi.co.uk/index.htm

Cost: Sushi from the conveyor belt is priced according to the colour of the plate - from £1.90 to £5. Sushi sets made to order vary from £10 to £15, while the mixed Omakaze (chef’s choice) sashimi and sushi platters cost from £25 to £45 or £30 to £50 respectively. A ‘meaty platter’ of gyoza, pork tonkatsu and chicken yakitori is £12.50, and a tempura platter is £14. There is a selection of hot seasonal dishes ranging from £10 to £14. There is a seasonal platter available for £27. This comprises seven dishes including appetisers, a main dish, soup and dessert. Desserts are all £8.50.

About: Moshi Moshi was opened in August 1994 by Caroline Bennett, at a time when Japanese restaurants in London were rare and frighteningly expensive eateries in and around Piccadilly. It is situated in the heart of Liverpool Street Station over one of the train lines.

The design is eye-catching, with tables resembling pods because of the curved wooden surrounds, giving an intimate feel to the dining area. The counter facing the conveyor belt is also perfect for the single diner.

Moshi Moshi is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2014. It was the UK's first conveyor-belt sushi restaurant.  One of the trademarks of this City institution is its ethos of using sustainable produce of known provenance.

The restaurant serves fish and seafood entirely from sustainable sources, including diver-caught scallops from Isle of Mull. The eggs and meat are free range, the latter coming from a family farm in Essex. Caroline is prominent in campaigns to protect fish stocks, and has been given an RSPCA Award for Animal Welfare. She sits on the board of Slow Food UK.  The restaurant was one of the first in the UK to achieve Marine Stewardship Council accreditation.

Twenty years on, during the busy Friday evening we visited, Caroline was there to greet and wait on us and all her other customers, with a hands-on attitude which I can’t help but feel is part of Moshi Moshi’s success.

What We Ate: We were served two black lacquered boxes, containing a selection of three different zensai (appetisers) each (£7.50 per box), including vegetable tempura, mackerel and cucumber salad, tofu with shredded daikon radish and ponzu, prawn head crispies, as well as ankimo (monkfish liver), and bacon and asparagus. I particularly enjoyed the ankimo, which I serve often at my Japanese supperclub, but had never eaten it outside of Japan. The prawn heads were also a welcome surprise, and deliciously crunchy.

We then shared a couple of hot seasonal dishes – the first of these was a 21-day hung Suffolk grass-fed rib eye steak in teriyaki sauce with matchsticks of crispy carrot and potatoes (£14). This well made with tender and flavoursome meat.

Our second dish was my favourite of the two – a lovely vegetarian option of aubergine, broccoli and deep fried mochi (rice cake) in tempura batter served in a rich vegetarian dashi broth (£10). The aubergine had been coated in potato flour, then deep fried, it was soft and full of earthy flavour and went well with the mochi.

Omakase is the traditional way to order in Japanese food, leaving it for the chef to present the best options of the day.  So we trusted him to conjure up his recommended sushi platter (£30) which included spider crab, inside out rolls of shiso leaf, cucumber and umeboshi (sour cherry) paste, Loch Duart Salmon, Isle of Mull scallop, and tempura prawn. These were expertly done – perfectly cooked sushi rice topped with ultra-fresh fish and seafood that melted in the mouth.

For dessert, we shared a couple of scoops of refreshing green tea and yuzu ice creams.

Any Train Spotters Out There? Moshi Moshi Has The Table For You!

What We Drank: There is a selection of beers, sake, and wines starting from £20.50 (white) and £21.50 (red), with Laurent Perrier Champagne available for a reasonable £49.

We started with a couple of glasses of Prosecco Brut, Terra di Sant'Alberto (£6.80).  With our meal, we had a glass of Le Chaz, Beniot Chazallon (vermentino, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc) for £5.70, and a Croix des Champs Sauvignon de Touraine 2011, for £5.90. Both had green fruit character well matching the weight of the sushi.

Likes: Delicious sushi and sashimi, a good selection of set menus, reasonably priced food options, wines and Champagnes. The setting is quirky, overlooking the train tracks, is intimate yet allows a variety of options for people dining alone, in couples or in larger groups.

Dislikes: None.

Verdict: Moshi Moshi is a London dining institution, as well as being the pioneer of kaisen (conveyor belt) sushi eating in the Capital. It offers some of the best quality and value sushi and sashimi in London, from sustainably sourced fish. Highly recommended.