Hakkasan Hanway Place

Hakkasan Hanway Place is the original Hakkasan, opened by Alan Yau in April 2001 in a basement on a narrow alley between Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. Christian Liaigre designed it, and the room set the look the brand now carries around the world. Screens and latticework in dark English oak divide a vast floor into intimate sections, a 16-metre bar runs in the same oak, and an open kitchen puts the cooking on show.

The menu is modern Cantonese. Peking duck with caviar and roasted silver cod with Champagne and honey sit beside dim sum, a wine list and signature cocktails. The restaurant won a Michelin star in 2003, one of the first for a Chinese restaurant in London, and its design owes as much to a nightclub as to a dining room.

For private events, the whole restaurant takes up to 220 seated or 350 standing on an exclusive hire. The Ling Ling dining area, dressed in black and gold Chinoiserie panels, holds up to 70 guests, and a semi-private dining room within it seats 20.