Beautiful Clones

Alan Yau,an immigrant from Hong Kong,rose to fame in the UK after founding Wagamama,a budget-conscious Japanese restaurant chain in 1992. In 2001,he opened Hakkasan,which is regarded as one of London’s ‘sexiest’ restaurants and has also featured in the film About a Boy. Hakkasan serves modern Cantonese,while Yauatcha,which opened in 2004,focuses more on a variety of dim sum and teas. Both hold single Michelin stars for the London restaurants. Howard tells us that the group is looking to open in Las Vegas,New York,Paris,Moscow,Dubai,Doha,Singapore and Shanghai.

While Yauatcha is to be brought to India too,there are no firm dates for its opening. The group has franchised both restaurants to Ka Restaurants for India,headed by Kishor Bajaj,who owns the suiting brand,Badasaab and franchises Brioni. Bajaj refused to comment on this as he said,“We can comment once the brief is ready.” Howard mentions that the group decided to tie up with Ka Restaurants as “Mr Bajaj is a man of utmost integrity and knowledge who we trust to be the ‘Keeper’ of our brands in India”.

Asked whether the restaurants will differ from the original,Howard explains that “Hakkasan will be very similar to London,although the layout will be a bit different. We will be re- introducing our Ling Ling lounge concept,which no longer exists in London,and a ‘special surprise’ in our main restaurant area. The designers are the famous Paris-based Gilles et Boissier who are old friends of the company”. Given the franchisee’s relative inexperience in hospitality,it is comforting that the Hakkasan group will be responsible for staff training and allocation.

As with most of the top restaurants in London and New York,Hakkasan has a loyal fan-following in India. “Hakkasan opening in Mumbai would save a lot of money since it is cheaper than flying to London for the clay pot tofu and the yam rolls,” exults Megha Jhunjhunwala,a Kolkata resident. It would be interesting to compare prices: Hakkasan in London has been described as ‘extortionate’ in pricing but Howard simply states that “We will be similar to other fine dining restaurants in India”.

Alan Yau’s departure in 2008 has been followed by a spurt of expansion plans,so we hope that the overall quality is maintained. Hakkasan was 19th in 2008 and 36th in 2009 in The Restaurant Magazine’s annual list of the top 50 restaurants in the year. This year,it is absent from the list.