Hakkasan exudes elegance, sophistication and charm from the moment you step in to its Mayfair arms and its style translates seamlessly into the signature dishes.

As part of the Chinese New Year celebrations, Hakkasan’s launched a special ‘year of the monkey’ menu priced at £88.88 per person, available until 22 February.

Each dish has been beautifully crafted by executive head chef Tong Chee Hwee and each symbolises luck, joy and prosperity for the year ahead.

Once settled, diners are greeted with a fabulously smooth and refreshing cocktail with Eldorado 3yrs rum, Amontillado sherry, banana, guava, lime, agave syrup and walnut.

Our starter of double boiled fresh ginseng and chicken soup with bamboo pith and wolfberry, was delicate with knotty cubes of tofu and the wolfberry was similar to cranberry.

It was soon followed by the Japanese wagyu beef with pine nut in a golden cup – delicious, crispy dices of meat which glistened in the crunchy shells.

As the har gau scallop shumai, Chinese chive dumpling, duck and yam bean dumpling was brought to our table, I couldn’t wait to sample them all.

The scallop was fresh and chewy and the duck dumpling was tender and more-ish.

Our table among the London business-types was decked with the main dishes, including wok-fry lobster in spicy truffle sauce which filled the palette with a trio of textures of crispy onion, slippery exotic mushrooms and leathery-like feel of the distinct flavour of the crustacean.

The pipa duck had a crusty skin and the meat was beautifully tender and flavoursome.

My favourite dish of the evening was the grilled Chilean seabass in honey – it melted in the mouth leaving a sweet and smoky aftertaste.

As we alternated between the main dishes of meat and fish, we also enjoyed the stir fry hericeum mushroom with lotus root asparagus and lily bulb in black pepper.

It was pleasing to the eye and the asparagus was lightly salted and cooked perfectly while the mushroom was surprisingly hard compared to the normal fungi we’re used to.

All the dishes were accompanied with a dried scallop and crabmeat fried rice.

The evening concluded with a soy caramel banana delice with chocolate and peanut. It was beautifully presented, sweet, cooling and a light touch to end our dinner experience.