Review: Charcoal-Grilled Omakase and French Brasserie, Hanazen features a new menu by visionary Chef Taisei Iwao

Hanazen at CHIJMES presents a new Omakase Menu by Michelin-Starred Chef Taisei Iwao.

Above: Hanazen’s Chef Taisei Iwao.

Chef Taisei is the Executive Chef at 1 Michelin-starred Lumiere, and he’s also the chef-owner of Karato in Osaka. For Hanazen, he explores a new 10-course dinner that’s catered to local tastes, and includes favourites like Uni and Wagyu dishes.

We sampled the new menu earlier today, and while there were some hits and misses, there’s overall good potential and the experience was worth a visit. Read on for our take on the individual dishes.

UNI BRIOCHE
Piperade

Uni was a surprising and decadent starter. It went well with the capsicum sauce.

TUNA TARTARE
Caviar

Lovely presentation with the gold flakes and caviar. Served nice and cold, but there was something crunchy in the dish that I wasn’t expecting. I asked the chef and was told it’s preserved ginger. I probably would have preferred this without the ginger but I can appreciate why the chef added it in.

HOTATE
Broccoli

Another pretty dish. The broccoli mousse, parsley oil and clam sauce were very tasty. But the scallop was unfortunately overcooked.

LOBSTER
Crustacean Sauce

Lobster is a dish almost everyone looks forward to and this one is seared in front of you and presented beautifully. The meat was cooked well — not too done, and worked with the seafood and béchamel sauce. It’s a combination that’s hard to get wrong.

AWABI
Koshihikari / Liver Sauce

You can dip the abalone in the liver sauce or dump the entire bowl of rice into the hot pot to enjoy this dish. The abalone is tender and nicely cooked. I’m generally not a fan of liver but this sauce is truly delicious. I wasn’t expecting to like this dish as much as I did. Highly recommended.

WAGYU
Onion Sauce

This was a wonderful steak. It’s A4 tenderloin and tasted better than many A5 wagyu steaks I’ve had.

BEEF CURRY

What makes this curry special is that the beef is cooked with Miyazaki mangoes, which is the world’s most expensive mango variety. The dish smells amazing and it’s comfort food at its finest. The beef is tender and the portion just right. You can probably ask for more if you’re still hungry.

PEACH SOUP
Celery Ice Cream

This was an extremely refreshing dessert. The ice cream had just a hint of celery flavour and wasn’t overpowering, and it complemented the fresh peach soup nicely.

MONT BLANC

There are quite a lot of things going on with this dessert. It’s fancy and filled with textures. There’s a slight nuttiness to the flavour but the overall taste was rather subtle. I was quite full by this point in the meal and had a hard time finishing it, which also indicates this wasn’t one of my favourites from the meal.

RAISIN BUTTER COOKIE

This fancy cookie ended the meal nicely. The crust is whiskey-infused, which was a nice surprise. I liked the various soft and hard textures when the dessert is bit into, and I recommend eating this in one bite.