Cherry Pickings

kiri | 3rd April 2016

By Leila Stocker

Hanami, meaning “flower viewing”, is the centuries-old Japanese tradition of celebrating the annual sakura or cherry blossom season. During this time it’s customary to sit beneath the blossom to read and write haiku poetry, whilst eating sushi and drinking sake. Each tree is in bloom for just a few weeks, as the season travels northwards over Japan throughout the months of April and May. Hanami is the custom of enjoying the transient beauty of the blossom, by indulging in parties under the blossoming trees.

Created by the founders of Hakkasan, Sake no Hana is a sophisticated collaboration of Japanese food and design. It’s striking interior – designed by esteemed Japanese architect Kengo Kuma – is awash with linear bamboo that flushes the main walls, with each tree-like structure of cypress wood punctuating the space, giving a feel of a futuristic forest.

From 21st March to 18th June, the Japanese restaurant will be celebrating the arrival of spring, with a sakura cherry blossom garden in the Sake no Hana bar. By day, the bar is transformed with intertwining cherry blossom branches, falling petals, a grass floor, and blossom entrances, while by night lights twinkle within the blossom to create an intimate yozakura atmosphere – the term meaning ‘night sakura’.

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Last week VIVA sampled Sake no Hana’s limited edition seven course menu, whilst being surrounded by moving cherry blossom images projected onto the striking bamboo behind the bar. On seating, we were both were gifted with a haiku, written by one of the famed haiku masters and printed onto a paper petal.

As sparkling cherry blossom branches adorned the bar’s ceiling, petals fell at our feet intervals as we ate. And arched over the iconic escalators, a cherry blossom formed a tunnel for guests to ascend into the restaurant.

Our menu, created by Executive Head Chef Hideki Hiwatashi, started with a Kaori Arpège cocktail – the name inspired by the most expensive cocktail ever created in the 1920s. With a base of Beefeater 24 gin, with notes of yuzu sake, cherry liqueur, peach bitters, grapefruit juice and agave, the cocktail also comes complete with three atomisers to spray to taste. These mini scents were made up of red cherry, black cherry and cinnamon; elderflower and jasmine; and violet, each completely altering the taste of the cocktail with each spritz.

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After this, we enjoyed a Bento Box, served with a white miso soup starter and a selection of sushi and hamachi, akami and salmon sashimi.

Our Main Bento was a choice of Salmon miso yaki with egg mustard sauce, Sumiyaki chicken with spicy shichimi sauce (both delicious), or Crispy yasai katsu.

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We just about managed to share the delicate Cherry Chocolate Sake Mousse to finish – a Cherry chocolate mousse and a cherry sake mousse, chocolate crumble with sake jelly, taking away the daintiest Cherry blossom vanilla macarons I’ve ever seen.

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Sakura at Sake no Hana’s limited edition menu is available for lunch and dinner in the bar and restaurant sushi counter from 21st March to 18th June, Monday to Saturday, for £34 per person. And if that’s inspired you to visit the Land of the Rising Sun, search the best flights to Japan on award-winning travel search site momondo.

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