Donabe — Restaurant in London

The Spring-Theme Omakase is certainly magnificent..

🧡 Warm Turnip with Roots Veggies and Sea Urchin on top This pre-starter was not shown on our omakase menu which gave us a great surprise element. What surprised us more was that it was served warm, hence, a comforting dish that was combined with both the slightly sweet turnip base and the sea urchin. It is a perfect start to the omakase experience.

🌿 Seasonal Starter Sections of 5 Kinds 🍶 Koshi No Kanbai , Ginjo Tokusen（越乃寒梅　吟醸特撰） The delicate fragrance with a quite light and smooth texture, what a perfect start for the omakase journey.

🍣 Sushi Dining at a restaurant that constantly aims for innovative creations for the meal, the sushi was presented by having rice at the bottom followed by layers of cuttlefish, otoro, and aged caviar at the top. 🍶 Dewazakura Izumi Judan Ginjo （出羽桜　泉十段吟醸） A crisp and dry sake with a slight hint of aromatic taste. One sip before and after the dish made a whole difference.

💥Fish & Chips The Cod Tempura is crispy and perfectly fried – the tempura coating was almost unseeable, reflecting the cutting-edge tempura techniques of the chiefs. The super-thin Purple Potato chips added a nice crunch. 🍶 Dewazakura Oka Ginjo （出羽桜　桜花吟醸）- Cherry Bouquet Similar dry taste to the previous sake, but with more blends of floral scent and taste which tasted appealing after the fried fish.

🐟 Tsukuri The sashimi is always a perfect way to highlight the high-quality ingredients used. The extra cuts on the otoro sashimi increased the surface area to better enjoy the fattiness of the fish – kudos on that. 🍶 Katsuyama: En （勝山　縁） A modern style of sake with sweet aromas and clean refreshing flavour.

🦀 Spider Crab 🍶 Kokuryu Ryu Daiginjo （黑龍　龍　大吟釀） - Gold Dragon As one of the best sakes across the globe, the complex fruity taste layers and mildly dry made it a great pairing for the umami enhancement of the dish.

🍜 Ramen with Black Truffle The rich and clear-coloured broth made from Kombu, Bonito, chicken, beef, and Shiitake Mushroom gave a satisfying taste during a cold day. With the addition of black truffle, the original earthy and musky fragrance made the broth became stronger for its umami-ness. 🍶 Kokuryu Jungin Junmai Ginjo （黑龍　純吟　純米吟釀） From the same brewery as the last sake, this sake offered a silkier texture with a similar fragrance and taste that often goes well for umami-ness.

🤤 Abalone Katsu 🍶 Tedorigawa U （手取川　U/優） - Unique The pink grapefruit acidity and svelte texture eased the overwhelming taste of abalone liver sauce – love the creative taste and the name of it.

🔥 Charcoal Grilled Wagyu Beef The juicy and tender A5 wagyu beef is grilled to perfection over charcoal. With the pine smoke Sukiyaki and sweet wagyu sauce, nothing could go wrong, just wow and enjoy. 🍶 Can’t really remember the exact name of it – Sorry about that The sake was produced by non-Japanese and used no water for the fermentation process.

❤️‍🔥 Hannah Chirashi Rice The last main dish is covered with scallops and Ikura before stirring all ingredients. The scallops were served raw, so you had the chance to taste them raw at the beginning and cooked after a few minutes. 🍶 Koshi No Kanbai Sai, Junmai Ginko（越乃寒梅　灑　純米吟釀）- Blue River Just as the name suggests, the taste is crisp and clean, which also marked the end of the main dish.

🍰 🍨 Desserts 🍶 Okukuma（奥球磨） An interesting experience for me. Drinking sake (not whisky) with an ABV of 40% poured out from a sherry cask. The initial taste was like whisky, but the dry aftertaste would remind you of the real sake.

Having this Omakase at the restaurant listed in the Michelin Guide, I must hereby address the exceptional service provided by Ryu-san and his team. Specifically, they are always attentive and have great knowledge of the dish and sakes. Their genuine care and interaction with the customers make us feel like we are dining with friends, rather than strangers. All of these ensure our fantastic and enjoyable...

As clichéd as it may sound, Hannah was honestly the best eating experience I've ever had. I never tend to publicly review anything, but I feel that Hannah really deserves it.

I had the basic version of the Omakase Tasting Set, except it was the furthest thing from basic.

I had a seat at the bar with full view of the kitchen. The chefs were attentive, calm and fully dedicated to their work. They spoke to each other quietly and efficiently to minimise disturbing the diners. The waiting staff were attentive and polite and even topped up my drinks inbetween tending to tables.

Every course of the meal was brought to me promptly and thoughtfully explained in a way that wouldn't be patronising to an expert of Japanese cuisine but would leave a first-timer knowing exactly what they were eating and how to do so.

The presentation of each course was more memorable than the last. Delicate touches varying from vibrant yet minimal garnishes, to sashimi served on weathered Cornish ocean stones; elegantly placed on manicured sand-laden plate, inspired by the Zen garden of Ryōan-ji, to the humbly served spectacle of sukiyaki broth simmering away over a tabletop binchō-tan stove.

The food itself was sublime. The highlights of the set for me were the scallop starter, squid sashimi and mallard duck breast sukiyaki (with homemade ponzu sauce). The scallop was lightly poached and still raw in the middle which gave it a delightful texture and combined with the rich, savoury jelly-like garnish (I'm not entirely sure what it was), gave it a deliciously layered flavour profile. The squid sashimi just blew me away. I've had squid and cuttlefish in many other Japanese restaurants before and it's always been a little tough, sometimes rubbery, and the flavour diminishes as it lingers a little to long through needing to over-chew. And that's where my mind was blown. Intricately scored and cut to emphasise sweetness, the squid was smooth and buttery with a lightly sharp contrast of what I think was a small dollop of yuzu dressing on top. As I gently chewed, my brain was briskly rewriting all my preconceptions of what squid should taste and feel like, which was a gastric-life changing experience. And finally the duck breast sukiyaki was just gorgeous. The duck was thinly sliced, preserving a lean coat of fat. The broth light in colour but with real depth and umami. When the ingredients were cooked and combined with the homemade ponzu and sesame sauce respectively, it really got the dopamine pumping and left my taste buds begging for more.

Honestly, I know very little about food or fine-dining and have zero culinary skills, and you may think this is all hyperbole, but this meal really inspired me to want to shout about Hannah and their talented chefs and staff. Every bite I took almost in disbelief, just thinking that normal people like me don't deserve food like this. But I was away from home for work, feeling homesick, missing my fiancée and just decided to splash out. And this experience just made me feel comfortable and welcome exactly where I was for those brief couple of hours. And for that it meant everything.

A very special place for me. I can't wait...

My first time visit with friends were brilliant, taste good serving portion alright and food presentation very appealing. That’s why I visited again two months later with my family. This second visit was much to the contrary. I ordered two lunch bento by pointing to the menu provided to the server. The one my son ordered was good which was the Lobster tempura bento. Mine being served a bowl of rice with sashimi on top, and I thought that was the sushi bento I ordered. I was bit queried about that but my second thought told me such outstanding restaurant would not served me wrong. I validly thought that might be the way this restaurant served my bento and I was expecting the rest of my food namely sushi, miso soup and salad to be served. After consuming for maybe 10 minutes nothing came to our table and therefore I enquired with a server . What eventually found out was the bowl of rice I was eating was a la carte named Chirashizushi! This a la carte was in pages behind the lunch bento menu and I had never pointed that page to the male server, needless to say I would not know how to pronounce that in Japanese. The female server whom I was talking to at that moment said they could serve me the original sushi bento if I would love to. I replied yes please do. would you, as a reasonable man under that circumstance expect the mistake of this improper serving to be borne by the customer? This end up being the case! When I checked the bill the female server said as I raised my query as food already being consumed for a portion, therefore I had to pay for the Chirashizushi ! No apology for the whole mistake being made by the server! The whole thing seem to me was mistake of customer’s end! I would say there’s lot of outstanding Japanese restaurants in London (Zuma being one I had visited twice and would recommend gals to try instead of this Hannah restaurant). I come not only for food but whole experience including service atmosphere and hospitality. If you want to pay for the price for mistakes made by the restaurant, then go ahead to this Hannah restaurant! I will never visit and will advise my friends and social media fans...