Earlier this year Lost Witness reviewed this restaurant, a review I enjoyed immensely. Had there not been two distinct sides, though, to Hanahana I would probably not have written my own op.
Hanahana specialises in two distinct areas of Japanese cuisine - tep-pan yaki and sushi/sashimi. However, the tep-pan yaki, which Lost Witness talked about, seems to take priority here which I found a bit disappointing and negatively affected my experience of the restaurant.
The restaurant is situated on Bath Lane on the edge of Newcastle's Chinatown area and is close to the heart of the city centre, under the shadow of St. James Park. There is another Japanese restaurant just a few doors down the street which might confuse people, so check the name!
My partner booked a table by telephone; he said that we were wanted to come for sushi, not the hot table and the person on the other end of the phone seemed a bit hesitant. He asked if we knew what we exactly what we wanted becasue most of the chefs would be at the hot tables that evening. Having never eaten there before, of course we didn't know exactly what we wanted and, besides which, sushi really should be made to order. However, he said it shouldn't be a problem and we duly made a reservation.
On arrival we were
seated in a small bar area close to the door and were given the menu to peruse with a drink. After ordering we were ushered to our table through the main part of the restaurant where the hot tables are situated. We were led to an area with about six tables including two at the back which had been put together to form one larger one.
To say that this section is sparse is an understatement but this is not unusual for Japanese restaurants. The tables were mere simple pine as were the chairs. A ceramic plate was on each place setting along with a pair of chopsticks and a tiny ceramic dish for soy sauce.
We had barely sat down when our startes arrived - I had opted for a dish of just seared beef strips and my partner had chosen the vegetable tempura. My dish came on a bed of raw onions and a tiny dish of a dip containing soy sauce and spring onions. It was fantastic - similar to a carpaccio of beef where the outside is only just cooked, the inside is a vivid red and then it is chilled until served in wafer thin slices. The other dish though was brought to the table and announced as "oysters" - now we both love oysters but my partner does no eat meat and was unsure what was in the topping over the oysters so decided to come clean and admit that this was the wrong dish. The waitress insisted that it was for our table - several times!! Then she departed and the manager came back with the dish to insist it was ours (it was the manager who had taken the order!!). He took some persuading that it was not ours and went off to arrange some tempura which came at the same time as my board of sushi. Anyway, the tempura was very good - lovely crispy, light batter coating beautifully crunchy vegetables. There is a huge selection of hot and cold starters priced from 3.00 to around 6.00 Pounds - including the traditional miso soup which is a typical element of Japanese meals.
I managed not to touch my sushi until he'd finished and his sashimi selection had arrived with which he had requested a dish of rice. Both sushi and sashimi were exquisitley presented - in particular the sashimi. (A note here for those unfamiliar with the two dishes - sashimi is a selection of raw fish and cooked prawns, sushi contains some raw fish but in combination with sticky sushi rice - pieces of the fish are laid over a small portion of rice creating a bite-sized little treat.) Both the sushi (14.95 Pounds) and sashimi (also 14.95)were served on small wooden trays with a small sculpted mound of wasabi (a VERY hot paste not unlike horseradish) and a little heap of pickle ginger - this is eaten between pieces of sushi to cleanse the palate. The fish used included tuna, squid, salmon and octopus and it was all fabulous. Some nice little touches includes little piles of delicious salmon roe which crunched delicately in the mouth - utter heaven! I was disappointed, though, that no rools appeared in my sushi selection so had to order a plate of Calfornia rolls (my favourite - sushi rice, avocado and crab wrapped in a band of nori seaweed) - four rolls for 4.50 Pounds.
Japanese restaurants tend not to offer anything authentically Japanese in the way of desserts but I did go for a chocolate icecream and mousse which was OK - several of the dessert items were not available (I had wanted tiramisu!) and several contained nuts which is no good for me! All dessert items were bought in and frozen.
The restaurant serves a full range of drinks including a selection of different sakes (Japanese rice wine served warm or cold) but we both opted for bottles of Asahi - a fantastic Japanese beer (the best-selling one in Japan, in fact), priced at 3.00 Pounds each.
While we were eating a group of load and boisterous people were led to the larger table. They had been eating at one of the hot tables and after eating had been seated here to finish their drinks to make way for another party at the hot plates. This was an unwelcome intrusion and made us feel that we were sitting in a waiting room.
Another negative about Hanahana is the smell from the hot tables which pervades the whole restaurant. It is quite an oily, greasy smell - like a cheap truckers caff!
From where we were sitting we could occasionally catch a glimpse of what was going on at the hot tables and could watch the flames leap up or see the chefs entertain their diners by throwing eggs up in the air and catching them in their hats.... a nice little diversion when you're waiting for food but a bit annoying when the diners all shriek with delight. As we were celebrating our third anniversary we had hoped for something a bit more intimate.
We found service, on the whole, to be friendly and polite but we did feel that dishes were removed too quickly - once even when I had not finished a dish!
I cannot comment on the tep-pan yaki as we did not have any but I suggest that you check out Lost Witness' review of this restaurant for these details. My feeling is though that this is probably a great place to go with a party of people as the hot plate dining experience seems very sociable but it is not the place for a romantic evening.
If you want tep-pan yaki this'll be just the place but for sushi I wouldn't recommend it - you'd be better of going somewhere that only does sushi. While what we had was good, I get the feeling they're more interested in the hot food.
Hanahana Bath Lane Newcastle upon Tyne
Tel. 0191 222 0282
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Jun 2nd, 2004
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