In London’s frenetic restaurant world, few entrepreneurs can match the diverse successes of Alan Yau. In 1992 the Hong Kong-born restaurateur created Wagamama (the Japanese fast-food chain has since changed ownership); is the founder not only of the good-value Thai and dim sum restaurants Busaba Eathai and Yauatcha, as well as the upmarket Chinese restaurant Hakkasan; and has recently opened Sake No Hana, a new Japanese restaurant in St James’s Street.

In January, shortly before Sake No Hana opened, Yau pulled off an extraordinary coup, selling both Hakkasan and Yauatcha, for £30.5m, to Tasameem, the property arm of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a deal that will see branches of Hakkasan open in Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Miami and Shanghai over the next year. Yau, who will continue to manage the restaurants, believes that Hakkasan has the potential to be one of a handful of restaurant brands – alongside Nobu, Zuma and L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon – to work globally. London will also see a Hakka Berkeley in Berkeley Street specialising in Peking duck in 2009.

But when we meet, Yau tells me that, despite having just made such a spectacular profit on Hakkasan and Yauatcha, he plans next to return to his roots in creating inexpensive good food for the masses, the market called “fast casual” in the US. 

And thus next month will see the opening of the first branch of Cha Cha Moon, a Chinese noodle house, just off Carnaby Street. One of its distinctive features will be an iPod-style menu that will allow those waiting to order before they sit down. Yau is also finalising plans for an even less expensive dining concept about which is reluctant to disclose more details at present.

In fact, the short journey from north of Regent Street, where Yau has been based for the past 15 years, to the new site in Mayfair for Sake No Hana has been far more difficult than he had envisaged despite these past successes. Yau tells me that he had been piqued by a magazine comment describing him merely as “a restaurateur for the proletariat”. So when he was approached by Jamie Barber, who held the lease on this Grade I listed building, with the tempting offer of Evgeny Lebedev as a backer if they could establish a restaurant worthy of its location, Yau was hooked.

Yau has been hurt by some of the criticism levelled at the restaurant since it opened. Some aspects, such as the absence of coffee, he intends to redress immediately. But a greater improvement will come incrementally as the kitchen settles down, and the waiting staff become accustomed to what is a difficult space over several floors.

This may sound a clinical management process but it is vital if a restaurant is not only to become popular but also to repay its shareholders. And Yau is beginning to appreciate that in creating Sake No Hana he is going to put his capabilities in this field to the test. “What I am trying to do here is create something between Nobu, which has created a new style of communal Japanese eating where the dishes arrive simultaneously, and the kaiseki style, which has its home in Kyoto,” he explains. “If possible, I want to create a new form of dining etiquette but one that, like kaiseki, has its roots very firmly in the freshness of the ingredients we use. I do what I do best, I think, post-opening but that involves putting the right resources behind the kitchen and then tasting, tasting and tasting until everything is as it should be.” 

Sake No Hana will only begin to realise this ambition once the elegant sushi counter on the ground floor is open in March, which in turn depends on Yau finalising the design for the island unit inside it. It will also have to wait for Yau’s return from Japan where he is conducting final interviews for the second-in-command of his hot kitchen and for the forthcoming sushi bar.

Those who have backed Yau, still only 45, have seen spectacular returns despite a hair-raising ride along the way. In his search for the most efficient, ergonomic yet striking design, Yau has consistently gone over every capital expenditure budget that has ever been set for any of his restaurants and yet he has always managed to convert a seemingly huge overspend into a handsome return for his shareholders. The word is that Sake No Hana has so far cost over £6m with the inevitable losses from the first year’s trading still to come. But I, for one, would not bet against Yau pulling off another success.

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Review: Sake No Hana

Kimiko Barber visited Sake No Hana and came away with doubts about the cooking and the service

I was thrilled to learn that Alan Yau’s long-awaited venture in St James’s had finally opened; so excited, in fact, that I made not just one but two dinner reservations and one lunch booking.

First impressions did not disappoint. Sake No Hana (“flower of the drink”) has a dramatic entrance designed by Kengo Kuma, the Japanese architect renowned for reinterpretations of traditional Japanese buildings. Guests are swept up a narrow escalator to the bar and dining area on the first floor.

While waiting for my husband, I sipped a glass of sake-based cocktail called saketini. Sake No Hana offers nine sake or shochu-based cocktails. The restaurant prides itself on offering a wide range of sake (65 brands to be precise), 29 varieties of shochu and 13 Japanese whiskies but, curiously, only two kinds of beer are on the list.

There are two types of seating: normal tables and chairs and sunken tables on a raised platform with a traditional tatami-matted floor, where we sat.

The menu has lists of dishes under the headings Tsuki Dashi, Tsukuri, Yakimono, and Takiawase. These headings indicate how the dishes are cooked but that only makes sense if you know Japanese. Each dish is written in Japanese with the phonetic equivalent and a brief listing of ingredients in English. Unless you are well acquainted with Japanese and the cuisine, you’ll need help from one of the multinational waiters.

We chose one or two dishes from each section. The first, Tsuki Dashi, which means appetisers, were all modestly priced between £2.50 and £8. My first choice of Japanese mountain yam with spicy cod roe was not available. Instead we chose sesame tofu (disappointingly rubbery and grey), crabmeat set in plum wine jelly (well presented in a small glass sitting in a bowl of crushed ice, although the plum jelly was too sweet), and simple sautéed lotus root.

We ordered yellowtail sashimi (3 pieces for £5), which came without the customary dab of wasabi. When the wasabi did come, it lacked the characteristic scent of freshly grated wasabi and tasted as if it were out of a tube.

Fatty tuna and sea urchin sushi (£5 each) looked and tasted over-handled. The baked leaf-wrapped Chilean sea-bass with miso turned out to be our only reasonable dish of the evening. The mixed tempura was soggy and tepid and came with what could only be described as a very salty, hot water-diluted soy sauce. A correct tempura dipping sauce should be at room temperature to add layers of taste and texture and take the heat off hot tempura.

If the food menu is confusing enough, the drinks menu is mind-boggling. With its all-too-brief explanations and pricing, which ranges from 180ml of “smoky” Kinotsukasa from Wakayama Prefecture for £11 to £283 for 720ml of “ripe fruit” Daiginjo Premium Mizubasho from Gunma Prefecture, you’ll soon be turning your head in search of help. The young, Australian-born sommelier, who is yet to visit Japan but has studied sake in Sydney and London, is eager to advise. After noting our order he proposed two sakes that were pleasant but did not necessarily complement the food.

The third, his strongest recommendation, was red sake with an overpowering nose that was almost undrinkable. He graciously took it back and left us to choose another by ourselves. I was beginning to worry my Sake No Hana experience might have been coloured by a recent visit to Tokyo, Michelin-declared gastronomic capital of the world. Sadly, my second meal only confirmed my doubts about the cooking and the service. This time the dining experience was dominated by a shambolic episode with a chankonabe hotpot, which was overcooked. When it was taken away it took almost half an hour to replace.

Sake No Hana may well outlive its predecessors on the same site but, surely, diners in London deserve something better.

Sake No Hana, 23 St James’s St, London SW1A Tel: +44 (0)20-7925 8988

Kimiko Barber is the author of ‘Japanese Pure and Simple’, ‘The Japanese Kitchen’ and ‘Yo Sushi: The Japanese Cookbook’