SAKE NO HANA, MAYFAIR

When I went to Japan earlier this year I missed the cherry blossom season which is happening now. But it's fine, because Sake no Hana have brought the blossom to London. From now til the 18th of June their Mayfair based Japanese bar and restaurant has been transformed into a cherry blossom garden. You can sit under the intertwining cherry blossom branches, which are lit up by thousands of lights at night, and sample the specially created, limited edition Sakura menu. For £34 you can have a feast of really tasty Japanese food. The fixed menu consists of a welcome cocktail, bento box of soup, sushi and sashimi, main bento and pudding.

I took an old school friend along to try out the menu with me. We sat in the bar area downstairs where the main cherry blossom feature is and had a wonderful time. The food is really good, especially for the price. And the drinks are excellent - as they always are at Hakkasan venues.

The cocktail that comes as part of the special menu is a Kaori Arpege - Beefeater 24 gin, yuzu sake, cherry liqueur, peach bitters, grapefruit juice and agave. It's served with three atomisers to spray on to the stem of the glass, so you can choose between cherry and cinnamon, elderflower and jasmine or violet.

The first course to be brought out was a perfect white miso soup - just the right amount of umami, and luckily for me, not too much tofu as I'm not a fan of it in miso soup. This was followed by a lovely bento box of sushi, and Hamachi, akami and salmon sashimi - all super quality and really fresh, as well as beautifully presented.

For the main bento you can choose salmon miso yaki with egg mustard sauce, sumiyaki chicken with spicy shichimi sauce or seasonal vegetable tempura. We shared the chicken and salmon, both of which were sublime. Perfectly cooked and paired with the sauces they were served with. I really loved the egg mustard sauce with its tang and richness.

Dessert is extra on top of the special menu price but definitely worth getting if you have a sweet tooth. For £8.50 you get cherry dark chocolate mousse, cherry sake mousse, chocolate crumble and sake jelly. It's rich and decadent and a wonderful end to the meal. As are the vanilla macarons with cherry blossom tea ganache that are £5 for 3.

Sakura at Sake no Hana’s limited edition menu is available for lunch and dinner in the bar and restaurant sushi counter til 18th June, Monday to Saturday, for £34 per person. To book a table call 020 7925 8988 or email reservations@sakenohana.com.