Four Seasons - London

Four Seasons
12 Gerrard Street
London
W1D 5PR



Apparently once the home of the best roast duck in London, we try the menu at Four Seasons.



Seated upstairs, we were in close proximity to their slop buckets. Although no noisome odour was apparent, the leftovers of many an other meal wasn't the best appetiser we could wish for.



Tea was duly served.



Aubergine hotpot - braised aubergine with minced pork. The aubergine was nicely braised, losing all of its 'raw' taste.



The sauce was savoury and generic, but certainly tasty. A good rendition of a memorable comfort food.



Braised (twice cooked) pork on taro.



There were two versions of this on the menu: taro, or mei gan cai (a dried fermented cabbage) - both being very traditional. The pork is usually cooked at least twice (but in actuality in several steps involving blanching, frying, stewing and steaming).



This version needed a lot of work. The pork wasn't as tender as hoped, and tasted like it might have been too old to serve. The sauce was sweet but lacked any defined or depth of flavour. The taro was chewy and had failed to pick up what little flavour there was in the sauce. A terrific dish done very poorly.



'Monk's vegetables' - a medley of bok choi and Chinese mushrooms. This was our favourite stir-fry of the set. The bok choi was tender and sweet, and the mushrooms juicy and full of musky xiang gu flavour.



I never know if they are just superior at soaking dried mushrooms, or if they use fresh or tinned. The texture is very fresh and bouncy, but I always think that the taste is superior to fresh mushrooms.



The crispy roast pork was one of the better versions I've tasted in the UK, and this was an improvement on Gold Mine's rendition.



The skin is highly crispy, and the meat salty and flavourful. Our only quibble was that it had been served somewhat cold.



The roast duck was disappointing - lacking real flavour and served tepid.



Patches of skin had been burnt, and the meat itself was slightly chewy without substantial duck flavour.


The damage: lunch for 5 not-so-hungry eaters came to £45. This could have been less had we passed on the entirely forgettable duck, or could have more if we'd ordered more substantial dishes involving seafood instead of vegetarian alternatives. The service is not prompt, and the usual heavy handed routine found in standard Chinese restaurants. Would we go back? almost certainly not.