http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1d06z7c/four-seasons <b>Four Seasons</b><br />London, 12 Gerrard Street, W1D 5PR, United Kingdom en http://trustedplaces.com/uploads/placepics/trustedplaces.comaPlacePic['name']}.140.jpg http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1d06z7c/four-seasons http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1d06z7c/four-seasons/1p9ac7
Review by petrus

Rating: 3.00
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Dinner last night in Chinatown stalwart the Four Seasons on Gerrard St. The restaurant is a sister of Four Seasons in Queensway and similarly specialises in roast duck. Iâ¬"ve been there quite a few times before, as it delivers a good standard of cooking of the basic Chinese menu plus some more esoteric dishes.


One hint is that if you are non-Chinese, like me, is that there is a small specials menu that goes along with the larger main menu and it is well worth asking for this if you are not given it when you sit down. I normally order at least a few dishes from this menu, though not yet the duckâ¬"s web with fish lips in hotpot ⬠though thatâ¬"s mainly due to not finding a dinner companion willing to share it with me!


Itâ¬"s a busy place, set out over 3 floors, of which the most pleasant is the ground floor, the upstairs is busy and bustling, whereas the basement floor is the a bit more dingy. Itâ¬"s always pretty full in the evenings, with that laymanâ¬"s leading indicator of good food of a high proportion of Chinese people chowing down.
The last couple of times Iâ¬"ve been in unfortunately they have run out of the roast duck. Last night we ended up ordering the soya duck, which was poached rather than roasted. This made the meat very tender, however I felt that this style of cooking the duck left a large amount of fat on the meat that on some pieces was a bit off-putting. Roasting the meat renders a lot more of the fat out, making it more appetising. Despite being tasty I probably would not order the soya duck again.


I tried to order something new, superior poached chicken with spring onion and chilli, only to be told by two waitresses that they would not recommend it for non-Chinese people! Apparently the chicken is not fully cooked and the dish is served on the bone and the bone may be slightly pink. In the end we played it a bit safer and went for grilled, fried lotus root stuffed with minced pork and pork chop with red bean sauce.

The lotus root with pork arrives more akin to patties of minced pork blended with the root and fragrant with spices. Very tasty and the portion of about 10 disappeared in no time! The pork chop had been cooked in paper and was served to the table as such. The sauce had caramelised around thin slices of pork and was delicious. The meat was perhaps slightly chewy but again there was none left by the end.


I like the Four Seasons, itâ¬"s always buzzing and offers a good selection of safe favourites to more adventurous dishes. Though get there early for the roast duck!
Including service and tea - £16 a head.
]]> Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:57:00 +0000 /review/uk/london/restaurant/1d06z7c/four-seasons/1p9ac7649791268 petrus 51.511843 -0.130951 http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1d06z7c/four-seasons/1k28q9
Review by vanessakowara

Rating: 2.00
Tags:
THEY SCAM YOU FOR THE SERVICE CHARGE!!!!
They always list all the food you've ordered in the receipt to make it look legitimate. But the total price is always shown in a separate receipt. One day me and a bunch of friends realized that the total price does not amount to the food we've ordered. My friend calculated it using his handphone and turned out the restaurant added 12.5% service charge cheekily without telling us. When confronted, they replied that this is obligatory. So we let it slide for that time.
I've had about 5 meals after I found out about the service charge scam, and every single time they always add the extra 12.5% without telling me. And the worst part is, after they bring the bill (only if you pay with debit card), they would ask you whether you would like to add service charge into it. My friend was annoyed by this and actually said that it is already added. The waitress was embarassed and she went away. Another waiter replaced her to give us our receipt.
So yes, the food is great, but the scam is not.]]> Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:13:36 +0000 /review/uk/london/restaurant/1d06z7c/four-seasons/1k28q9394256778 vanessakowara 51.511843 -0.130951 http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1d06z7c/four-seasons/1577e7
Review by xiaoma

Rating: 1.00
Tags:
The worst experience I have ever had in a restaurant in my life! We have been served with average quality food (we are from China), and when we finishd our meals and we were still chatting and finishing our drinks, one of the waiters told us to go away because there was a queue!!!! I was very surprised that in a restaurant people are told to leave while they are still finishing their meals!!! Moreover, one of the waiters continued to look at me with threatening eyes, telling me "what are you looking at, why don't you go? there are people waiting". I thought this behaviour was unbelievable so I asked if I could talk to the manager. I went to the manager and I asked if the place is a restaurant or a boxing place where people are kicked out as soon as they finish their meal. The answer was "this is a boxing club!!". At that point I understood that people over there are completely mad and they don't care that customers are overly unsatisfied with the treatment. Thus I advice people not to go there (there re so many other places in the surroundings), as this was the worst experience in a restaurant in my life! ]]> Sat, 16 Feb 2008 11:14:24 +0000 /review/uk/london/restaurant/1d06z7c/four-seasons/1577e7921805697 xiaoma 51.511843 -0.130951 http://trustedplaces.com/review/uk/london/restaurant/1d06z7c/four-seasons/1n76w7
Review by ilovelucy

Rating: 4.00
Tags:
On the spur of the moment, 6 of us (well 7 including M's bump) from work decided to jump in the cab and head to China Town for some well deserved end-of-the-week grub.

We settled on going to Four Seasons, from recommendations from a Singaporean and another colleagues girfriend who is Malaysian. I'd never been so I was keen.

It was as bustling and basic as you'd expect from a China Town restuarant but of course efficient and we didn't have to wait long before we were hushed upstairs in a rather cramped and brightly lit dining room.

The menu was long and extensive and had some interesting stuff - fish lips anyone??? We didn't order that (though the boys were tempted). Had the crispy duck with pancakes for starters - duck is their speciality and quite rightly so. It was delicious and as there were plenty of pancakes it hardly left any room for mains.

We were very greedy with the mains...With the intention of sharing each of us picked a dish plus we had two veg dishes - so 8 dishes for six people!! It was an absolute feast. The dishes which stood out were the eel and honey was tasty and moist but with a cripsy batter, the ma po tofu was great by my friends' Singaporean standards, the aubergine and pork hot pot was divine and the bbq duck was tasty but perhaps a little fatty than we would have liked.

Due to my chinese upbringing I was still eating when everyone had stopped trying to finish much of it but to no avail. As tasty as it was I felt like I was going to explode. Still they had no problem putting it in doggy bags so one of us had a nice lunch on the weekend.

Bill came up to £25 each which included a beer each. Not bad for a quality meal where you are royally stuffed in the centre of town! Go try it. ]]> Wed, 16 Jan 2008 22:28:58 +0000 /review/uk/london/restaurant/1d06z7c/four-seasons/1n76w71857729167 ilovelucy 51.511843 -0.130951