The Famous "Four Seasons" Chinese Restaurant / 老字号粤菜餐厅 - 文兴酒家

rea (75)in #cn • 7 years ago (edited)

If you ever fancy some authentic Chinese cuisine in London, the "Four Seasons Restaurant" would be one of my personal recommendations.

Being Chinese myself and having tasted many a Chinese dish in this great city for the past 16 years, I have to say their Cantonese-style Roast Duck is the definition of world class excellence. This restaurant was also quoted by the UK edition of the Financial Times as having “the best roast duck in the world”!

The first branch of opening exhibiting the "Four Seasons" brand name was in Queensway back in 1990. It soon became an oriental culinary hot spot due to their delicious selection of dishes and as a result, a daily bustling queue just outside the restaurant. Now it has only grown in popularity, comprising of several branches in and near Chinatown in Central London.

The weather in London has not been that great since Christmas day though today it did not rain. A good enough excuse to venture outside, lol. So we did just that and decided to dine out for some authentic Chinese food at Four Seasons in Queensway branch.

We arrived at Notting Hill Gate station in the early afternoon and worked up an appetite by having a lovely stroll down to Queensway (only a short 10 minute's walk away).

The restaurant is on the quite a random place outside of where you would expect to find amazing food in London. Once inside it is clean, but a little crammed as the tables are very close together. The ambience is quite casual and typical Chinese.

Three famous Chinese Gods are displayed by the front entrance as you walk in called “Fu Lu Shou”. They represent keys factors in a person's life which include health, wealth and happiness. Add to that some very traditional Chinese decor and you have yourself some truly authentic oriental atmosphere.

The menu mainly focuses on Cantonese-style dishes, offering a wide range of aromatic home-style dishes and seafood banquets. Though as mentioned before, the "Cantonese" roast duck is the absolute showstopper, served up with a blend juicy, savoury and rich sauces, proving to be just as delicious as I had imagined them to be! Very highly recommended.

Aromatic Crispy Duck

However, because my husband fancied a change today , we opted for a change and went for "Crispy Aromatic Duck" with pancake. Something a little different than what we normally have.

The waitress arrived and pulled apart the tender duck with a fork in just a few seconds. Very skillful indeed! The piping hot duck came with a wooden bamboo steamer loaded with soft pancakes and a plate of spring onions and cucumber strips. And a side of that beautiful plum sauce. So the next part is to hand-wrap your own pancakes and indulge on this tasty starter, lol! Enjoy!

We had tried this before a couple of times but I still enjoy watching my husband messing his fingers with the sauce. Very amusing, lol! And the pancake just plain delicious. That duck skin is so crispy and the meat is very full of flavour.

Lobster with Giner & Spring Onions

For the main, I went for the "Lobster with Ginger & Spring Onions" on braised noodles. This is a Chinese classic dish and one of my favourites that I had not had for a while.

To be totally honest, this is the best Lobster Noodle cuisine I have tasted! The lobster was cooked to perfection, with a sweet taste and bouncy texture that only adds to the freshness it gives. The cost of the lobster was £32 and each noodle portion being £3 so you can add as many subsequent portions as you so wish.

The lobster was simply heavenly however a little mess to eat, lol. Though the tools they provided turned out to be extremely useful!

Barbecue Pork (Char Sui)

The Barbecue Pork is one of my husband’s favourite so we ordered that too. That traditional Chinese barbecue sauce gave the succulent slices of pork a wonderful exotic flavour and brilliant, flavoursome colour too. The meat was sticky, tender and slightly caramelised. Perfectly with a bowl of egg fried rice!

I found the staff members to be polite and helpful with the service very efficient. As far as price goes, it was reasonable for London.

The "Four seasons" restaurant offers exceptional Chinese food so if you are ever in need of a juicy and flavourful Cantonese roast duck (or even their impressive aromatic duck), this is the place you need to go!