The Four Season Roast House is easily an iconic symbol of the East in London. With its celebrity like popularity, the Four Season Roast House name has spread back to the east as far as Australia, Malaysia and Singapore. In fact, there are a couple of branches in Malaysia, and Bangkok; perhaps even more! Coming to London, I knew I had to taste for myself whether the Four Season Roast House is the real deal or plain hype.
At 2pm, I walked in and asked a table for two. Believe it or not, there were no seats just yet. Do not even bother asking for a wait duration too as the long list of names and unpredictable customer behaviour make it impossible to gauge. But thankfully, it only took some 25 minutes before Jacques and I were seated. For lunch today, the Frenchman was going with my suggestion. We each ordered roasted meat and rice along with a piping hot bowl of wanton soup. A classic Cantonese lunch.
My choice of roast is none other than my staples, the crispy roast pork and juicy roast duck for £8.50. It is decent pricing when you consider the fact that London is one of the world’s most expensive cities to live in.
But money is only figure when it comes to food. Its the taste that makes a fact. As far as anticipation goes, the roast meat at Four Season Roast House ticked some very important boxes. For starters the Roast Pork was well seasoned at the bottom whilst at the top, it was thin, shard-y and crisp! First bite in and you get that sensational crunch. The proportion of fat and lean meat is around 35-65 which is decent but can get a little too fatty towards the end! Over all, it was tasty!
The Roast Duck on the other hand, was equally impressive. On the outside you get that beautifully roasted skin while its flesh was still mildly juicy and very tasty. While the meat themselves were delicious, I did not like the sauce which they put on the rice. It was a little too sweet which masked the natural flavours of the roast meat. Instead, I wanted something a little more savoury from the juice of the meat that can be served with the rice. I would not mind if it was a little more herbed too.
The wanton soup for £3 was the perfect way to wash down this meal of roast meat which can leave your mouth feeling greasy. This salty-slightly peppery soup filled with tasty morsels of prawn wrapped in wanton skins was rather basic but is still every bit quintessential of the Cantonese cuisine. Topped with finely slices scallions, it was delicious.
The Four Seasons Roast House served me some serious Roast Pork and Duck that day. But was it worthy of all the long queue, newspaper publicity and hype that has been bestowed to it? For me, definitely NO. If you have eaten in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and even Australia, yes AUSTRALIA, you will not be fully impressed. The quality displayed by the Four Season Roast house was almost flawless but its overly sweet sauce was a let down. It needed more balance on the plate.
See my other delicious Roast Duck/Pork posts which includes my 2 Perth favourites, a Malaysian Chinese Classic and my Michelin starred adventure in Hong Kong. Also in the list below is what I believe is the best Soy Chicken I have ever eaten, a shop located in Melbourne.
Overseas Restaurant @ Jalan Imbi, Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia
Pacific Roast House @ Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD
Pacific Roast House @ Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD
WenY
