Four Seasons

went for the duck and roast pork which we had as a roast duck and pork plate with rice. got to agree it's pretty good. arguments about whether it's the best don't really matter much to me ... it's sufficiently good to be better than most, and at the price, excellent.

also had satay seafood noodles, again hit the mark with big prawns, scallops, squid and plenty of it ...

best was the chao zhou chicken which was particularly good with the pickled vegetables and peanuts offsetting any fat in the chicken. a lot of cantonese places do food that looks exactly the same, but seldom as good.

yes, it is not a place to loiter in, but staff were pretty good to us. we were seated and fed quickly. my dining partner is chinese, so being fed promptly at regular intervals is a must!

atmosphere was good. getting out is the only difficulty, with the crowds at the front door trying to cram into the place.
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benscaro
7 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Sunday, January 13, 2013

Four Seasons is my favourite Chinese restaurant in London. Sure there is often a queue, but the food is worth it. Myself and my boyfriend love the Cantonese style of service and think the staff are generally wonderful, especially the lady at the front - you just have to take is as part of the experience. They're not butt-kissingly polite, but hey, they're always super busy and are never rude. We tend to go before or after the dinner rush to avoid queuing. I'm addicted to the salt & pepper squid, and love the crispy noodles with vegetables. Cantonese-style prawns are amazing... and I've had times when I've just craved their stir-fried green beans. Oh! and the prawn dumpling starter is really yummy and great value for money. What can I say, there has never been a time when the food has been disappointing (only once, the salt and pepper squid was way too salty and they replaced the portion with an even bigger one - this shows how freshly-cooked everything is, too). The price is superb... I've introduced so many of my friends to this place, so definitely recommend it!!!

By the way, unless it's really busy, we've never had a problem staying and chatting after our meal. Actually, sometimes the waiters forget to give us the bill so it's sometimes actually the opposite problem! ;-)
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bia
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Sunday, December 23, 2012

This is a fast food restaurant so I know never to linger after my meal. The food has always been excellent and in my opinion fairly priced. The roast duck is the best in London and I have eaten in almost all the restaurants that serve it. To be fair to the restaurant, theirs is a small venue and tables need to be turned round quickly. There is almost always a long, impatient and sometime rude queue waiting to be seated so diners ought to be considerate. The many times I have waited to be seated I have observed diners chatting away long after their food has been consumed while hungry customers like me and the staff were wishing they would just pay and go. On another occasion I witnessed 3 diners in the next table sharing just one spring roll and a noodle dish. No drinks were ordered and they were there for the duration of my 40 minute stay. Not fair to the restaurant and ceratinly not fair to other customers waiting to be fed. To the reviewers wno compained about this restaurant and who threatened never to go again, I say this is music to my ears. Less crowd, less waiting time for me. For me, I will certainly be going again and again.
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Richard Tay
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Thursday, December 20, 2012

I can only echo previous comments about service, I won't detail the several poor examples we had. I understand the point that if people want to have obsequious waiters puffing smoke up their posterior whilst they arrange the starched linen they can go to Royal China and pay through the nose for indifferent food, and I understand that the staff are very busy but - basic civility and competence would be fine.

The food was generally ok but in my opinion (shared by my Chinese wife and the Malaysian friend I ate with) comments about it being the best duck in Europe are some way off the mark - it's very good but we've eaten better in other Chinatown restaurants. We had a platter of roasted meats which is obviously their speciality and it was good. Vegetables with scallops were also good - probably the highlight - and the portion of scallops was very generous, even if the dish arrived 5 minutes after everything else. A "sizzling" beef was disappointing - the sauce was nice, but no sizzle and the portion was small considering it cost £12.

Trouble really came when we ordered a second plate of duck, which turned out to comprise precisely 3 pieces of meat, the rest bulked up with bones and a generous helping of "parson's nose". Halfway through eating this the oranges and hot towels were unceremoniously dumped on the table - if the waiter had stood there and hollered "Hurry up and eff off" the message couldn't have been any clearer. Again I understand the place is busy and they are under pressure from people queueing but it's not as if we'd been dawdling. We'd entered starving, polished the lot off at a good pace and had been in the place barely 40 minutes.

As a curtain call the staff and manager took umbrage when my wife complained about the second plate of duck - but she held her ground to an extent that most people probably wouldn't and when after 5 minutes of bull the manager realised she wasn't backing down, they took 10% off the bill.

I can't for the life of me think why people queue to get in this place - I can only guess they've never been before and are queueing because of it's undeserved reputation. Or perhaps it's a place trading on a reputation it no longer lives up to. We won't be back, there's plenty better in Chinatown at a similar price.
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Alan
4 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Sunday, September 30, 2012

Service is terrible!!! Do not go. There are a lot of other much better chinese restaurants.
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1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, August 21, 2012

I went to Four Seasons Restaurant at Chinatown in London with my boyfiriend some months before. The roast duck in this restaurant is very delicious but unfortunately the service is the worst ever !. I understand Chinese culture that they always rush in doing everything but you can not use this kind of manner to other people who are not Chinese like you. We sat on the table and ordered some foods. the thing that made me upset the most is that I have not finished eating yet but they just clear all plates and put the bill immediately on my table. It was really impolite that they tried to get away customers even if they haven't finished eating yet. It is very very uncivilized and impolite .And after they put the bills on the table ,one waitress talk to the customers that we have many customers queue outside of the restaurant. I was very disappointed with this restaurant. I know that this is the nature of Chinese ppl but you can not apply your manner outside the world. cuz we can not accept it ! You only care for money ,no service.... i will never go there again...!!!
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Mai
2 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Sunday, December 04, 2011

I recently went to four-seasons restaurant in London Chinatown with my wife and an ex-classmate from Malaysia! I have great respect for your restaurant since I was a student!! To my surprice, the service from the waitress was horrible! We needed to add one more dish as the original 3 dishes for the three of us were not enough! We ordered steam egg and the waitress told us the dish will take a long time to make! Her attitude and the way she spoke as if we should not order the dish that will take a long time to arrive!! The waitress didn't even asked us whether we wanted the dish or not and simply ordered it for us! The service at your restaurant has gone down into the drain! We felt that we're rushed into making decisions just because you have a long que waiting in front of your door!! Moreover, your waitress attitude towards English customers was entirely different from the service provided to chinese because there were two english customers sitting next to us!!!
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Dr Dennis Lim
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Monday, November 07, 2011

the speciality roast pork etc dishes are superlative, the rest of it is pretty much what you'd get in any other chinese establishment.

WATCH THESE GUYS LIKE A HAWK AT BILL TIME. our bill came to 29.50 total & (splitting it) we were each billed £24.50. once I could dismiss as a slip up, twice is just plain theft!!!
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''Handy'' - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Terrible, simply awful. The service was beyond poor. Ignored us for a very very long time before orders were taken. I can usually put up with bad service (knowing full well this is a chinese restaurant) if the food is good but sadly the famous duck is sadly not as good anymore. Saturday lunch time was less than half full, says a lot.
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Me
1 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, June 19, 2011

Yes, most people here don't get it. This restaurant is very authentic Asian, and in Asia you don't go to a local restaurant for service--you just want to EAT.

This place has THE BEST DUCK in Europe. If you want to taste the best duck, go here. If you want to sit in a nicely decorated restaurant with waiters pampering you and your ego, go to a high-class chinese restaurant and pay the price for that.

And because they have fantastic food, it's always full and busy. As a result, the waiters are mad busy trying to get the orders, serve the food, clean the table and get new customers seated. They are quick and efficient!
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Love Duck
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, May 17, 2011