Four Seasons, Queensway, London

Why am I here, what am I doing, who am I... I feel an urgent pressure to explain myself to...no one. The joys of anonymity. NO! Otherwise none of it will make any sense, not that it is likely to anyway as I'll warn you now my train of thought can be sporadic at the best of times. I'm not a food critic, or an expert chef or anything, but I am a food addict.  And to my mind that qualifies me to share some thoughts on the subject.  I spend 70% of my time feeling guilty about the amount of money I spend on food and drink and the calories I have therefore ingested, but I might as well get some value out of that and share my thoughts on these places.  Occasionally, I do get to go dine at a lovely expensive restaurant but do not get the wrong idea.  I could be visiting my local Wagamama's and I'm still going to write what I thought of the service, what I ate (what I will never eat again...) because we all visit these places and it's good to have warning in case one happens to have a waiter with comedy value, or another never cleans out their loos (Toilets could end featuring with high prominence, especially in nicer restaurants - am easily won over by a novel soap dispenser or waterfall style sinks.  Am the sort of person that pays more for fancy packaging - a sucker)


AND sooo, to the matter in hand.  Today's dining event was a new one on me.  Four Seasons, a Chinese Restaurant in Queensway, London.  Just off Bayswater Rd.  And am really rather chuffed about this as was just on a work day in town with colleagues when they announced we had a reservation for Chinese for lunch.  I like Chinese but it's more a guilty pleasure than a cuisine I think showcases finesse and all the rest.  In my mind, Thai is the King, Indian the Queen, and Chinese comes a long way down the line married into the family by a cousin once removed etc.  Anyway, I still love it don't get me wrong but it has exactly the same effect on me as would a MacDonald's, sugar RUSH, sugar CRASH, sugar cravings... 


However, I take into full account I have only experienced the very english side of Chinese food, so I was chuffed today to be taken along to some random, tiny fronted restaurant, with the reassuring dead ducks and pig bits hanging in the windows that made me feel I was about to partake in something very authentic.  And to add to this, was party to a large group of Japanese who took full charge of ordering which I was even more pleased about, as if left in control myself I know I would err, (er? are there 2 R's? I'm not sure) on the side of caution.  SO, they ordered 2 soups to start - Hot and Sour or Crab and Sweetcorn.  Never had either before, the Hot and Sour looked good but sadly I missed out.  The Crab and Sweetcorn was pleasant, but not my cup of tea.  Very gloopy, definite texture over taste issues for me.  Then next course, huge mounds of roast duck.  Tasted AMAZING, left an impressive trail of mess from lazy susan, to my plate, across my lap and down my front, but lovely.  Skin not crisp though and extremely fatty, which I have to admit I still had some, because some fat just tastes GOOD dammit. With this, we had fried rice, greens in garlic sauce (WHOA I'm part French but thank god am staying in tonight..) and some tofu in hot and sour sauce.  It was a good simple selection, the greens were awesome, the tofu - c'mon, what in hell is the bloody point of tofu?! leave it out - the sauce was nice, the rice was ace, until I found something unrecognisable in there, but am not of faint heart and convinced myself it was related to a prawn.  


Service was brusque, but the good kind.  correcting our order to what they saw to be more practical (which I LOVE because they should know best, they run the joint, tell us how to do it) but never leaving us untended to and repeatedly topping up our chinese tea leaves with water.  Now I have to fess up and admit I can't tell you whether this place was good value for money because I didn't see the bill, but a glance at the menu and judging how much we ordered between 8, I would cover the issue with the blanket statement - More than reasonable - give or take a bit of unidentifiable prawn relative.  The squeamish - my sister in particular - could not be handling this, i will not be taking her anytime soon.


So that was today's culinary adventure, in summary - Tasty.  Not my recommendation for a date location, as setting and furniture all very basic and felt a bit temporary.  Also (am about to reveal the pleb in me) It might be authentic, but I did miss the prawn crackers... felt too English to kick up a stink about that.


P.s - Loos were nothing to write home about but not gross - bonus!