I’m often
asked why my blog seems so light on Italian restaurant reviews. While I do
enjoy the occasional pasta and traditional homecooking, I think Italian is
relatively simple and it’s good as long as the ingredients are fresh, which is a luxury we don't have in this country. Then there is
this new breed of modern Italian cuisine, lighter pasta dishes and smaller
plates to share. Four to Eight falls in this category.
It was their
soft launch; they have only been running for a week on the evening Mister and I
visited. We were seated on the ground floor, next to the bar in the middle of
the dining room - simplistic, Scandinavian-style décor. Our server was full of
smiles but was short of recommendations - apparently she tried and loved everything
on the menu, and couldn’t’ highlight a favourite. That’s never a great sign, just
means nothing stood out.
Zucchini Carpaccio truffle honey dressing & pecorino cheese
By the time
our dishes arrived the bread still didn’t make an appearance, so we just
cancelled it.
Thinly
sliced courgettes with a very light drizzle of dressing, topped with truffle
shavings and crumbs of pecorino. It’s a simple combination, but the dish was
tipped off balanced. The dressing was very faint and its honey sweetness was
barely detectable, the good thing was the truffle fragrance was even more tamed so it wasn’t
an overkill. But the courgettes weren’t sweet enough so all I could taste was
the nutty pecorino. In my humble opinion, I would slice the courgettes even
thinner to tone down the obtrusive crunch and bring out their flavours more.
Mister could
not have been more disinterested.
Pigeon honey beets, grapes & Treviso
Pigeons were
cooked to a good medium, tender and moist with a slight chew to bring out their
gaminess. Again the dish was off balance with the overly sweet cubes of
beets, there was an unpleasant artificial sweetness that brought out
the acidity of the grapes. It was a good idea that needs fine-tuning.
Mister doesn’t
like pigeon.
Head to Tail
Cannelloni beetroot, onion &
horseradish
Head to tail
refers to the oxtail and ox tongue in the stuffing. It sounded like a great idea;
super tender oxtail with some chew from ox tongue would have given excellent
mouth feel. Unfortunately this fell short on delivery - the shreds of oxtail lacked juices to hold the meats
together. The cannelloni may have been topped with sauce, but it was dried and
cracked to leave a blanket of blandness…
Beef Brisket
oregano, polenta & kale
This was a
dense brick of dry mass. As I cut into the hulk of beef, my knife was battling
with the tangling shreds that simply wouldn't break apart. We asked for more red wine jus
to moisten up the meat, but the flavours had already leaked away with the meat juice and despite
dousing it with sauce, the tasteless, sinewy beef was dreadful. I felt sorry for
the cow.
Our server
noticed we left the brick of beef untouched, and offered to take it back. She
said she tasted it and agreed it wasn’t up to the normal standard. Fine.
Perhaps the kitchen was under pressure in the first week, and so pre-prepared
some dishes, this one was probably re-made one too many times.
Truffled
Baby Chicken hock & crème pecorino
fritters, celeriac puree
After
sending back the brisket, we ordered the truffled chicken instead.
Judging from the portion, it must have been a premature baby chicken. And you know what’s really odd? I couldn’t make out which part of the chicken we were served. It had a piece of bone attached to it, which suggests it was a thigh, yet the texture of the meat was quite dense and slightly grainy, like chicken breast - albeit a tolerable one. It kind of defied the purpose of cooking a baby chicken when they couldn’t retain the tenderness of the soft muscles. No hints of truffle either, more like the regular roast chicken seasoning. The ham hock croquette on the side, however, was quite enjoyable – a very odd accompaniment to chicken I thought.
The Full
House mini selection of all desserts
This could
be described as a plate of torture. I’m not sure which was worse, when I had to
beg for this from Mister, or when I finally had to sample what’s on the plate.
In short, it
was a plateful of sugar in different shapes and colouring. The so-call
deconstructed tiramisu was the worst offender, sickening whipped cream with a
chewy disc of coffee. The pink sorbet was of an unrecognisable flavour, but
Mister’s expression was priceless. I would have happily substituted each of
them with a Waitrose equivalent, at least they were edible and I would have
been at a lower risk of diabetes. It’s rare to find a full plate of failure
in such a beautiful arrangement.
1-5 Catherine Street
London
WC2B 5JZ
Tel: 0207 240 6664

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Your post is very informative for foody lovefrs, images are so good. If we says that Italy is famous amongst tourists for its Italian food range is not wrong statement. i just came back from italy after corning to niagara falls with my business partner. we were there for a business deal but we didn't forget to have great Italian meal at Rialto Restaurant. Have you ever been there?
ReplyDeleteI must say this post is inspiring for food lovers must visit in Italians best restaurant. Amery i totally agreed with you Italian food is most popular around the world. I am also crazy about Italian and Chinese food. My father also plan boston to corning ny for us. it is pleasant to meet you here. would you like to share some info about this tour??
ReplyDeleteSure Fara! i had great time there with my business partner. we enjoyed ourselves no need to worry about any thing.i will say the whole team superbly done there job. Specially food was awesome. go and had a great journey.
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