Four Seasons: Bayswater, Thursday January 12th, 2012

Early January was a hectic time. The wedding was two weeks away, the wife (then fiancée) was struggling to recover from a bout of sickness that had sidelined us both over the holiday and the in-laws were about to come to London. We decided that, having endured a lengthy flight from Taiwan, the best way to start their stay was a little dinner in Bayswater, London's original Chinatown.

The Four Seasons is a chain with some clout when it comes to Chinese in London. They have two locations in the west end which are always packed, but it's this one that those in the know go for. Brimming with locals looking for quality takeaway and tourists who have lucked out, the spirit of a lively Chinese restaurant is alive and well on Queensway.

There were some very interesting parts to the meal here. Primarily the starter of diced warm seafood wrapped in lettuce: something that sounded and looked suspicious at best. I'm not a huge fan of large iceberg lettuce leaves in any food, especially if said leaves have been stuffed full of barely identifiable seafood. The result was an unexpectedly substantial and meaty pocket of wholesomeness. The seafood was well-cooked and it made for a comforting starter. Hot seafood inside cold lettuce: it does actually work.

One dish which Asia seems to have a constant affinity with is crab. Deep-friend soft shell crabs are often on Chinese restaurant menus and we tried some here. Cooked to a crunchy-soft turn, they were entirely pleasant until the chilli overwhelmed any glorious salty flavour they had. Too spicy by half, which was a shame given the crabs' quality.

Tofu with minced pork was a dish which lived up to my expectations entirely: good minced pork wasted by the addition of tofu. A pot of rice was as functional as anything else you're likely to get in your average Chinese and greens with garlic were as stringy and watery as they always are. But then there was duck.

One thing I (and the guidebooks) recommend you eat at the Four Seasons is their traditional Chinese duck. Served on a platter, (mostly) de-boned and dripping in rich soy sauce, this stuff is what you wish you got every time you ordered duck at a Chinese restaurant. Doing away with the tiresome fallacy of pancakes and cucumber, this is proper duck, the way it's meant to be eaten: with sauce and little else. Juicy, fatty, perfect.

The Four Seasons is definitely worth a trip if you're in the area. There are a number of good Chinese restaurants around Bayswater - particularly the Mandarin Kitchen - which deserve a visit, but there is something special in the air at the Four Seasons. As much a part of the community as Hyde Park, tacky shops and beautiful housing, this is somewhere worth your time.

Four Seasons