Four in Hand Hotel

Ph: 9362 1999; 105 Sutherland St, Paddington 2021 www.fourinhand.com.au

French Mediterranean, $$ +, * for Food
Open Lunch Tue-Sun dinner Mon-Sun; Licensed, BYO; AE DC MC V
Chef Colin Fassnidge (29-11-08) Owner Joe Saleh & Paul Bard (29-11-08)

Mietta's Review
Paddo pub-turned-restaurant with a loyal following. Once it had both a bistro and a more formal restaurant. When the inevitable Pokies took over the bistro diners had to fall back on the restaurant. This was no hardship particularly when Mark Best from Marque took over and made it his second label. Mark has since sold the business and the new chef is, Colin Fassnidge. He is providing good classically based food at great prices and you can always sneak out to the bar for a quick schooner if it becomes too rarefied. But, be warned, the room can be incredibly noisy when busy, which is most nights.

Other published opinions

Sydney Eats 2009 "Things have come a long way for this one-time rough-as-guts pub, now that it can attract chefs the calibre of Colin Eassnidge"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2009 Score: 15/20, One Hat "The giant squid's eye of a massive Luke Sciberras watercolour dominates the interior of this small, smart-looking bistro, while a pig's ear - crisped and served with confit neck, calvados apples and hazelnut vinaigrette gets most of the attention on the menu"

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "Some would call this a gastropub, but that would do an injustice to Colin Fassnidge's inventive and exciting food. This cosy dining room has long been one of Sydney's quiet achievers and continues to deliver a unique experience"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 14.5/20 "Irish-born Colin Fassnidge trained at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons and helped open Boxwood Cafe with Gordon Ramsay"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "If you've been wondering, the four things they have in hand are food, wine, service and atmosphere - a set of variables even a good gastropub is lucky t have tamed half of"

Sydney Eats 2008 "Long gone the days when this was the roughest pub in Paddo, famed for fornication on its bar stools. Now gentrified, and after a revolving-door of chefs, here for the long haul are husband-andwife team, Colin Fassnidge and Jane Hyland"

Sydney Morning Herald Helen Greenwood, 23-6-2007 "Price Guide Entrees $19, mains $29, desserts $14 My American friend is about to board her plane back to California. For her farewell dinner, I suggest good fish and chips, a cosy pub, a modernised interior and a fire. She's in. We gather the male contingent (one) and head to the Four in Hand. What we haven't counted on is that so have loads of rugby-loving Paddingtonites. They're cramming the bar with smoke and scarves and schooners raised to the huge televisions."

Sydney Morning Herald Clara Iaccarino, 10-4-2007 "They say one in the hand is worth two in the bush. But what of Paddington's Four in Hand? Surely this is a bar where your odds are quadrupled, not least because there's a Toss the Boss challenge from 6 to 7pm every Sunday."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2007 Score: 14/20 "The parade of chefs through here in recent years has been almost as long as the Mardi Gras. Thankfully Colin Fassnidge (via Banc, La Grand Bouffe and est.) has had a year to settle things down. Let's hope he's going nowhere soon, as his mod-Euro menu is upholding this popular Paddo pub's pedigree."

Gourmet Traveller 2007 Restaurant Guide Score: * "It was Marques Mark Best who first drew the blueprint for a new kind of pub dining here a few years back. Under his auspices the menu became at once refined and forceful, the wine list broad and rich."

SMH Good Living Eat Out Mathew Evans score 15/20, 29/11/05 "Showing a knack for picking the right chef, the Four in Hand has a new face behind the pans. Colin Fassnidge proves he has the talent to maintain and perhaps enhance the pub's already solid reputation."

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide "There are few more pleasant pub dining rooms in Sydney - the broad window throwing sun over white cloths, the long leather banquettes, the giant squid portrait rendered, fittingly, in ink. You might not notice this of an evening, when noise rises to mighty levels, but weekend lunches are truly sublime."

SMH Good Food Guide 2005 One Hat Score 15/20 "The Four in Hand is a pub. The nice thing is that it's a real pub: not some elegant gastropub but one with noise, beer, sweat and Pay-TV sport on a large screen. Don't worry, though: you eat in a small bistro next to the bar room, the walls elegantly decorated with black-andwhite pictures of crustaceans."

Gourmet Traveller Australian Restaurant Guide 2005 * Good Wine List "The two criticisms most commonly levelled at the Four in Hand's dining room are that a) it's hard to get a table and b) it's noisy enough to make the public bar seem tame. But Sunday lunch supplies all the culinary excellence, service and value that make the restaurant so great"

Sydney Eats 2005 "This always pleasing room in brown wood, with mirrors and white linen - the archetypal bistro - went through a few changes recently. Enter executive chef Mark Best (of Marque) with his highly skilled team. And what wholly satisfying food they're turning out."

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide Australia 2004,'The menu has much in common with the best Sydney bistros and anyone familar with Bistro Moncur will be pleased to see that while the food has a similar elegant simplicity, the prices are significantly lower.'

SMH, good living, 16/9/03, Guy Griffin,'There's no better sequal to a few coldies on a hot night in the Four's old-fashioned tiled saloon next door than boudin blanc with lentils and apples or sauteed squid with tapenade on pappardelle, and finishing with a satanic dark chocolate tart with salted butter caramel. Book ahead to avoid disappointment'

SMH, good living, 23/9/03, Matthew Evans, score 15/20,'great new bistro serves well crafted mostly French regional inspired food at a price we all love.'