Four in Hand Hotel Ph: 9362 1999 ; 105 Sutherland St, PADDINGTON 2021 www.fourinhand.com.au Modern European, $$$, * for Food Open Lunch Tue-Sun noon-2.30pm Dinner Tue-Sat 6.30pm-10pm. Sun 6.30pm-8.30pm; Licensed, BYO; AE DC MC V Chef Colin Fassnidge (30-8-10) Owner Joseph Saleh & Paul Bard (21-12-09)

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

Gourmet Traveller 2011 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "No longer the quiet achiever, the Four in Hand is a standout pub restaurant - more of a bistro, really - that showcases the reach of one of Sydney's most interesting chefs. Colin Fassnidge"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2010 Score: 15/20

Gourmet Traveller 2010 Australian Restaurant Guide Score: * "The bistro-trad interior of this cosy pub dining room belies Colin Fassnidge's innovative approach to food. An amuse-bouche of curried cauliflower soup with citrus packs a mighty punch, as does an entree of brandade soup with tender chickpeas and briny mussels"

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

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

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

Sydney Morning Herald Clara Iaccarino, 10-4-2007

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2007 Score: 14/20

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."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Living Eat Out Mathew Evans

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."

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2005 One Hat Score 15/20

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.'

Sydney Morning Herald, good living, 16/9/03, Guy Griffin

Sydney Morning Herald, good living, 23/9/03, Matthew Evans, score 15/20