Four Seasons@Caps Square

10 years ago, I had my best ever siu ngap (roasted duck) in Four Seasons Bayswater, London. This shop was hugely popular among Londoners as well as Malaysian students in the UK. It was like a pilgrimage site of mine when I visited London back then.

10 years later in Malaysia, I heard that Four Seasons has opened its 'flagship' brunch in Malaysia! I was exhilarated! I immediately went to try it out with my family.

Upon arrival at Caps Square, I was impressed with this newly refurbished building. It's quite happening with many restaurants and an upmarket grocery store.
Four Seasons is at the quieter side of Caps Square, facing Alliance Bank building, not at the same row as the other pubs and bistros. From the outside, it immediately brought back the reminiscence of the Bayswater Four Seasons. A glass window with the famous roast duck, roast pork and roast chicken hanging, and the chefs chopping away the mouth-watering roast meat behind. I was thinking to myself, good sign. The exterior looks 90% the same...

As we entered the shop and looked at the menu, my high expectation plunged to the abyss! How can they not have their signature dish - the aromatic crispy duck?!! And they don't even serve the famous Sang Har Mien (Lobster noodle)!! It's completely unacceptable!

Disappointed, we made do with the roasted duck, which was actually quite good for Malaysia standard but of course incomparable with the one in London. I must comment that the chilli oil was awesome! Love that!

Among all the roasted meat, my favourite is always Char Siu. Unfortunately, the char siu in Four Seasons already sold out that day!! It was only 8pm then! How ridiculous! I think it's solely bad supply chain as there were not that many customers anyway. I ended up ordering the white chicken marinated with chinese wine (guai fai kai 贵妃鸡) instead. Surprisingly, I quite liked the chicken, especially the fragrance of the chinese wine and ginger sauce. Yum yum! However, my cousin thought otherwise, he complained that the chicken tasted funny...


Worth a mention is the Ngao Lam Pou (claypot beef stew), which serves very juicy and tender beef brisket, beef tribe and tendon with turnip. The tendon especially, was heavenly!

Besides all the meaty dishes, we also ordered some light dishes like Salt & pepper Tofu, which was very nice and crispy. Also some green vege and a bowl of dumpling soup which were ok but unremarkable.


The most disappointing was the seafood noodles. Being Four Seasons, they not only don't serve the famous Sang Har Mein, their version of seafood noodles sucked big time! It was so bad I would rather eat in a roadside stall!

At the end of the meal, they didn't even provide the complimentary fruit platter like what the Four Seasons Bayswater practise. That was such a let down too.

So, conclusion is, the Four Seasons was just an over-priced chinese restaurant with passable food, and nowhere near the Four Seasons standard in London.

Now come to think about it, maybe the Four Seasons at Bayswater wasn't all that good afterall. Maybe back then we poor students were deprived of good Chinese food, maybe we were just looking for the taste of nostalgia...