I recently went to Four Hands for a friends birthday. My friend has recently moved into the area and had heard good things about the restaurant so we were really looking forward to it.
We arrived at the restaurant for our 6pm booking to be greeted with a "just a reminder we need you to leave by 7.45pm as we have to set up for our 8pm bookings"... What?! First I heard this!! We learnt that the bookings are done in sessions. There is 6pm or 8pm session. At the time of booking we were not made aware of this and only given the option of 6pm for dinner.
We were still waiting on a couple of people to arrive which made the waitress edgy and keep reminding us over and over again about us moving on by 7.45 with a gentle "I don't want to rush you but"... Too late!
We ordered drinks and the house bread and hummus dip. By 6.30pm some of the party hadn't shown up yet, we were advised it would be best to just order pizzas as the whole tapas and pizza experience would take time and would be best to try another time. So those of us that were there gave our orders which was returned with another reminder of our 7.45 curfew. By 7pm our last 2 friends had arrived they were followed to the table by the waitress and their orders were taken and issued another "I don't want to rush you but".
Finally our pizzas arrived, we had the roasted chicken, peking duck, pepperoni and chilli prawn... Delicious!
We finished our food with 10 minutes to spare.
The waitress returned to our table to remind us that we have 10 minutes which wouldn't leave us enough time for dessert. A couple more drinks were ordered and the bill was requested.
Our last drinks arrived as did the bill to which was met with our 7 minute warning. We paid, finished our drinks and left with 1 minute to spare.
All in all the food (that we were allowed to order) was delicious but the fact that every time we saw the waitress we were reminded of our 7.45pm curfew with a "I don't want to rush you but" made the whole experience rushed and unenjoyable!! read more