Terry Durack : SMH Food Living Feb 2010 (16/20)
"This feels like food that is making a point, not just sitting there. The kitchen is also more sustainable than most, with its use of cheeks, ears and bones. The chef also grows most of the flowers, herbs and small vegetables on the rooftop. It's a more refined version of nose-to-tail cookery than at that patron saint of offal and honesty, St John in London, and is all the better for it.
Above all, there is respect here for those who enjoy good, contemporary food and wine without any histrionics and who want somewhere small and civilised in which to appreciate them. I'll stop looking for things I don't like about it now. I don't think there are any”
Australian Gourmet Traveller 2009 Restaurant Guide.
Ranked 76 Best Restaurant in Australia
"This cosy dining room has long been one of Sydney's quiet achievers and continues to deliver a unique experience."
" Service has always been a standout and continues to deliver as does the wide-ranging wine list with a strong Euro Bent."
Australian Gourmet Traveller 2009 Restaurant Guide.
Best Pub Dining
Combining Good Looks, an approachable front bar and very good value, The Four in Hand is probably the ne plus ultra of Sydney pub restaurants.
Page 42 Australian Gourmet Traveller 2009 Restaurant Guide
The Sun Herald : Feast 4th November 2007
"Pig’s Ear schnitzel isn’t a dish you bump into every day. It’s the perfect antidote to those doomsayers who say our pub menus are washed away and boring. Pig’s ear might not yet be hot and widespread in Sydney restaurants but it’s a prized ingredient in a fish-cheek kind of way."
...."Fergus Henderson, author of Nose To Tail Eating and London’s champion of the left-field cut, has a prized pressed pig’s ear recipe. Colin Fassnidge dishes up pig’s ear at the four In Hand with neck confit. Crisp schnitzel outer, moist middle and, er earily faint in pigginess, the dish hinges on its varying textures and piques of calvados jus and celeriac remoulade."...
..."his is a clever menu that lurches from simple food with a twist to dishes that wouldn’t have looked out of place at Banc itself."
"I like the small Four In Hand dining room. It doesn’t need or want a big named designer to make it over. It’s authentic, simple cosy, moodily lit but perhaps a little trying on the ear when the dinner reaches the crescendo. A painting of a giant squid peers down on punters tucking into a menu that’s surprisingly wide-reaching despite its compactness."
"A staff member explains that the Four In Hand name refers to four reins in a cart driver’s hands, which is also telling of the eating experience here. In a heartbeat, the food can lurch from French bistro to more tricked-up and technical food, yet the finery never overwhelms the feeling you’re still very much in a Sydney pub."