Four to Eight – Beautiful Simple Italian Dining

It’s said that great Italian dishes are made with only four to eight ingredients and this is the starting point for this stylish, pared-down new Italian restaurant in Covent Garden.

It’s definitely not Italian by numbers…

The welcoming door of Four To Eight

On the site of Franco & Ginos Sandwich bar, entrepreneur Yury Tereshchenko has put his first stylish stamp on the restaurant world.  He already has a diverse portfolio of businesses in London such the upmarket gym Six Three Nine, also in Covent Garden, a fashion retail site Styloko.com and a private social network for parents www.23snaps.com.

This is a successful addition.

The open door on the corner of Catherine Street near to the Aldwych draws you in to its huge light space. Big windows, high ceilings and exposed brick walls give it a loft feel. The bar and its floor-to-ceiling, climate-controlled wine cage shield the bar from the incoming diners. Perfect for daytime watching the world go by, and evening style.

Ground floor with its bar and refrigerated wine box.

Basements in restaurants are sometimes the equivalent of Siberia –  cold and unpopulated. This is different – the open kitchen down the beautifully lit staircase, radiates warmth and light. It’s intimate and glamorous and worth spending time with this good-looking, hard-working kitchen team. Oh and the very friendly and charming Alessandro. 

Executive chef is Andrew Lasseter who worked at Circus and Cocoon while the Head Chef is Ian Loynes who was formerly sous-chef at the Square.

Shinesquad lunch

The menu covers snacks, small plates, salads, mains, sides, pasta, sandwiches and desserts. It’s all reasonably priced. The wine will set you back a bit, but we had a nice bottle of Liebfraumilch for £30. We chomped our way through all these dishes discovering tiny cubes of cheese, sprinklings of leaves and drizzles of tasty sauces with excellent quality meats.

Here’s a flavour:

Calamari and Crayfish (£10) in a dense rich tomato sauce – not at all what you’d expect, no dodgy batter.

Calamari & Crayfish

Double Duck Salad (£12) topped with the yellowest yolked egg we’ve seen for ages, chard and fortina cheese.

Cured Red Mullet (£8) with tomato, treviso radicchio  and crispy sage  – a great portion, light and fresh. A favourite from the menu, thin and sour with crunch.

Cured Red Mullet

Pigeon (£9) with honey beets, grapes and chicory – not your average pigeon from the railway station. So moist.

Pigeon

Duck ravioli (£15) generous portions,  warm and earthy – served with savoy cabbage, fennel and parsnip. With such light, big pieces it was hard to keep the duck inside.

Duck ravioli

Lobster Fregola  (£20) a luminescent couscous-esque bowl of saffron, dill and tuna bottarga (salted, pressed and dried roe of tuna). Quite pricey – but oh what a colour.

Lobster Fregola

Truffled baby chicken (£15) with hock, creme pecorino fritters and celeriac puree. Sophisticated Italian comfort food. Juicy, tasty and warming. We’ll eat anything with truffle oil.

Truffled baby chicken

We’ll be counting the time until we’re back. Well done Fabio Adler and his team for this great new addition to the London restaurant scene.

Four to Eight

1 Catherine Street,
Covent Garden,
London,
WC2B 5JZ

020 7240 0664

www.fourtoeight.com