Review in the Guardian 20th November 2020 Grace Dent
REVIEWS
Review in the Guardian 20th November 2020 Grace Dent
(Excerpt)
“Which is why, come February 2021, I’m hoping to be able to make another pilgrimage to Fourth and Church, which turned out to be one of the greatest restaurants I’ve been to in the past few years. This is a small, independent labour of love – imaginative small plates, dizzying wine line, fabulous service - that I found out about only after several of its regulars got in touch feeling rather rattled that Sam Pryor and Paul Morgan’s neighbourhood joint was being ignored.
“OK, I’ll pop by for a few plates,” I thought, expecting something perfunctory and ending up with egg all over my stupid face because the place is joyous. The menu is a riot of ideas. Confit duck beignets with a puddle of piquillo pepper ketchup from the snacks list, to munch with your first, very good martini. I dream of Pryor’s crunchy fried chicken thighs in breadcrumb with kimchi remoulade, and his trout cured with pastrami-style seasoning and arranged prettily on crisp bread with pickled onion and cream cheese.
Fourth and Church is an example of why we will always need restaurants, no matter what, because I love to be at the absolute mercy of such flights of culinary fancy. Warm lamb shoulder croquettes arrive with pickled quince and rosemary-infused aïoli, while mackerel is served on freshly made blue corn tacos with pickled jalapeños and a heavenly marjoram slaw. Charles wittered on for days about his grilled duck heart brochettes, which came with wilted greens festooned in an earthy, pistachio-based slant on dukkah.
“These people are kind of maniacs, and I love it,” I remember saying as we decided to ditch the car and order a bottle of wine from the thousands stacked on the heaving shelves behind us. Puddings were a fantastic lemon posset, served in a glass and loaded with chunks of almond streusel, and a pretty much perfect chocolate marquise with cultured cream. We were making plans to come back for a forthcoming birthday before we even asked for the bill, which is the highest compliment you can pay any restaurant, though of course that may well now have to be rethought as the rug is pulled out from under all of hospitality once again.”
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The Good Food Guide
An ever-changing menu of imaginative small and sharing plates accompanied by a list of carefully sourced, exciting wines from small producers – that is what’s on offer at this smart-casual restaurant set in a parade of shops on a busy main road in Hove. Since refurbishment in 2019, when the exterior was decorated a very smart blue and yellow and the deli counter was replaced with a rather chic, stool-lined dining counter – ‘RIP the amazing sandwiches at lunchtime’ – the restaurant feels like a much more cohesive space, more suited to chef Sam Pryor’s imaginative and adventurous cooking. It still partly functions as a wine shop, however, so if you are sitting at one of the tables (or at one of the two window counters overlooking the Gothic concrete Brutalist edifice that is Hove Town Hall), expect to have customers or staff standing by your table at some point in your meal, peering at the shelves behind you. The menu is split into four untitled sections, falling roughly into the categories of snacks, small plates, larger plates and vegetable side dishes – all are suitable for sharing. A selection of the snacks alone, perhaps paired with a glass or two of sherry (a particular passion of co-owner Paul Morgan) would make an excellent lunch and give an indication of the kitchen’s freewheeling style that sees Padrón peppers served with curry salt and Middle Eastern-style pistachio dukkah flavouring a Sicilian caponata. But further exploration is highly recommended. A beautifully presented line-caught bass ceviche with sea buckthorn, compressed radish and tarragon oil, with blue corn tostadas on the side particularly impressed at a test meal. Prices may have risen post-pandemic, but ‘genuinely friendly, knowledgeable and efficient service, the great-value wine list and the knowledge that there will be something new and thrilling to eat would soon tempt us back’.
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Review In the Telegraph, 2nd November 2020, Keith Miller
BBC Good Food, Andy Lynes
National restaurant critics have beaten a path to the door of this recently refurbished wine bar, restaurant and wine shop to praise the regularly changing seasonal menu of wildly inventive small plates and excellent wine list and drinks programme. Take a seat at the bar to chat to co-owner Paul Morgan about his passion for sherry while enjoying ‘nduja croquetas with piquillo ketchup. Book ahead for the seven-course tasting menu (available Fridays and Saturdays only) that highlights chef Sam Pryor’s most sophisticated dishes such as smoked eel with chestnuts, crab-apple mustard and eel dashi. Small plates from £3.50.
