4 Angels Review
From Moscowiki
| 4 Angels |
Cuisine: European, Japanese, Russian
Address: Pokrovka ul., 5
Metro: Kitai-Gorod
Tel: 364-3339
All major credit cards are accepted.
E-mail: info@4angels.ru
Web: www.4angels.ru
Open from 12.00 until 06:00 Sun-Thu, until 12:00 Fri-Sat.
By Polly Dented
The first thing you see when entering 4 Angels are long, brown curtains hiding the view of ... something on the first floor. This is either a coatroom rendered useless by the summer season, or some secret VIP room, or just curtains hanging for the sake of it. I may never know. We were led upstairs, where the main part of the restaurant is. The interior is a nice change of pace from most Moscow establishments, with a color scheme that consists mainly of light browns and golds and with a recurring ivy-rose type theme. There are no chairs, as the seating is predominantly divan-type platforms with low backs, amply supplied with pillows, which may require some rearranging before you get comfortable. If you have a bad back, you might want to start stacking those pillows behind you as soon as you sit down. Others may prefer to construct a small fort.
Once we sat down, we were given the menu. This menu deserves a thorough perusal – and not just because of the many interesting choices: be sure to register those mind-bogglingly high prices before you start ordering. Also note that at the time of this review (1 September 2006), 4 Angels was still featuring an additional summer menu with special items on offer for a limited time.
We ordered a couple of drinks first: one Manhattan (300 Rbs) and one black currant Mojito (330 Rbs). 4 Angels actually specializes in berry mojitos, specifically raspberry and strawberry, and as far as I could tell the black currant mojito was a summer menu special which may not make it into winter, although our waiter did say it was their most popular mojito. Mr. Polly said the Manhattan was pretty strong. My black currant mojito was interesting to say the least. I couldn't decide if I really, really liked it, mainly because I just can never make up my mind about black currants in general. I certainly don’t regret trying it, and I did enjoy it, aside from the mint leaves getting stuck in my straw as is wont to happen with mojitos.
Next were the appetizers. We ordered 3 to share: the caprese salad (480Rbs), beef carpaccio (420Rbs) and scallops (580Rbs). The salad and carpaccio arrived first. I was pleasantly surprised to note the presence of avocado, pesto and cedar nuts on the caprese salad. The salad was OK, the mozzarella noticeably fresh, but there was simply too much balsamic vinegar drowning out what should have been the taste of the tomatoes, mozzarella and avocado. The pesto did the same, and the result was overwhelming. Unfortunately, due to the lack of a decent selection of avocados in this town, there wasn't much taste to the avocado anyway. The caprese could have done with more extra virgin olive oil and either a splash of balsamic or a bit of pesto, but not both at the same time.
The carpaccio looked fresh enough, however there was an unusual flavor about it and about half of the plate suffered from a tinge of fishiness, which was most unwelcome. The carpaccio was accompanied by slivers of zucchini (which seems to feature in a fair number of 4 Angel dishes) and parmesan, which I more or less successfully used to mask the weird flavor of the meat. There was also a dark brown sauce which seemed only to confuse the weirdness of the flavor that was there to begin with. I can't say if this is normal or not for 4 Angels, but it certainly was not the most enjoyable carpaccio experience I have ever had.
The scallops soon followed. Although it was nice that 4 Angels actually had scallops (many restaurants list it on their menus but then don’t actually have them), I was somewhat disappointed by the texture. It was clear that the scallops had been frozen (I guess there’s not much else landlocked Moscow has to resort to). They had also been overcooked, and then subsequently drowned in an extremely rich sauce that covered up anything that had been left of the taste of scallops. The scallop dish also featured zucchini, which was thankfully also drowned, this time in butter (I’m not a fan of zucchini, so this was welcome). Mr. Polly liked the scallops and the sauce, but I should note that he has yet to experience fresh scallops.
Before ordering our entrees, Mr. Polly ordered the restaurant’s house cocktail, also named “4 Angels" (and also in the 300-ruble range). This turned out to be a mojito with some sweet syrup in it. A bit of a disappointment, but granted, he didn’t read the description too carefully. I then proceeded to break my rule (i.e. don't order sushi in a place that specializes in European, Russian and... Japanese), and ordered a California roll (490 Rbs). Mr. Polly decided to try the shrimp with crab risotto (750 Rbs).
The menu discloses that the California roll (and some other rolls) are made with mayonnaise. 4 Angels is not the only restaurant to add mayonnaise to sushi, as many restaurants in Moscow that claim to make authentic sushi practice this perverse Russian worship of mayonnaise, putting it where it does not belong. However I faced no resistance whatsoever when I asked for my roll to be made without mayo, which is more than can be said for some places.
The roll itself was nice enough, nothing particularly spectacular. It was, however, giant, making it rather difficult for a person to fit a piece into their mouth. That’s not really something I can = complain about. I did consider cutting the pieces in half, but my knife had disappeared simultaneously with the appearance of chopsticks. The ginger was really strong, i.e. it tasted like it had been doused in lysol. But other than that, it was a pretty typical CA roll. Not bad. Not fantastic.
The shrimp arrived fully dressed in their little shrimp eyeballs, in a sauce similar to that used in the scallop dish. The crab risotto was wonderful, and the sauce went nicely with the shrimp, but the shrimp suffered from the same affliction as the defrosted scallops: mealy texture and drowned-out flavor.
For dessert we originally wanted to try the cheesecake (290 Rbs) and the intriguing poppy seed pie (290 Rbs), but unfortunately the restaurant was supplied with neither, and so we opted to share one slice of tiramisu instead (also 290 Rbs). Much like the sushi, the tiramisu was everything that you’d expect it to be, and nothing more. It was your run-of-the-mill tiramisu.
Thus our evening at 4 Angels came to an end. We both thought the service was absolutely impeccable - and English menus can be made available, along with English-speaking waitstaff, should you find your Russian lacking. The food is average at best, and sometimes spoilt by just a few minor details that make a big difference; and the prices are outrageous for what you actually get. This might be a good choice for a few drinks, a hookah and a couple of shared appetizers for the monetarily endowed, but I wouldn't recommend selecting this restaurant as your final destination of the evening if your intention is to have a fabulous dinner out on the town.
07.09.06.
