Restaurants / Reviews
Four Wise Monkeys: ‘Pan-Asian fun times’ – restaurant review
The cocktails at Four Wise Monkeys are all named after classic kung-fu films of the 1970s. They are made by the same team as Hyde & Co and the Milk Thistle, so you just know they are going to be good.
That same team – also behind The Ox and Bambalan – have got the Midas touch when it comes to new openings, with this latest restaurant a bigger and better version of their Seven Lucky Gods in Wapping Wharf.
Serving Asian fusion food amid retro vibes, Four Wise Monkeys on Corn Street describe themselves as an “Asian super diner” serving breakfast, lunch or dinner, or just Japanese beer and those cocktails in the style of Tokyo’s izakaya bars.
is needed now More than ever
Replacing what for several years had been Pata Negra, this new restaurant was entirely planned since the Covid-19 outbreak so its dining room has been designed with social distancing in mind.
The open kitchen remains, but now the Iberico pork secreto from pata negra pigs can be found in an Iberico katsu sando (£13) and the glass cabinet where legs of ham used to hang now sees branded Four Wise Monkeys t-shirts for sale.
Sesame prawn toast with guacamole – photo by Martin Booth
Ox cheek rendang – photo by Martin Booth
The food here comes out of the kitchen when it is ready, with the menu divided up into snacks and small plates, noodles and rice, sandos and buns, and sides.
More cross-continental fusion comes with the sesame prawn toast (£7.50), stuffed with succulent crustacean and served with a creamy guacamole dip. Who would have thought those two could form such a tasty combination?
The pan-Asian fun times continued with a dish already very familiar to Bristol palates: the gyoza (£7 for three) from Eatchu just a few hundred yards away in St Nick’s Market, which here can either be pork and Chinese chive or mushroom and kimchi.
Mushroom and kimchi gyozas – photo by Martin Booth
Mapo tofu dan dan rice – photo by Martin Booth
Cheeseburger sando – photo by Martin Booth
A cheeseburger sando (£9.50) sees a double beef patty and double cheese served within a pillowy Japanese milk bread, known as shokupan.
Other sandos – familiar to Seven Lucky Gods fans – on the menu are the aforementioned Iberico katsu, a tofu katsu, and grilled cheese and kimchi.
The kitchen had surprisingly run out of noodles on Saturday lunchtime, so my wife’s tofu dan dan noodles (£11) became dan dan rice, with a fiery kick from the spicy Sichuan sauces.
Served with its requisite steamed rice was an ox cheek rendang (£13), with big chunks of meat that almost defy physics by being beautifully soft, accompanied by an earthy curry with just a hint of coconut.
Among the cocktails are Flying Guillotine and A Touch of Zen, and the Hyde & Co team have deftly wielded their flying guillotine here to create a touch of zen at their latest highly impressive new opening.
Four Wise Monkeys, 30 Clare Street, Bristol, BS1 1YH
0117 927 6762
www.fourwisemonkeysbristol.com
Main photo by Martin Booth
Read more: Klosterhaus: ‘Proudly and exuberantly extravagant’ – restaurant review
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
