Eight Over Eight

Eight Over Eight Chelsea Restaurants

After having a lovely time at Will Ricker‘s E&O and having always appreciated the sultry Mexican ambience of La Bodega Negra, we were keen to get another taste of his restaurants, and hastened over to Eight Over Eight, nestled in the World‘s End Section of King‘s Road.

Upon taking our seats at a nice big booth table it became readily apparent that the residents of Chelsea have a soft spot for pan-Asian cuisine, as the restaurant was already teeming with a well-heeled and jolly retinue, and this was quite early on a Wednesday evening.

Originally opened in 2003, the room plays to its strengths.

It‘s exactly what you‘d expect out of a Chelsea restaurant - buttoned-up yet boisterous.

Tiger prawn and black cod gyoza managed to smoulder.

REVIEW: Eight Over Eight, King's Road, Chelsea - The Foodaholic

Why I had only managed to visit now is beyond me.The restaurant is part of the well-known Ricker Group.

Will Ricker now owns a multitude of well-known restaurants in London such as XO, Casa Negra and La Bodega Negra, all of which I still have not been to.

Soft shell crab with jalapeno was out next and arrived in a little wooden basket.

The crab was a little hollow and needed a bit more meat.

The chocolate fondant with green tea ice cream had a fifteen minute wait, I was happy as it meant I got a short breather between courses.

Restaurant review: Eight Over Eight in Chelsea is one of London's ...

Sure, with its rep among the Chelsea set and a fun, sociable approach to dining that includes a DJ, you’re guaranteed a good time, but how does the food fit into all this?

Your cheery waiter might start by recommending the house cocktail of the night (passion fruit martini when we visited, which was the exemplary mixture of sour and sweet), followed by a gentle nudge towards which of the dishes on the copious dim sum and sushi selection were worth trying.

Had we had both time and appetites, I suspect that most of them would have been sampled; as was, the yellow tail sashimi, beef gyoza and the house signature dish of crispy squid stood out for both fantastic presentation and exquisite taste.

Actually, the laid-back house beats were an excellent complement to the black cod and special of sliced sirloin steak that we enjoyed as a main course, because something that Ricker has always understood better than so many of his peers is that dining is a fun, social experience, not a dry examination of how a particular ingredient has been served up.

One doesn’t go to Eight over Eight for fine dining; one instead goes for a great night out.

Eight Over Eight restaurant review 2013 June London | Asian ...

The Eight Over Eight dining room has good natural light on a summer evening, though with the wooden floor noise levels are high when it is busy, which it always seems to be.

The place was heaving with the gilded youth of Chelsea this evening, with the bar completely full as well as the dining room, and tables being turned.

Mushroom toban yaki (£16.50) had nine different mushrooms cooked together in a spicy broth, and this quite simple dish was fine, though the broth was a little sharp (12/20).

Prawn pad Thai (£11) had good texture and correctly cooked prawns (13/20), which was better than Malaysian noodles (£4.50) which were rather heavy in texture (12/20).

The bill quickly mounts up as you add the various little dishes, and with a bottle of champagne (£63) between us the total came to £83 a head, which felt like quite a lot of money for the food level that was delivered.

Eight Over Eight | Restaurants in Chelsea, London

This swish Chelsea restaurant is part of Will Ricker’s mini-chain of stylish pan-Asian eateries (Great Eastern Dining Room, E&O, XO).

Elegant oriental lampshades hang from the ceiling of the airy black and white dining room, which is populated by a clientele dressed in the expected chinos or cocktail dresses.

The menu includes everything from sushi to dumplings, curries to barbecue dishes – all cooked to a high standard.

Highlights of our meal included a generous portion of pad thai (one of the best we’ve found in London), and the restaurant’s signature salt and chilli squid, which was attractively presented in a newspaper cone.

To drink, there’s Asian beer, wine, saké or tea and a reasonably priced cocktail menu.