Eight Over Eight … Equals ten out of ten!

For some people, Friday nights are all about the parties, but when 3 foodies get together its always going to be about the food! And what better place to start the weekend off than Eight Over Eight in Chelsea.

Now, when you think of the famous King’s Road I don’t know about you, but the first thing that comes to my mind is Made in Chelsea, (YES I’m a fan and proud!!) where everyone seems to talk about the bars, the clubs, but there are some amazing, yet underrated food places around Chelsea that need more recognition in my opinion. One of them is soon becoming one of my favourite go to places! You may or may not have known this but Eight Over Eight is part of the Ricker Restaurant Group, a group of restaurant which also includes XO, another one of my spots! What makes Eight Over Eight all the more special is that it was converted from a gastro-pub a few years ago following on from the success of E&O, and is now, with a hip interior to match with its silk ceiling lamps and hard-to-miss patterned dividers, a great spot for celeb-spotting and star-watchers. Which obviously makes sense as TLH was there!

I have to put a disclaimer out there, this blogpost is going to be a biased one! Mainly because I have had a soft spot for Eight over Eight since I celebrated a milestone birthday (I’ll let my age be a mystery for now) a few years ago, it was an epic day/night/year and I will never forget it, mostly because I remember the food being EPIC but also because I spent it with some of the most amazing people I know, but also the vibe was great. However, that was my pre-blogger days, so I wanted to go back and relive the moment with my foodie friends. Now, sidenote, every girl needs a few foodie friends in her life! My life would be incomplete without them, I might be a little skinnier but hey, who wants to be skinny when you can be a foodie instead!

So we got to the restaurant and started chewing on some delicious Edamame Beans, this excites me, if the beans are that good, the food must be insane right! The pre-meal food always excites me because it gives you a taste (pardon the pun) of what the actual meal woud be like.

We decided to go for a few sushi and dim sum options, so we ordered a few cocktails (virgin of course) and decided to go for the Chilli Salt Squid, Crunchy Sushi with Chili Mayo and Soft Shell Crab Tempura, and that was just starters.

Firstly… the sushi! I could have (and should have!) ordered every sushi dish on the menu if this was anything to go by…

I put this one first because it was a truly amazing dish.. I have not one bad thing to say about it! It did exactly what it said on the tin.. (albeit a luxe, high end tin costing an arm and a leg! but tin nonetheless!) the crunchy base, topped with salmon and spicy mayonnaise created a dish that my taste buds are still thanking me for. the kick of the spicy mayo and the chillies was just right. I could have eaten 5 more of these plates by myself if I could!

Next… was the Soft Shell Crab Tempura..

Now sometimes tempura can be hit and miss, it may be a little oily, and heavy, and, at times, too crispy. Soft shell crab on the other hand I have a weakness for, and am quite picky about putting the two together as it can go horribly wrong! However, not on this occasion – the tempura just melted in your mouth. Again there was a bit of a kick to it which I loved. The sauce concoction was a great condiment to go with it, but I do not know for the life of me what it was! All I know is that it was a deliciously chilli mix with the tempura, the crab was soft and full of flavour..

Next was the Chilli Squid..

I love a bit of squid and these little tiny pieces had so much flavour mashed up inside them, which made it an amazing food experience. Although the squid may have been a little too crispy for my liking, but the taste made up for any extra chewing I was forced to do.

That was just the starters though…. We each went for a main after all this, by this point I was struggling a little as I was so full. Soldier on though.. The main had to be my all-time favourite dish – the holy grail of all fishes – the Black Cod! Now, I have probably have had this dish in most restaurants around London so my standards are pretty high when it comes to this (I could probably do a whole blogpost on all the best places I have had Black Cod!) So on I went, ordering the black cod…

Looking at this picture makes me salivate over this dish all over again as if it wasn’t 12 hours ago but days and months ago! The cod was tender as it should be, it felt like silk on my tongue and just melted away. However, the sauce that went along with it was perfection…  absolute perfection! Just the right amount of sweetness and tanginess. Although I have to say, it was the sauce more than the cod on this occasion that did it for me. The cod, even though it was cooked beautifully, did not have much taste to it, but along with the sauce made a perfect combination hitting all the right taste buds!

Lastly, what kind of a foodie would I be if I didn’t have to force some dessert down me regardless of how full I was! Dessert was Cookies and Cream Mochi, Youtiao Doughnuts with Coffee and White Chocolate (!!) Sauce, and Blood Orange Granita…

The Mochi was my favourite of the lot, I think traditionally mochi comes in very standard flavours like coconut, or green tea, but this was a fusion of traditional and new tastes and, well, who can say no to cookies and cream!

I also have to end here saying how friendly and helpful all the staff were, they were so attentive, which definitely added to the experience of the night. The Manager himself also came over a few times for a chat, mostly to enquire why I was carrying around this great big SLR camera with me, having explained my blog to him he was more than happy for me to take pictures, so I have to give a special shoutout to Joan for making us feel so at home!

Overall, it was a great night with amazing company, but above all else the food was definitely worth it! The restaurant lives up to its name, and the vibe and ambiance of the restaurant added with the great pan-Asian flavours of all the foods, made this a truly great night.

I need to put another disclaimer out there again, the food at Eight Over Eight is NOT halal, however there are loads of options for us haloodies so don’t let it put you off from going here.

Have you guys visited Eight Over Eight yet? What are your thoughts? Would love to hear from you!!

Remember, to check out my Instagram @thelondonhaloodie and Twitter on @londonhaloodie and last but by no means least Snapchat on @thelondonhaloodie

Love always,

TLH xxx