Eight Over Eight

We absolutely loved our evening at Eight over Eight. The staff was wonderful and the food even better. It is a very trendy and lively place but suitable for all ages. The food is just amazing and better than so many Michelin-star restaurants we've tried. I highly recommend it.

I came to eight over eight on a busy Thursday evening in january this year and was impressed by the food offered and the wine list was fantastic. However, I felt extremely uncomfortable as I was felt the 2 hours slot I was given for our table was rushed by staff. I even overhead a very smug Australian manager bossing the sweet Italian or Spanish girl we had as a waitress to hurry us along and ‘get us out’…I didnt appreciate this as I payed good money to dine there and was taking my husband out as a mid-week treat for his hard work over christmas and new year. The guy then proceeded to give us a smug smirky grin as we were given our coats and ushered out.

A group of our friends dined at the newly refurbed Eight Over Eight on Friday evening. We didn't have a booking & were asked to wait in the bar for a table. As it was a celebration we all discided to go for cocktails, which were amazing good. The bartenders were recommending there favourites, so we when for it. The new layout of the bar was looking much better, than I remembered…
After about 30 minutes our table was available & we went through to the restaurant, which had a good buzz to it. We were greeted by a friendly waiter, who guided us through the new changes on the menu. We were recommended to share everything, so we could try more itmes. The food was very prompt to the table & we didn't have to wait long for anything.
As I had only been a few times to Eight over Eight, I thought the experience was flawless & we are all planning to make it our local. Thank you Eight over Eight for coming back.

Having been a long time devotee of Ricker Restaurants, Eight Over Eight has always been a personal favourite. After the long awaited re-opening, we decided to wait a little while to head back and avoid the ‘new opening’ crowd. I must say, any problems they were having have clearly been ironed out as our experience of Eight Over Eight was better than I remember. Although the bar and restaurant were still very busy, the food was exceptional, staff were helpful and polite, and it was lovely to see some old faces. Clearly worth the wait!

The food was very good, some of the dishes were excellent, for instance the pork belly and the papaya salad. The atmosphere is pleasant. The waiters seemd trained at the catering unit of Her Majesty's Prison Service.

Eight Over Eight had been greatly missed by my friends and I. It always used to be somewhere we would make a special journey to get to but my experience over the weekend means it is certainly not somewhere I'll be rushing back to.

Our bar nibbles didn't materialise and staff responded poorly when we chased up our order. For staff to be inexperienced, over-stretched or ill-trained in an establishment of Eight Over Eight's calibre is poor practice. For the manager in charge of the staff to appear not to care and address our concerns in an impolite way is inexcusable.

The refurbishment hadn't changed much from what I remember. This could have been an opportunity for Eight Over Eight to excite their regulars with an enhanced interior and atmosphere.

Unfortunately the whole experience was underwhelming. I hope that the new restaurant in east London can restore my enthusiasm for Ricker's restaurants.

Eight over Eight has been a favourite of ours for a long time and we were happy to hear when it reopened and therefore keen to return. That said, I now think they probably shouldnt have bothered to refurbish if they intend to staff it the way they have. It was moderately busy (definately not rammed like the old days when Ollie was in charge!), however we had to wait 45min to receive some bar snacks. The waitress had forgotten to place our order! We had to enquire twice as to where our food was and was so fed up that we decided to leave and eat at another restaurant. Perhaps the waitress was young and inexperienced however there was certainly no excuse for the manager who flippently remarked that he was sorry that it happened but perhaps he will see us again and perhaps not. What a way to bring back the customers! With service like this, we definately wont be back. Eight over Eight has lost its edge.

The below review was written before the year-long closure in 2010. The restaurant is now open again under the same management.

Eight over eight is a classic example of a restaurant resting on its laurels. The formerly less known sibling of E&O in Notting Hill started drawing large crowds and instead of rising to the challenge, it started dropping its standards. This is very dangerous when serving a cuisine which is highly dependent on execution and good service. A pity.