8
8ers are gonna ate
THIS RESTAURANT RELOCATED TO LIVERPOOL IN FEB 2023
8 is quite unlike anything else I’ve experienced, so it’s difficult to know where to start, other than their website, which declares it’s an “immersive dining experience… interactive, dynamic and pioneering.” It’s got balls… I’ll give it that.
On arrival we’re whisked to the V8 Lounge for pre-dinner drinks and settle ourselves into one of 8 red velvet double booths. Then, heady with my whisky cocktail, I decide it has the feel of a lap dancing club and I’m intrigued as to just how immersive the experience is going to be.
As each pair of diners arrive, it builds a sense of muted excitement tinged with expectation; all fuelled by a pumping soundtrack. We’re then shown a video that’s totally lost on me before being led into a room that immediately feels more night club than dining room.
Interior 8 - Main Dining Room
It’s a 16 seater chef’s table, set up for 8 couples in a single sitting with a tasting menu of 8 courses at £88. It’s dark and blue-lit, with a neon light infinity mirror along one wall and spotlights for the food. There’s a video screen and soundtrack refusing to play the role of wallflower, but it’s an atmosphere that still manages to be relaxed and convivial.
Neon light infinity mirror
A trio of amuse bouche awaits us — each inspired by flavour memories of family picnics; cheese and pineapple, presented as a mini ice cream cone; beef tartare on a cracker and a salmon tart topped with salmon roe.
Picnic in the woods / Amuse bounce - Beef tartare
Centre stage are 8’s ‘brigade’ of 4, busying themselves with final preparations, as well as ensuring we’re fully relaxed, watered and primed for the evening ahead, including an introduction to a book of illustrations that drop mini clues about each menu item. Head Chef Andrew Sheridan then welcomes us all explaining the concept of 8 with the dishes representing his ‘life and career on a plate’, mostly themed around the number… oh yes, you’ve guessed it!
V8 - Drink / Tart
First up is ‘V8’ based on the brand of ‘super juice’ he grew up with. It’s a broth consommé made from 8 vegetables and herbs, with the pulp providing the filling in a delicate pastry tart, topped with slow roasted tomatoes and jelly. Each glug and bite must surely tick off one of your five a day… it’s a solid if unspectacular start.
Oxidised - Cod / Caviar
But the next course—Oxidised—is full on fabulous. A scoop of Exmoor caviar sits on top a piece of cod that seems impossibly juicy given its thick and fabulous crust. A white wine sauce is split with a splash of chartreuse adding subtle, sweet herbal spiciness and has me thoroughly grateful for the bread on mopping purposes. It’s a sticky milk loaf covered in dashi, bring pure umami to the whole dish—it’s at least deserving of a co-star role.
We finally get to the drinks pairing with ‘Anything But Chardonnay’; a cocktail made from brown butter vodka infused with French oak, yellow chartreuse, 12 year old calvados and a bit more of this and that to create a glass of ‘wine’ that’s straight from pumping iron at the gym.
Square Root of 8 (Drinks Pairing / Bourbon)
Next is ‘Square Root of 8’ a super-intensified hit of liquefied roast chicken dinner with added crunch from smoked almonds… but this demands the extra elevation provided by the accompanying bourbon that’s just a perfect marriage.
Lucky 8 - Pork / Cheese
‘Lucky 8’ draws on his memory of his pimped up version of his Mum’s bacon sandwich; treacle bread topped with pork liver parfait, homemade pickle and cheddar cheese, draped in gossamer-thin slices of cured pork fat (lardo). We’re encouraged to get messy with it… “eat with your hands”… and it’s quite simply three bites of utter filth. This meal is well and truly back on track.
Again there’s a dream drink pairing… this time a kombucha with acidic green apples that cuts laser-like through the wonderful sweet richness of each bite.
Eight Days a Week - Apple / Scallop
‘Eight days a week’ is diced scallop cured in apple vinegar with apple and wood sorrel oil. It’s a wonderful balance of sweet, sour, and savoury that’s amplified by the umami of a reduced dashi cream. And this is only one of two dishes paired with a wine; in this case a Furmint—a Hungarian white wine—that was steely dry and almost benign without food, but marvellously layered and complex with it.
Resurrection - Beef / Truffle
Resurrection—unless I missed something—strays away from the 8s and hangs off his own chef’s bible, centred around the finest ingredients. This lands as A5 Wagyu, in a beef sauce with pickled onions, topped with grated truffle. The flavour of beef off the 95% fat is cranked to 11, but even that fabulous pleasure is trumped by the way it dissolves in the mouth, whilst managing to retain some bite. The accompanying Rioja is well up to the task of going toe to toe with all this richness.
As well as Andrew’s introductions to all the courses (and sommelier Jake’s engaging information on the drinks pairings) there’s lots of spontaneous chat too. It’s been entertaining and insightful; on enquiring about the Wagyu and what it means to be A5… he heads off to fetch the joint to show us the 95% fat marbling, gained from a diet of beer and grain. At least I know what I look like inside.
8-10-2006 - Lemon Cake
8-10-2006 (from his first day as a chef) delivers a drizzle cake glazed with a lemon & butterscotch sauce that comes with clotted cream and a roasted lemon marmalade. It’s paired with a limoncello made from same marmalade and topped off with lemon rapeseed oil; it’s syrupy but not especially sweet and manages to offer more than a hint of nuttiness.
8.01 - Mint / Chocolate (1/2)
8.01 (After 8!) delivers two hits of minty chocolate. The first brings layers of sponge soaked in a mint liqueur, a mint choc chip crisp and mint jelly.
8.01 - Mint / Chocolate 2/2
The second is a pair of deluxe ‘choc ices’ filled with iced white chocolate and peppermint parfait. There’s another fine drinks pairing with chocolate wine—a port like drink infused with cacao nibs, barbecued hazelnuts and some drops of chocolate oil.
‘Horlicks’
Our parting gift from the kitchen is a ‘Horlicks’ that tastes every bit as you’d expect, but turns out to be sweet potato, miso, white chocolate and whisky. It sums up the food tonight; packed full of flavour, whilst never taking itself too seriously.
The bill of £376.87 lands with a strangely pleasant surprise. It’s been so long since I booked I’ve forgotten I’ve already paid £304 up front.
Having only launched in October last year, this is just their fourth week open and the first since restrictions were lifted. I’m not convinced the ‘pioneering’ aspects always work and I’d guess it’s all a work in progress. That said, it’s undeniably fresher and less formal than the usual fine dining experience—certainly from most of those with Michelin stars in the city—and when it comes to the food, 8 is there or thereabouts.
RECOMMENDED
ICC, Centenary Square, Birmingham, B1 2EA
