Number 8 Restaurant and Wine Bar

Service staff we found was a bit pretentious. it was hard to get their service and the food was nothing special and albeit overpriced.

What can be better than spending an afternoon eating, drinking and being with friends overlooking the river on a fine autumn day? Number 8 is a classy establishment so it's not cheap and it is busy so it's worth making a booking ahead of time. The food is beautifully presented and the service was great. The inside part can be noisy and a bit cramped. Leave room for dessert or you will regret it!

Unfortunately it's a case of hit and miss at Number 8. I've dined there on more than a few occasions and you can't be sure if you're going to come away pleased or not. You really need to book an outdoor table or it will feel as though you are sharing a table with the people next to you, it's that tight! They can bring out some really good dishes and other times they can leave you feeling disappointed. I will say though, they make the best Espresso Martini around!

It was a special occasion for us so we have booked a table in Number 8 in advance and it was supposed to be on their terrace area. On our arrival (we were there on time as we live just 5 minutes walk from the place) it appeared that for some reason the administrator didn't have any notes about the terrace so we were seated at a terrible table near the door to the terrace (to be fair it was the one closest to the terrace :) ) and as an alternative we were offered a table at the terrace if we agreed to leave at 8 (it was 6:40 at that time already so we didn't really think it was an option plus the way it was suggested only made us feel even less welcomed...) We set at our "almost on the terrace table" for about 5 minutes looking at each other and slowly realising that it's wasn't the level of service we normally expect from a restaurant so we had to apologise and leave. We were afraid that the night was spoiled but fortunately within next 10 minutes we found a very nice ...read more

Fortunately the food was superb. Sadly the service was terrible. It took 20mins to seat our small group of 3 at an already empty table. In that time we ordered drinks at the bar that didn't arrive until 10mins after we were seated. It took forever to take our order and we weren't offered a wine list or cracked pepper when our meals arrived. Our napkins weren't laid and when we finally did get a wine list which is an enormous codex we were expected to know what we wanted straight away.
We ordered drinks, entree, mains and wine we thought we would get the service an expensive restaurant would imply. Clearly their waitstaff were not well trained as a couple who walked in just after we were seated only ordered a main (no entree, no drinks or wine) and they got their napkins laid, cracked pepper and full attention.
A shame the service ruined the whole experience of dining at Number 8. The food was perfectly cooked and if we could be guaranteed a tip would go ...read more