No. 8 Lister Square

Great burger for lunch, mojito too. Highly recommend. Good food, drink and service. Good location too.

I had to find an alternative place for dinner last Friday at very short notice (I had basically cocked up and was having a real squeaky bottom moment) and these guys saved the day. Have been here for lunch before which was ok (would have preferred a slightly wider choice) but their A-​game is dinner. One of our party is a real picky eater but we accept it as her banter is excellent, otherwise she would have been kicked to the kerb long ago. Anyway, the guys here deconstructed 3 main dishes to accommodate her food madness with barely the bating of an eye. Plus because of the horrible weather that night, they where happy to rearrange around us so we could keep our table for drinks without us having to ask and didn’t get peed off when we kept gabbing instead of getting our eyes down on the menu and just giving them our damn order. Desserts are pretty substantial so ideal for sharing. So 5 stars all round and the bill was very reasonable considering the amount of gins we tanned.

The only redeeming feature of our dinner here this evening was that our cocktails were good and wine was decent at £3.95 a glass.
My companion had won a competition for 3 courses for two. We weren’t told this had to be from their restaurant festival menu, but alas, it was a free dinner so hey ho.
My truffle oil risotto starter was undercooked and flavourless. The cheese crisp was laid on top of the risotto so it was less ‘crisp’ and more chewy blob of cheese. The companion’s mackerel terrine came wrapped in leek which was stringy, unable to be cut and pretty much inedible which was less of a concern than the collection of fish bones he picked out of the terrine. We are not off to a good start.
We both decided on pheasant breast for our mains, with a chestnut stuffing, fried leeks and red currant jelly. Both were overcooked and so dry we both wanted gravy. Mine was burnt of the bottom to the point I couldn’t cut through it so just had to cut off the bottom and leave it on the side. Chestnuts seemed to have been substituted by cashews. My fried leeks were so over fried they were hard nuggets. The dish also came with two stalks of tarragon on top, slightly wilted by the heat lamp. These were quickly discarded to the side. The best part was the redcurrant jelly which I suspect may have come out of a jar.
We steered clear of the bubblegum panacotta with licorice (just, why!?!) and instead went for after no. 8 Panna cotta with chocolate and raspberry tuille. Sounds nice enough. Except it was shards of WHITE chocolate with some raspberry sauce. A thick layer of badly tempered chocolate on top of a layer of what seemed like clotted cream and some vaguely minty something underneath. His wasn’t set underneath and was more mousse. My ‘cream’ has separated and was a bit lumpy. When we asked our waitress if it was supposed to be like this, she had absolutely no clue.
They subbed us the collection of chocolate tarts instead which were OK but nothing spectacular and comped us a coffee each for the trouble.
There was then a mix up with the bill as they had charged us for dinner even though they had invited him to dinner. Then asked if he ‘could prove’ he’d won a competition. They did eventually find ‘a note on the reservation’.
The live music from the bar downstairs did nothing to help the ambience of a somewhat deserted dining room.
I wasn’t expecting a lot and we were both gobsmacked by how bad it was.
To their credit, the fish n chips and meat pie which we saw going to other tables actually looked half decent but unfortunately I won’t be back to try them out based on my experience tonight.