Eight Over Eight - Chelsea, London

After having a lovely time at Will Ricker's E&O and having always appreciated the sultry Mexican ambience of La Bodega Negra, we were keen to get another taste of his restaurants, and hastened over to Eight Over Eight, nestled in the World's End Section of King's Road. Upon taking our seats at a nice big booth table it became readily apparent that the residents of Chelsea have a soft spot for pan-Asian cuisine, as the restaurant was already teeming with a well-heeled and jolly retinue, and this was quite early on a Wednesday evening.

Originally opened in 2003, the room plays to its strengths. An abundance of natural light yawns in through its outsized windows. The chic pub conversion retains its wooden floors, and offers a bar area partitioned off from the dining rooms by a beautiful cast iron screen. Tables are clad in white cloth and circumscribed by smart black chairs. It's exactly what you'd expect out of a Chelsea restaurant - buttoned-up yet boisterous.

We kicked off our meal with an array of small plates. Tiger prawn and black cod gyoza managed to smoulder. Adding the rather unctuous fish was a work of genius - it played off the prawn and dumpling with aplomb. Crunchy sushi with kimchi mayo saw the rice discs flash-fried so that they offered a crispy texture, then topped them off with a garlicky creamy hit of flavour. An inside out role of succulent flame-seared salmon encasing avocado and topped with saline salmon roe was as pleasing to the eye as it was to the palate.

For our main, we revisited the black cod. This iteration found it marinated in a sweet miso and flame-broiled. Its opaline shards calved off at the slightest pressure of the fork and melted upon the tongue. It was a force to be reckoned with. We padded this out with a side of steamed broccoli dressed in teriyaki sauce, and opted to wait an additional fifteen minutes for a dessert of chocolate fondant with a matcha ice cream. Suffice to say, it was worth the wait.