London: Quartier Restaurant at Eight Members Club

While I ate my dinner with my parents today, I began to contemplate the development of my palate and what I used to like and not like. Isn't it funny how over time, something that you might of hated a few years ago doesn't suddenly repel you anymore? For example, I used to despise eggplant with a thousand suns. I hated the fact that it was purple and the texture (no matter how it was cooked). Then suddenly while I was studying in London, I went out to a really decent Chinese restaurant and my friend ordered a dish that had eggplant. I decided to try a bit and I surprisingly enjoyed it! I figured it was a fluke but it wasn't! In fact, a bit of baba ganoush would be a really good snack right now. But actually I ate some for dinner....

Same thing goes for pavlova too actually....

But there are some things that will never change, and one of those things is beetroot. Also: Pickles/picked anything (which is unfortunate since I'm going to marry a Pole). Pineapple. *shudder*

Ok, I'll stop!

This next review is a bit interesting since you typically need to be a member of this place in order to get in. We weren't exactly members, but my fiancé found an awesome deal online for a "modern European" five course meal for non-members. While I was on a daytrip to Stratford-upon-Avon with my friend, I received a message asking me if I was interested! While there were a couple courses  that had particular ingredients I'm not a huge fan of, I'm always interested in trying things out when it comes to food!

Quartier Restaurant @ Eight Members Club 

1 Dysart Street, London EC2A 2BX (Closest tube: Moorgate/Liverpool Street)

Finding your way to Eight is an interesting adventure. You have to really know where you're going to find the place as it's not entirely straightforward to find on your first attempt. Appropriate for a members only club, you say? We couldn't find Street Number 1 anywhere, until I noticed this interesting looking warehouse entrance. We saw a lift and after further analysis, we figured that this must be it. The lift is pretty cute. You only have options of the Ground Floor and Floor "8". Obviously the 8th floor takes you up to reception and to the restaurant, which is on the rooftop of the private members club. The views from the rooftop (if you choose to go outside) are not too bad.

I wasn't exactly sure about what to expect. Were they going to be less attentive because we weren't members? Was the food going to be as elegant as its venue?

We started our meal with a glass of Tattinger Brut, which was a part of the five course menu (£49 for two people) and a complimentary bread plate. Always love a glass of decent champagne! Bourdain is really making me so paranoid about the "bread basket" now...dammit! A decent variety and they're even fancy with how they provide guests with butter - lids to ensure freshness! Cute. By the time we were waiting for the first course, I was pretty red. Which is a sign that perhaps I shouldn't drink all of it before the meal even begins! 

The first course was a smoked eel parfait with celery jelly and micro cress salad around melba toast. The parfait was pleasantly light, but I must admit that I didn't quite taste the celery in the celery jelly. If I hadn't been told that there was celery, I wouldn't have had any clue! Apart from the eel that was on the plate, my fiancé seemed to think that the dish was too light, almost bordering on a lack of flavour.

The second course was a beetroot cured salmon with wakame salad and black mustard dressing. Had to google wakame at the table (turns out it's edible seaweed). The colours of the dish – with the red and black – really made this dish pop. This was one of my fiancé's main highlights of the night. He really enjoyed the salmon with the  black mustard dressing. I liked it, but not as much as he did. While I enjoyed the dressing, I think I could only handle a little bit it because it was quite aggressive. The salmon was good though because I didn't really taste an overwhelming amount of the beetroot cure. 

Both my fiancé and I believed that the third course was overwhelmingly the best course of the night, which was an artichoke tortellini with a light globe artichoke velouté. I'm not even the biggest fan of artichokes and I wanted more. The velouté was just so delightfully silky, I was such a happy person by this point.

The fourth course was the pan fried corn fed chicken breast with braised baby gem and kohlrabi coulis. This was my second favourite dish of the night as the chicken was so tender and well-cooked and everything that accompanied it went so well together. My fiancé also enjoyed it but I think less so compared to the previous two dishes because they kept the skin on the chicken breast (sadly he doesn't like skin....which is a crime) and it was not as imaginative as the other dishes. Sure chicken is a bit of a boring protein, but that doesn't matter when it tastes good!

The fifth and final dish of the night was a cheesecake with saffron poached apricot. It was delicious and vibrant. Everything together was not too sweet, which is just how I like my desserts to be. It was a very good way to end our meal!

We were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed ourselves. Eight was one of my fiancé's favourite dining experience while we were in London (Caravan being the other). For the most part, the meals tasted great and looked beautiful in terms of presentation. Service was undoubtably first rate, with all of the waiters being very attentive. Everything was pretty classy. My favourite part of the restaurant decor was their kitchen - wish I had taken a photo!

The only awkward part of the night was actually leaving the restaurant. We had handed our voucher at reception as demanded, before entering the restaurant. So by the time we finished our dining experience, it was more or less like, uh can we leave now? We were unsure if the waiters realised that we had already paid for our meals. But in hindsight, we might have been a bit silly presuming that they lacked such understanding. Silly me, silly us!

Would I pay for membership though? If I was extremely loaded, then sure!

Next blog: Tea time!