Eight4Nine Restaurant & Lounge

4/16/25: dinner with a friend. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we lost track of time. We started the evening sitting outside, but the gusty wind drove us inside to a beautiful table by the window. The staff made this transition very smooth despite it being a busy day at the restaurant. My friend claimed that her drink was excellent although a bit on the strong side. I enjoyed the gluten-free chicken masala and she said that the happy hour hamburger, which she had on a gluten-free bun, was excellent. Our total for dinner for two, with shared brussel sprouts as an appetizer, and the one cocktail was about $76 before tip.

Food was great. Starters of octopus, pear salad, and roasted carrots were delicious. Mains of pork chop, cauliflower steak, and milanese were generous and well done. Service we found to be bad from start to finish. To start: we were ignored at check in, then told to follow someone to our table.. except the staff member was first showing someone else to *their* table; we didn't know whether we were coming or going. We felt there was no sense of genuinely welcoming guests, just shuttling people through. We were eventually seated right by the toilets. Someone has to sit there, I suppose; but there were other tables available, and our sense was that this was restaurant policy for diners with children. (We had our 11 and 8 year old with us. The next table along had a similarly aged child, hence the inference.) The table was noisy and by the thoroughfare to the toilets and kitchens. Not a great start. From there, the only word that came repeatedly to mind was: Clunky. Drink order took ages; our server didn't return to take our food order; the order was eventually taken by someone else; food when brought out was dumped on table unceremoniously and shoved in and around our drinks and side plates etc; nobody throughout asked about allergies (one of us was gluten intolerant. Fortunately gluten free options were clearly marked on menu.. but server still dished out bread to everyone.); original server did not once ask if we needed more drinks - I eventually collared him and asked for a glass of wine; he seemed surprised, as was I; etc etc. The bottom line here is that, despite the really good food, this venue evidently has no genuine focus or concern on customer service. Staff moved around at pace, but with little or no focus on customer experience. Ours was terrible. They seemed confused when the tip reflected this. Perhaps they should take a moment to train their staff properly and reorient the service to match the great work being done by the kitchen.

Great menu of drinks and food. Greens from the Garden salad dressing was excellent, if you like a light salad order this one. If you like octopus to start that is a good way to go as well. Our party ordered fish, pasta, and the chicken pot pie. All very different and all delicious. No desert because we were too full from the entrees. Many of the dishes are gluten free or can be made gluten free.