Shop Eight in New Regent Street was our choice for a celebratory dinner that was different and delicious. The upstairs restaurant seats 26, but there were just three couples last night. All the furniture is made by Rekindle from wood salvaged from red-zoned houses. We’d been forewarned and had asked for chairs with backs. Everyone else was seated on stools. We were at the end of a long central table by the window, which gave us a view of the attractive buildings of New Regent Street. Apart from a late-night hairdressing salon, this was deserted for most of the evening. It will surely be a different story once the Theatre Royal re-opens next month. Although there was no-one to share the central table with us on this occasion it would provide an opportunity for casual conversation when the restaurant is full, and sparked fond memories of similar tables at Fed Up in Ponsonby Road in the 1980’s, and the original Spagalimi’s in Colombo Street.
All Shop Eight’s food is locally sourced, and we chose to have ‘A Taste of Everything’ ($65 each). This started with bread served with olive brine, then tiny portions of the four main courses available. The first was a poached egg served with cos and baby parnsips, then gurnard, served with paua and oyster mushrooms.

Gurnard
A clam broth, complete with shells, was third

Clams
Then hogget, which the chef told us had been braised for thirteen hours, served with liver and ‘hangi’ potatoes. The latter are oven-cooked in a hessian sack with soil.

Hogget
Our dessert was a fairtrade chocolate mousse, with grapefruit zest foraged from the red zone, then cheese.
This was a wonderful and very different meal. Serving of the courses was well-paced, so we had time to savour and discuss each. Shop Eight is the place to go if you want to sample dishes that are extra-ordinary – all made from local ingredients.
“Their food not only tastes so good.
It all comes from the neighbourhood.”
Read Full Post »