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Is Will Ricker the Peter Langan of our generation? Not only does this 41-year-old Australian have the Midas touch when it comes to restaurants--he owns E & O, Cicada and the Great Eastern Dining Rooms, in addition to 8 Over 8--but he's got a wicked way with the ladies as well. At this year's Tatler Little Black Book party at Tramp, he left with Holly Valance. They looked as though they'd be sharing more than a cab, too. How long can it be before he lands the big one--I mean Kylie, of course, not the Restaurant Association's Restaurateur of the Year Award.

For fans of E & O--and I go there about once a fortnight--walking in to 8 Over 8 for the first time can be a spooky experience. It's an exact replica of the Notting Hill landmark, from the long bar at the front, to the corner booth in the top-left-hand corner. (Cue Twilight Zone music.) Like E & O, it's even situated on a corner site--in this case, the space that used to be occupied by the Man in the Moon pub. I can't say I'm surprised by that particular watering hole's demise. When I went and saw Popcorn in the basement theatre at the Man in the Moon in 2002 there were only three more people in the audience than there were on stage.

My dining companion at 8 Over 8 was Rachel Johnson, author of the Mummy Diaries, and, after one look at the clientele, she declared that 8 Over 8 wasn't as "buzzy" as its West London counterpart. She thought the fact that there were no celebs in evidence proved that Chelsea was no longer the fashionable neighbourhood it once was. But she would say that given that she owns a house in Notting Hill--and is thinking about selling. Why do you think I'm always hawking the delights of Shepherd's Bush?

Holly Valance might not have been sitting at the next door table, but I thought the crowd in 8 Over 8 was pretty glamorous nevertheless. It was a young, moneyed, European set--the sort of people who've made Small World the Internet phenomenon of 2004. They were the same type of people who go to Zuma and Mr Chow's. The men may seem a bit effete, with their soft hands and designer jewelry, but the women look like the progenitors of a new, Elvin race. If I was a single man, I can think of worse places to start my evening than the 8 Over 8 bar. To quote Maverick in Top Gun, it was a "target rich environment".

I did what I always do in pan-Asian restaurants: I over-ordered. The menu is so full of temptation--edamame, chili slat squid, Thai beef salad, chicken pad thai--that I went a bit mental. By the end of the evening our table was piled high with empty dishes and Rachel and I were so stuffed we could barely move. The highlight was the miso black cod. At £21.50, it works out at about £2.50 per mouthful, but a more succulent piece of fish you're unlikely to find. In this department, as well as in many others, 8 Over 8 could give Nobu a run for its money. The only thing on the menu that got the thumbs down from us was the honeycomb ice cream wrapped in some kind of weird, doughy substance. Even slavered in chocolate sauce, it was a bit nasty.

Overall, though, I thought the food at 8 Over 8 was actually better than E & O, which makes me suspect that Will Ricker has adopted the old Chinese trick of rotating his best chef so the poor, overworked wretch is always slaving away in the latest addition to his culinary empire. If that's the case, the ruse is working. 8 Over 8 was packed to the rafters--not bad for a Monday night.

Now then, Will. When are you going to open a restaurant in Shepherd's Bush? If the Zeitgeist really is moving in a Westerly direction, my hood is surely the next stop.