Lucky 8 — Restaurant in Sarasota

Let me start by saying that Lucky 8 is honest. That is, they know who they are, what they are about, and deliver on that vision. No pretense, no gimmicks, no ostentation. Awesome, in the best low-key way possible.

The first time we came it happened to be happy hour. Had an Abita Amber (because you must get it when and where you find it), a boudin, fries, pimento, slaw and a baby smash burger. All were excellent. Came back for lunch and had the Cochon de Lait and I forget what else we had because the Cochon stole the show. Really a magical dish because while the pork itself is great it is the salad, with basil and mint(?) and Asian notes, that perfectly complements the richness of the meat, that makes this such a well balanced and memorable dish. Have now had it every time we come back and introduced friends to it. Everyone who has tried it is suitably impressed.

Just to show that I am not an unrepentant shill I will say that the crawfish bread pudding was not my favorite. One of the main attractions of a bread pudding is the textural contrast between the crusty top and the richness of pudding below, and that applies whether it is sweet or savory. This did not have the crusty top so the texture was uniformly squishy throughout, and the crawfish element was a bit subdued.

With that, our favorites of the items we have tried so far:

-Cochon de Lait - Previously mentioned but worth saying again. -Baby Smash Burgers (my wife likes the proportions of the baby ones) -Fries - Such a simple thing but difficult to do right. These are spot on -Boudin - Decadent, but you know that going in. -Brownie - Don't do sweets often but this, with the chili chocolate, is superb (could use nuts but that is personal preference) -Wine (I know, not a dish) - The list has just enough breadth, with some interesting selections, to find something you like, but focused. Appropriately food oriented.

I could go on but suffice to say, Lucky 8 is a perfect blend of authentic NOLA atmosphere and extremely well executed favorites, usually with a delightful...

We went out of curiosity, I have eaten Cajun food before, so I found the menu limited, but it seemed like a cute place, and we thought we would try it. I ordered the open faced Swiss cheese and mushroom sandwich, essentially two slices of bread with spicy mustard that I did not care for Small slices of mushrooms, but a lot of them and a slice of Swiss cheese. All right, it wasn’t expensive but I left most of it on the plate, We ordered crab meat and avocado REMOULADE, $21? Very little avocado and it was OK. Nothing special. But not bad. I was cold , I’m usually hotand it was 730 at night. Inside. (The woman next to us was freezing, but she was underdressed. ) Here’s the good news. The place was kind of cute. The server was wonderful. Alison. And she was kind enough to give me a little taste of the chicken and sausage gumbo bowl so I could taste the sauce. I didn’t order it because I thought a whole bowl of it might be too much but it had a nice flavor , Somewhat salty but manageable and it would’ve been nice to share, and my friend liked her crispy chicken sandwich, but never expected to see the coleslaw actually on the sandwich. So if you’re like me and Would prefer it on the side, ask for it that way. They were friendly. The...

Went in there for a quick bite, the service was good and I was pleasantly greeted. I ordered a side of red beans and rice... Came out quickly and it was nice and hot and was quite tasty. I then ordered the roast beef Po boy. To my recollection there was no description on the menu, so I was expecting sliced roast beef, instead I got pulled roast beef smothered in gravy... Which is definitely not a bad thing, just wasn't what I expected. However, a negative for me was that to my taste, it was too salty...Honestly, in my experience, that seems to be common with restaurant gravy. For some reason it always seems to be too salty. Anyway, that's just my tastes.. I would have preferred sliced beef and a little less salt. Regardless, I think it's pretty good, solid food overall. Eight bucks for a small bowl of the red beans of rice and 14 bucks for a decent sized sandwich.. I think those prices are pretty on point especially for the neighborhood. There's definitely some other stuff on the menu I want to try so I'll be back. There's no half star option... I would have given three and a half stars...