August 8 is located at 81 Wilson St. in downtown Hamilton. It's a 15 min. or so walk from the West Harbour GO station so can be considered transit-accessible. We've reviewed several other locations in this chain; it seems to be doing quite well, possibly at the expense of the nearby Tatemono which recently closed. We went for weekend lunch. AYCD pop is available for $2.99. Unfortunately disposable chopsticks are used, but we brought our own as always. Ginger is not dyed pink. Soy sauce at table was darker, slightly salty fresh and flavorful. Has plenty of booth seating and a darker contemporary interior. Oddly, when the meal was almost done we were unexpectedly brought reusable chopsticks... Better late than never I guess.
Miso soup would have been delicious and savoury but it was unfortunately somewhat dilute... Still enjoyable however. We enjoyed the salad dressing although the lettuce could have been slightly fresher. Thai mushroom soup was delicious, and thankfully not excessively hot... it's a creamy orange soup with plenty of Thai flavours. Yam tempura was good and the sauce complemented it will. Pork shu mai were also quite good but did not come with any dipping sauce, so a little soy sauce on top helped.
Philadelphia roll was excellent with a large very fresh component of salmon, and it was delicious. Surf clam, shrimp, red snapper aka tilapia, red tuna, butterfish aka escolar, and salmon nigiri were all fresh enough and quire good.
Chicken katsu aka torikatsu was delicious and crispy breading while the chicken was juicy and the sauce was pretty good too. Deep fried scallop, probably surimi, was delicious due to the dollop of sauce, and it was not oily. Mishy was not impressed with the steak teriyaki indicating that it had no flavour and was a reheat, but I didn't have any issue with it... the sauce was pretty good and I didn't find it too chewy. I'm just happy it was on the lunch menu at all; also the portion size of it and the chicken teriyaki were very good. We were both impressed by the chicken teriyaki; Mishy even said that the chicken was tender and flavourful... and no “rubbery”! Gyoza were delicious and savoury, which is good because they didn't come with any sauce. Beef skewers were good, although somewhat dry, but that's usual. I liked the seasoning of the chicken skewers which seemed Thai. Cheese wonton was delicious and with plenty of cheese, and the sauce was good, and it was also slightly different from the sauce used for the spring roll which was also quite good and not oily.
For dessert, both of us liked the lava bun. There are even chocolate lava buns with chocolate filling. Mango shotglass pudding was delicious. Vanilla ice cream was French vanilla, and was very good and not freezer burned. Mishy and I both commented on the chocolate ice cream being very rich in cocoa and full of flavour. Mango ice cream was delicious, and full of mango flavour. Green tea ice cream was also quite good with a lot of flavour, as was strawberry and cookies'n'cream. Weekend lunch was $31 which is pretty standard nowadays for this location. With a couple of minor shortcomings it was still quite enjoyable.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
