Beijing 8 can be described as a quick Chinese food snack in a clean, modern dining space. This restaurant was close to our AirBnB on our trip to Florence, we walked by it a few times and decided to try it one night when it was already getting late.
You go to the counter to order what you want. They have a menu in English if you need it. We tried the miso broth with glass noodles as well as the chicken broth with glass noodles, it comes with four dumplings, so we ordered the chicken Thai basil dumpling and the pork dumpling. We also had the steamed edamame and ordered a cup of hot oolong tea.
The food came out pretty quickly (it looks as if most things are already prepped on the side and they just put it together after you order). Everything came in the dim sum steamer, I guess that's the theme and part of the decor experience. I was surprised to see that our glass noodles and broth came in a large plastic cup, also in a steamer!
Both broths were tasty, but there isn't much glass noodles to eat. The cup itself is already small, so imagine maybe 1/4 or 1/3 at most is filled with glass noodles, that's too little. The rest was filled with veggies and green onion that was chopped too big. Anyway we were hungry so we ate it all. It's not a meal though, more of a snack size in my opinion. The dumplings were good, it has an Italian twist to it - obviously because you're in Florence and not in Beijing. From the outside it does look like a regular dumpling (on the menu, they call it ravioli) the flavors inside are good combinations. The steamed edamame was good (hard to screw this up).
It was a good snack, but if you're looking for a meal, you may want to order more or go somewhere else. This place is casual and has lots of seating areas. I saw that they also work with Deliveroo in case you want to order and have it delivered to you. read more