In a remote session the normal shutdown button only allows you to disconnect or log off. After a bit of research I found 2 easy ways of restarting a remote desktop session.

1. Go to the Desktop
2. Close all open desktop apps
3. Type ALT+F4 (this is the shortcut for closing apps and programs too)
4. Up pop a new ‘Shut Down Windows” Windows 8 dialogue
   
5. Then select the command of you desire.

If you are commend line oriented then,

1. Type + R to open the ‘Run’ dialog
2. Type either ‘shutdown /r’ for a restart or ‘shutdown /s’ for a simple shutdown and click OK.
3. If you want to see a UI or do this remotely, you can always try ‘shutdown /i’ on your local machine and do a remote shutdown.