Hix Oyster & Chop House

My colleagues and I went to Hix Oyster & Chop House for an (early) christmas celebration, and I'm very pleased to report that all earlier problems regarding service seem to have been ironed out, since our entire meal went without a hitch. We were greeted enthusiastically and immediately provided with jugs of tap water and the wonderful warm bread that a number of others have mentioned (which was continually replaced as we tore our way through it). As such a large group, we had a limited menu available so I can only comment on a few dishes, but everything we were served was good and some items were outstanding. Of the starters, jellied ham hock was the standout: the rich flavour of the terrine was counterbalanced with the sharpness of an excellent picallilli. Roast pumpkin was soft and sweet and served with a wonderfully creamy and smooth goats cheese, demonstrating that adage that good quality

ingredients need little enhancement. Hix's home cured salmon was good, and perfectly satisfying, but certainly didn't elicit the same sighs of delight as the hock. All the main courses (lamb, hanger steak, sole) were perfectly cooked, with the steaks particularly impressing: thick slabs of dark pink meat; the exteriors charred to a wonderfully flavoured crisp. Even better was the baked bone marrow which accompanied them, served in a chunky half-bone. It was beautifully rich and flavoursome; the kind of food which a small forkful of fills your whole mouth and which delights with its wholesomeness. Each spoonful of rice pudding was the taste of comfort; creamy, thick, sweet, hot, sublime. The only dish that I felt didn't really work was the chocolate mousse, which, albeit delicious, was far too rich and heavy (the texture was more akin to a thick ganache than a mousse) at the end of a meal like this. A number of others have commented that Hix's is overpriced. Our meal worked out at about £40 per head for food alone, which isn't cheap, especially when you consider the number of etablishments

offering half price menus and so on at the moment. However, there are two things worth considering. Firstly, Hix's does not scrimp on any of the ingredients. If you want to eat excellent quality food, you do have to pay for it. If you're capable of cooking at this standard at home, then there's probably no point coming here and you might well feel ripped off, but if you're not, then you should simply relax and delight in some of Britain's finest meat, perfectly cooked. Secondly, this is a restaurant to come and enjoy yourself. Yes, it is now possible to get three courses, amuses bouches, petits fours, blah blah blah, for £40 or less at a michelin starred joint, but such a meal will invariably leave you less satisfied than a hearty feed at a place like Hix's. This is the kind of place that really feeds your soul as well as your tummy, and it takes the latter very seriously indeed.
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Emily Coates
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Monday, December 01, 2008

This restaurant wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be, sadly.

We went last wednesday for the first time and found the atmosphere a bit cold and stark, not really the place to go if you're after a romantic meal for two.

Our meal began with the devilled kidneys, which were good, and ox tongue, which was just so-so (cold hammy meat, a few scattered radishes, whatever, nothing wow).

The big disappointment however was with the veal heart. Not sure if it was the cooking or the heart itself as it was rubbery, chewy and worst of all tasted of charcoal. Had I not known otherwise i'd have guessed it was overcooked pork. I had the flounder which was fine, and we both shared a bowl of fried scallions which were by far the most sickly and overpowering side dish i've ever tasted. Do not eat more than one if you don't want the taste of chip shop batter repeating on you all night.

Puds were fine, but not really needed after the first two courses.

So all in all not a particularly brilliant meal for the price or reputation, and given the heart-stopping pricing of some of the dishes on the menu I was expecting a whole lot more.
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Ella
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Friday, October 17, 2008

Dont bother, I had the 'mixed grill of Sussex pork' which was made up souly of offal. I understand that this is what the idea of the restaurant is, and fair enough a little lung, heart, kidney whatever makes a tasty aternative to the usual cuts but I would expect a nice piece of belly, loin, leg along side it.

As a regular Sunday evening dinner I am under the impression that this is when the more senior members of the kitchen take their times off but more often than not standards slip due to this. This was hopefully the case on Sunday, I was served a cold plate with which to put my meat on and my partner who ordered the Gurnard, which subsequenty changed from Flounder and then finally to Monkfish didn't even recieve her caper brown butter as advertised.

Also for a restaurant trading on a reputation for value, £7.50 for rice pudding and damson jam???? you've got to be kidding.
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Ian Armstrong
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Went here for dinner with my boyfriend on a Monday night and we were pleasantly surprised by what a nice buzz their was to the room

The staff were really lovely and knew their stuff. All questions were answered without the sort of superior snootiness which is all too common. One small tip - our waiter mentioned they don't turn tables on Monday nights, so if you want a long, lesiurely dinner, this might be the best night to do it.

The food is the main reason we came here and it didn't disappoint. A plate of crisp, salty pork crackling while we pondered the menu was the start of one of the best meals we've had this year. This was followed by the hot bread and lightly salted butter which was all fantastic. Although if I had known how great the food was going to be, I wouldn't have filled myself up on bread!

We both had steaks - he chose sirloin on the bone, I had hanger steak (also known as onglet) with baked bone marrow. Both were very good, as were the bubble and squeak and chips we had with them.

We didn't have any room for pudding, but I'll definitely be forgoing the bread next time so I can sample them. They all looked incredible.

All in all, a refreshing addition to the restaurant 'scene'

Excellent food, excellent value for money and very nice, friendly staff. We'll be back
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Cat - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Saturday night at Hix'sO&C House was a great night out with some fine fayre on offer.

We had an early reservation (7.30pm) but were welcomed warmly by the Front of House manageress and shown to a nice window table - within 10 mns the place was starting to buzz, meaning that all those servers had something to do.

The interior of the place is right on cue with what similar modern restaurants are peddling these days: Butcher's Shop meets Restaurant as my date put it... white tiles, dark wood, and lovely linen napkins... but on a paper table cloth! A bit disappointing...

The menu is unmistakenably Hix. You can fair read his Indy column in what is coming out of that kitchen - infact the day after, we saw the very dish my dinner date had eaten on the pages of this newspaper's magazine!

We avoided the oysters (there's a big choice on offer, for those who love them) so we started with Cockles steamed in cider and herbs, and for me, a slightly sinewy, but flavoursome wild duck salad, which was billed to come with sweet Elderflower berries. But actually came with unripe redcurrants, which just didn't really work. Nor did the chef tell the servers that this key ingredient was off the menu.

So we moved on to mains. The restaurant was really buzzy by this point. The floppy haired new Front of House guy looked as if he was starting to flap. He was quite funny to watch - it was probably his first night (as I clocked that 2 of his mates were waving at him through the windows at one point!) and the prospect of a heaving restaurant, his worst nightmare. Still, he was been guided by the uber professional lady, who was guiding staff and customers efficiently and warmth. My ribs of beef were a genuinely interesting eat - a char-grilled 'Jacob's Ladder' of yummy bbq style sauce coated beefiness. My date had the single variety pork grill (ie from one type of pig!)... bits of fillet, offal and a burgery type thing, with a little apple sauce pot. We made the mistake of having a side of 'onion rings' which were the heaviest, lardiest battered thing I'd ever tasted. Delicious, but oh so heavy!

Basically, we couldn't manage puds after this meat and batter fest. But the choices on offer sounded good. All nice and seasonal - plenty of fruity options and a delicious sounding honeycomb icecream.

So, our Hix Night was over. Our waitress was really friendly, professional and knowledable too about her menu - even throwing the odd wine match suggestion at us. She took good care of us. Wines by the glass (in a silly decision, we had driven there) were delicious and well matched.

My only hint on the food: Add a bit of greenery to the plate, even though the restaurant wants to push the side orders, it surely wouldn't break the Hix Bank to put some green leaves on the side of the meat heavy plate. And can we maybe stretch to a proper table cloth to go with those every so starchy napkins?

Well done Hix and Co. Great food, nicely served.
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James
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Monday, September 22, 2008

On arrival I waited to be seated, a scruffy guy in jeans eventually got up from a table at the back of the restaurant sauntered over and ushered quickly me to my table. I got the distinct impression that I had interuppted whatever he was doing and I felt about as welcome as a beefsteak in a veggie bar.

My colleague arrived and advised the restaurant that there would be two of us rather than the three as booked. A couple of minutes later the scruffy guy returned and without a word, wrestled a chair from our table bashing my colleague as it was lifted.

We asked to see the manager as this was clearly unacceptable. To our surprise the scruffy guy in the jeans WAS the manager.

We decided not to complain. We mentioned the incident to the staff who were very sympathetic and understanding implying this was not unusual behaviour. Fawlty Towers sprung to mind.

The food itself from then on became secondary, it was OK, my John Dory was a little salty but, cooked well and seasoned nicely. The bill including wine was £160 so, £80 per head. We asked for another bottle of wine but was advised that our table was booked to others for 2.30pm. So we left.

We will not be going back, there are plenty of other places at £80 a head with average food but, where I will feel welcome and comfortable and my colleague will not be hit by a chair.
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Steve Jenkins
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Sunday, September 21, 2008

Ate with 3 friends at Hix Oyster and Chop House on Friday night (12 August 2008). Overall a fairly disappointing visit. Arrived at 8.45pm for our 9pm booking and decided to have a drink at the bar while we waited for our table. Ordered a bottle of red wine and then waited nearly 15 minutes for it to be delivered. Strangely this was not because the bar staff were particularly busy or because they couldn't find the right bottle of wine, but because they had run out of wine glasses!! Whilst the restaurant was pretty busy, the bar area wasn't and you'd think it reasonable that an establishment charging around £60 a head would have sufficient glasses.

Unfortunately for us, wine glasses weren't the only thing running low, as we discovered when we ordered chips to go with our expensive steaks! We were told that they had run out of chips, something even fast food chains can manage to have a constant supply of. However, they were still able to give us new potatoes (undercooked) and had the oil to deep fry scallions (terribly greasy). Now I'm no Gordon Ramsay, but my basic culinary skills do just about stretch to knowing that potatoes plus hot oil equals chips!! The steaks when they arrived were OK, although I've had better at a number of other establishments charging the same or less.

Despite the disappointments we soldiered on and ordered desserts - the chocolate mousse was extremely tasty, but the roast victoria plums were very hard and the blackberry and apple jelly had the consistency of rubber.

To be fair to the restaurant they did knock off the side orders and 2 of the desserts from the bill, but it was still £60 a head that could have been better spent elsewhere - you can get a lot of chips for £60!!
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Mark, London
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Monday, September 15, 2008

Husband and I visited last Friday (29.08.08) and having arrived early for our 7p.m. booking we were told that we could eat early - bonus for us and bonus for them!

To start with, I ordered 3 Linton Oysters (£1.50 per oyster) which (with red wine vinegar and shallot sauce) were fresh and sweet, whilst husband had the pork crackling, which was very nice. The bottle of rioja was vibrant and rich.

Our steaming bread with butter had arrived with our starters, there seemed to be a strange taste to the cornish butter (apparently one of their customers the week before had said that it was off) but the bread was tasty and soft.

The main dishes: I selected the Hanger Steak with Bonemarrow and my husband ordered the mixed grill. The Hanger Steak (medium rare) was wonderful, it had been carved through 3-4 times so it was not a chore to hack away at it. It melted in the mouth, especially when married up with the bearnaise sauce. The bonemarrow had been scooped out and mixed with breadcrumbs and rosemary and then redistributed along the bone and grilled. Very rich but very good. Accompanied with fantastic bubble and squeak (which my husband swears there was not enough potato). Probably the best meal that I have had.

The Mixed Grill was cleverly arranged all onto one metal prong - kidney, pork, beef and chicken. Accompanied by country beans; I tried some of the pork - it was incredibly succulent and soft.

I would definitely go back to this place - food was excellent, the service was efficient and friendly (priced to around £40 per head for 2 courses and a bottle of wine). It's interesting that the meat is not sourced at Smithfield Market - but apparently Mark Hix has a network of suppliers where he gets his produce from.
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Katie Collis
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Went there for a business lunch the other day and was left pretty cold by the experience. Hix swanned in and sat at the bar surveying his empire, but seemed not to be invovled in the actual cooking which is a shame.

Cockles were delicious and plump, lamb steaks unevenly cooked, warm and not especially tasty. Walnut and whiskey tart was lovely.

Service was pretty rubbish- brisk at the start, non-existent throughout. We had to ask 3 times for an extra bottle of wine, in the end approaching the bar to ask what the hell was going on. We then waited 20 minutes for our desert order to be taken, despite catching glances and raising fingers.

If you are paying on expenses then fine. If it were my own cash then I'd probably forget it.
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J
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Monday, August 11, 2008

I don't really know anything about Mr. Hix, or any other celeb chef for that matter, but I went to Hix recently and it was pretty poor. Couldn't fault the service which was pretty good. The beer was not to my taste which doesn't necessarily make it bad. But instead of some 'refreshingly dry', but obscure, expensive and not particularly good Scottish lager, I'd have killed for a nice, ice cold, refreshingly wet, Peroni.

Anyway, the decor and furniture is basic - and bloody uncomfortable after any prolonged period. It was a joy to walk to the toilets to relieve the numbness in my arse. The atmosphere in the place was not noticeable in one way or another and certainly wasn't anything that stood out or that gave you a sense of anticipation that you were about to enjoy a great (or even good) experience.

The starters were plentiful and the Skate Knobs seemed a good choice - certainly better than my Scottish Girolles - even though they bore a close remblance to scampi. The desserts too were also very good.

But the main course was a disaster. We all chose the Lamb Chops as a lot of the other meat dishes seem somewhat hefty in both volume and price. We each got two massive lamb chops so you can't complain about quantity. However, for a restaurant that prides itself on using locally sourced produce they were not of by any means outstanding, or even good, quality and I have had much better from my local master butcher. They were poorly cooked to the point that they were barely warm by the time we received them. I asked for mine to be cooked slightly more and they returned a short while later with an overwhelming taste reminiscent of barbecue lighting fluid. The lamb was accompanied by a spartan portion of spinach and chips - both of which were bland and unexciting. I would have thought that a restaurant of this repute could have at least made an effort with some hand cut/cooked chips rather than what appeared to be frozen ones.

The water jugs are small but they were regularly replenished, so again, the service was good. However, for £71.00 a head the meal was disappointing to say the least and not what one would expect from a decent restaurant or any chef - celeb or journeyman.
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Steve D''Almeida
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Friday, August 08, 2008