I went to Hix last night on Brewer Street with my Dad. In the past two weeks Monday has become a bit of a restaurant night for us, last week we went to Abeno Too where Dad grilled the poor girl about how to make okonomiyaki (he's been refining his home made version in the past few days).
So, anyway, Hix. Just opened, it's the Soho baby sister of Clerkenwell Hix Oyster & Chop House which I've always wanted to go to but never got around to, mostly because I am lazy and only eat within a 15 minute walking radius of my front door. The restaurant itself is very smart, with a big solid wood door, bistro style tables and chairs and a large bar in the New York style (where we sat). It being a Monday we demurred from eating our favourite food (oysters), with my Dad opting for the Cornish Crab Soup, whilst I went for the Beets with Blue Monday (Alex James' cheese, I think) and hazelnuts. The Dadster wasn't wild about the soup, but the beets were good, then again, how bad can you make beets and cheese?
For our main Dad did his very predictable thing of ordering Bubble and Squeak with black sausage and egg. He only does this because it is exactly the type of food my Mother would NEVER cook for him - far too unhealthy. He said it was very very tasty, and indeed the plate barely betrayed any past association with food at all after he'd finished with it. I had the pork chop with laverbread and cockles. I only decided on this because I wanted to eat laverbread after once making a film about it for the Japanese channel NHK (go figure). I set up filming the of laverbread harvesting and a cookery session with a chef, but never got to taste it. So how was it? Meh, it was alright, but let's just say I'm not that jealous of the Welsh if that's the dish of pride, I think I'd go for a leek anytime (he he). But the chop was meaty and the accompanying sprouting broccoli wonderfully salty and satisfyingly unhealthy. Vegetables taste so much better when they aren't all steamed and virtuous, it does seem the way of the world to pit taste against health.
So, all in all, a nice meal, but not one I was blown away by. Service was a little forced and I felt slightly uncomfortable that the staff were grinning manically to try and hide some great calamity, or maybe that's because it's so new? But the place is nicely decorated and it felt buzzy. Maybe I'll try it on a Thursday or Friday in couple of months. I think I would still choose Great Queen Street over Hix any day of the week for my fill of no nonsense British grub. I've never had a bad, okay or even decent meal at Great Queen Street, only fabulous ones.
We didn't go for dessert because we wanted to go home and watch the interview with Warren Buffett. Warren is amazing and a lesson to us all with our silly pretensions and ambitions. Legend.
