Hix Oyster & Chop House

Press Reviews (13)

• Pascal Wyse (2nd September 2008)
  8/10
  
  This Farringdon newcomer “is decked out with plain quality”, says the critic, and “Mark Hix's first eponymous restaurant is straight-talking, reflecting his passion for quality English fare treated with care but not fuss”.
• Marina O'Loughlin (3rd July 2008)
  3/5 stars
  
  Hallellujah! We are not alone! The critic feels “a touch disenfranchised” by her dinner at Mark Hix’s Smithfield newcomer, or more particularly by its “vaguely condescending nouveau Brit” service, and by the feeling that le patron is really interested only in his most glamorous customers. “With sightings so far of every foodie luminary in town, Heston Blumenthal to Ruthie Rogers, plus a regular smattering of the cooler end of the celebrity spectrum – we have the honour of being ignored in favour of Jennifer Saunders – it's clear that Hix doesn't need to hustle for bums on seats. But surely at some point he'll need to be nice to us nobodies too?”
• Jay Rayner (23rd June 2008)
  
  Having mused on the question of whether the presence of a restaurant critic changes a restaurant – especially one where the patron is “mates with chefs and restaurant critics” – the critic decides he likes Mark Hix’s Farringdon newcomer, “because his brand of food is so damn pleasing”. On the basis mainly of hearsay, though, he decides that the service still needs sorting out.
• Giles Coren (3rd June 2008)
  9/10
  
  Dissatisfed with his meal at the Ritz, the critic moves on to another look-how-famous-my-friends-are review – with David Baddiel – of Mark Hix’s new Farringdon chophouse. Needless to say – see other reviews passim, as Private Eye would say – he finds it “an absolute triumph… I cannot think of a place I’d rather eat just now”.
• Tracy MacLeod (28th May 2008)
  4/5 stars
  
  Not sure if we can take more Hix-olatory. Let’s just say that the critic visits this Smithfield newcomer – which has the name of a fellow Independent columnist over the door – and finds it very good.
• Guy Dimond (21st May 2008)
  
  He may (as a properly anonymous critic) have had his reservation lost and been seated at the “sucker table” – but TO’s head critic is swept away by Mark Hix’s Farringdon newcomer nonetheless. “[T]his menu is something special, with so many dishes [they] wanted to try it was hard to narrow the choices down”, and “[e]very dish [they] tried was thrilling”.
• AA Gill (19th May 2008)
  4/5 stars
  
  When we eventually get around to the review bit of Mr Gill’s review, we find that the critic seems to be on best mates terms with its subject: the owner of the eponymous Smithfield newcomer “has been teasing [Gill] relentlessly” about some perceived bloomer in a former review. All credit to the critic for making so clear that it’s going to be difficult for him to write a truly dispassionate critique, but it does highlight the fact that Hix is so much in bed with the foodie establishment that almost all professional reviews are going to fail the Caesar’s wife test.
• Terry Durack (19th May 2008)
  16/20
  
  “Since the mid-18th century, cash-strapped Londoners have turned to the chop house for a hearty meal at a decent price. So a brand-new one is a timely move, especially when it has been opened by one of London's most talented and affable chefs, former chef-director of The Ivy, Le Caprice and Scott's, Mark Hix.”
• Jasper Gerard (19th May 2008)
  9/10
  
  “Hix… turns out to be charming, chatting to munchers. He also spends much of lunch on his mobile; everywhere, really, bar the kitchen. Perhaps after years overseeing restaurants, taking the art of British cooking to new levels, he prefers creating new works to knocking out copies. And what culinary masterworks he exhibits here.” And so it goes on…
• Fay Maschler (8th May 2008)
  4/5 stars
  
  Can you judge whether a critic likes a chef by whether one of his books gets a plug in the early parts of a review? If so, Ms M clearly has a lot of time for Marx Hix, who has recently opened an eponymous outfit in Smithfield. And indeed, she finds some of the cooking “triumphant”. Even though she visited in the “early days”, “[c]hefs Claude Bosi, from Hibiscus, and Anthony Demetre, from Arbutus and Wild Honey, were at one table [and] a fellow restaurant critic at another” – almost all the reivews to date have commented on the culinary ‘in’ crowd this place is attracting, and it does look set to be the foodie-luvvie hit of the season.
• Richard Vines (8th May 2008)
  3/4 stars
  
  Did we say luvvie? There’s also a lot of “Hix-this Hix-that” in the review by the financial news service’s man. Even he admits a fear he might have “swallowed the Hix-aid”, and he does try to introduce a bit of balance – service tended to “chaotic”, and execution could be “hit and miss”. But, hey, what does it matter? “[Hix] and his eatery are so likable, you might even find yourself smiling as things go awry.”
• Feargus O'Sullivan (8th May 2008)
  Food and vibe 3/5 stars, service 1/5 stars
  
  Perhaps Mr O’Sullivan is one of the reviewers who (like us, mercifully) was not recognised, and sucked into the Hix love-bubble. He does find some promise on the food front, but the service was so “Keystone Cops” that he wonders if those who experienced its “first faltering steps” will ever return.
• Jan Moir (24th April 2008)
  
  The noveltly-fixated Ms Moir must have been battering down the door of ex-Caprice supremo Mark Hix’s very personal new outfit, on the former Smithfield site of Rudland & Stubbs – as she notes, it is “so new that this lunchtime, the proper light shades have yet to be fitted, the downstairs area smells of fresh paint and dry goods are still being delivered through the front door”. Novelty, however, provides no obstacle to forthright conclusions. This is “a proper chophouse”, she says, and her review is larded with terms such as “faultless” and “brilliant”.