Hix

Thanks to bad cookery programmes, I now equate Mark Hix with stargazey pie and silly jelly puddings, and that equation obviously meant that we had to go to newish Hix on Brewer Street as part of Eugene's leaving London eating marathon. And it all started off very well, the bar is very nice (although perhaps the £11.50 price tag on the Hix Fix champagne cocktail which went flat very quickly was not quite so nice), and I liked that serving pork scratchings is now in vogue:

The starter list was inventive, the sort of list that made you want to eat everything. The star of the show for me was the cod tongues with girolles, very flavoursome, very light, I should have had this really:

Eugene's monkfish starter was basically posh fish without the chips, but so well done. Big chunks of monkfish on a bed of just right tartare sauce:

The most intriguing starter was perhaps the 'heaven and earth', no explanation on the menu itself, turned out to be homemade black pudding on bubble and squeak. Very very earthy, but not quite as exciting as the name implies:

For me, I actually had the thought that sticking with simplicity might be the way to go at a place like this. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out. The smoked salmon was the most expensive starter (about £12 IIRC), which signalled that it had to be good. And when it came, you do feel a bit underwhelmed by the four naked slices:

And unfortunately, the taste was also a little underwhelming. I was expecting some taste explosions, but not even a sparkler happened here. And it all went a bit downhill from here really. The stargazy pie has to be ordered in advance, so I plumped for the oyster and beef pie. You gotta have pie! in a place like Hix:

First time I had oysters in a pie, despite the tradition, and what a good addition they are too, but there were far too few, and not well distributed amongst the pie, so you are left with quite a monotonous mount of beef under the pastry, with not even a bit of onion or carrot to balance it out.

But my main gripe was the very liberal use of salt in the main. We ordered a few side vegetables, so heavily salted that you could pick out salt crystals from the spinach and broccoli. My tongue was actually hurting, and I committed the restaurant crime of not finishing my main course. That never happens.

Nevertheless, they had some excellent special potatoes that evening, in the form of battered potatoes. The picture is a bit dark, but they were oh so amazing:

It also worries me when the best course in a restaurant is a dessert. I am not a sweet person, I just don't have the sweet tooth to appreciate desserts. But the desserts were fabulous here, mainly with the inclusion of jelly on the menu, and served in a little shot glass, is just what you need after a heavy meal:

But the winner of the evening was the buttermilk sorbet that came with it (in the lovely metall goblet as above). They laced it with little bits of what I'm guessing is grapefruit or lemon rind, it was sour and bitter, gorgeous gorgeous, my kind of dessert.

Toilets were very nice, no carpets making for a very noisy dining room. I must say I'm not rushing to go back.