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Perks
Reviewed: Hix Oyster & Chop House
perry jelly and elderflower ice-cream is so
flawless, it resembles a lens. You could use
it as a kind of wobbly magnifying glass.
The other thing that wakes us is the crash
of glass at the top of the stairs leading from
the kitchen. They've got a new Olympic
sport here: climbing with a massive tray of
hot pies and then having to navigate a tricky
right-hand bend with a pillar threatening to
take you out. It's entertaining, but go soon
or the excellent staff will have it sussed.
Three weeks later, having digested that
meal, I go back. This strategy has risks: you
can't fault further research, but which side
to come down on if the experience is totally
different from the first visit?
a tough job!
Hix Oyster & Chop House is decked out then the oysters and a bowl of peas in the
with plain quality: wooden surfaces, pod - another pre-starter nibble we some- Never mind - I have to test a main course
clean tiling, copper pans and starched how thought would be a good idea. Oysters I would ordinarily love. In this case it is the
whites. full and creamy; peas in generous quantities, hanger steak (not a common cut, but it has
Mark Hix's first eponymous restaurant is so you could abandon the inevitable duds. great livery flavour) with baked bone marrow,
straight-talking, reflecting his passion for We start with Hix's own smoked salmon chips and salad. From the charring to the
quality English fare treated with care but not cure and the red mullet with crushed broad bleeding heart, it is superb, and the marrow
fuss. Menu entries list dishes with a maxi- beans on toasted sourdough. The salmon, - a bone halved lengthwise and topped with
mum of three ingredients, and there is no blood orange-deep in colour, is boldly breadcrumbs, parsley and garlic - is a royal
need for decoding. When it says the broad smoked, but that fire doesn't hang around in treat. Only a main course this time, with
beans are "crushed", that's what they are - your face. It just melts away with the flesh. chips and salad, but I still can't quite finish it.
just smacked on the head, not puréed or de- There's a dryness to the crushed broad That hanger steak costs £13.75; the
livered in a pipette. Nine of the 16 main beans, which make a slightly claggy combi- porterhouse for two costs £54.50; starters
courses are beef, with seven different cuts, nation with the sourdough and mullet, but from £5.50 to £12; nibbles around £3. An
spread between Dexter and Aberdeen it's tasty. oyster: £1.95. Working-class food at middle-
Angus. As soon as the beef flank and oyster pie class prices, you could jibe. But it's the in-
Enjoying
comes, I realise I am heading for metabolic gredients that count, and times change -
disaster. I have never had this dish, but what disease, rarity and desirability all turned the
There are some foods I am just not pre- with my recent bivalve excitement, it just oyster into a fine food in the 19th century,
pared to dislike. Parsnip slips past my guard seems the right thing to do and the right rather than something to bulk up a pie when
now and then, but olives gave way relatively place to do it. To my horror, I learn that I you ran out of beef. As for the cooking, Hix's
easily after a force-feeding regime, and I was don't really like cooked oysters, despite the food is definitely working, and it's class.
relieved, about five years ago, and after de- dark, grainy loveliness of the beef in its
tailed research into the workings of my gag gelatinous gravy and shortcrust pastry,
reflex, to start properly enjoying oysters. Any which is suety but not leaden. Score 8/10
food that can automatically change sex dur-
Amazing
ing its lifetime has to be eaten. Telephone 020-7017 1930
I like oysters creamy, and decide on a I can just remember two things before
couple as a pre-starter starter. Our waiter slipping into a food coma: 1) the chips were Address 35-37 Greenhill Rents, Cowcross
accurately predicts that I will like the Cum- a really good size (not pencils, not bricks) Street, London EC1
brae and Maldon. Like all the bits of advice and 2) the whole John Dory with rosemary
and knowledge he has, such as how Hix was good enough to make my girlfriend Open All week, lunch noon-3pm (except
cures his salmon in his back garden, it is de- loosen her evangelical grip on Anthony Saturday, when it's closed for lunch); dinner,
livered with the perfect level of smarminess Bourdain's "no fish on Monday" rule. 6.11pm (currently closed for dinner on Sun-
and ceremony, ie none. Bursts of sharpness and perfume bring days, but open from September 7)
A hot miniature sourdough loaf arrives, me round like smelling salts. The jelly in the
62 • issue 164 Business Matters
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