Hix

We went to the theatre to see an amazing play "the Pitmen Painters" with a couple of friends and were looking forward to finish the evening in style at Hix.
In disgusting style that was, from waiting in reception for over 5 minutes before anyone saw to us to having to get our coats from the cloakroom ourselves on the way out as the lady maning it had left, the evening was a disaster, to say the least.
Overpriced, over salted, poor service bordering on useless. Marc Hix should be ahasmed to have his name associated with this dreary venue.
I was so upset to think that you could still find such a bad restaurant in London and I really wish I read other dinners comments first.
Avoid at all cost.

Overpriced, underwhelming. Distinctly average food, a wine list with prices that would make Bernard Madoff blush. £16 for an asparagus starter, £22 for a mutton chop anyone with a slow cooker could prepare with ease, £10.50 for a small glass of average wine. Do yourself a favour and go elsewhere.

Going to Hix was probably one of our worst mistakesever. The food is underwhelming, over-expensive and plain average. To get an edible (note edible not necessarily good) dish you have to fork at least £40 without sides.
We ordered our steaks medium raw and one them was served burnt. The waiter replaced it without a problem, but you could sense that this is something that happens more often than not, rather than them being customer friendly. Overall service would have been average, if it hadn't been for the poking on the shoulders every time they wanted to grab your attention.
The ambiance was cold, the place was noisy and the wine selection poor
It's really hard to go wrong by going someplace else than HIX

Went last night (3/3/12) and almost cancelled prior to going because of the user reviews!
The food was slightly overpriced for what it was but it was GOOD FOOD!?
The steak tatare to start was amazing.
Service - couldn't fault it.
Downstairs bar - same as above, overpriced for what it was, but good!

Have to agree with he majority of reviews here...the food was underwhelming for the price and the sides were really bad value.

All I can say is try The Hawkesmore if you want great steak and generous portions. Alternatively if you are happy to go a bit further, try Barbecoa, which does the best steak I have eaten in London and again the portions will not disappoint!

i should have had the foresight to have reviewed this site prior to my ridiculously average night here - think this says enough.........

The food is not bad but the service we got today at lunch time was not the best! First we got the main course before the starters, seriously. The waiter instead of saying sorry said "I was told to bring it to the table"!!!! Seriously? Then the when asking for the bill we got "someone else" I know it was only £10 over but with service like this, not going back. Sorry seems to be the hardest word at this place.

Cool decor & great vibe. However, food is overpriced & underwhelming (and that's being generous). They make a big show of the meat they serve, with a waiter displaying all the various cuts on a platter and describing the flavours. I had a sirloin steak that would have tasted better had I cooked it had home and cost less than £30....Friendly but poor service

went there last night with a friend and it was very disappointing. the food was overpriced and average. the side dishes were minuscule. the worse is the service. just useless and incredibly slow. we waited half an hour for the dessert. then 20 minutes for the bill and then another 15 minutes for the actual card terminally. to top it all, there was nobody to give me my coat back so that was another 5 minutes. nobody seemed to care, which for that price is unforgivable. so definitely not going back and not recommending it to anyone. marc

decidely below average food - great bar downstairs not very good service at all upstairs, time out should take another visit and adjust the stars accordingly!

Dreadful. I'm no chef, but we went to Hix for an anniversary. Got served undercooked, bloody fish. The toilets were blocked and disgusting. On complaining - they didn't even apologise for the fish!! - Very arrogant. After numerous emails they offered to refund the cost of the fish course...
In summary - overpriced with no customer service.
With appaling reviews here and on other sites - Why does anyone go???
I wish I'd looked at the reviews before I went.

I think some of the reviews here have been written by underrated chefs who would like their own restaurants. The food here is delicious - I am a very fussy eater I chose the John Dory which was cooked to perfection - I will find it hard to eat fish anywhere else. They serve wine in carafes which I love - great atmosphere and they brought a board of meat to the table to inform us of the meat dishes were available - I don't eat meat but love the fact that you could see all the different types and my boyfriend loved it. Am going again soon.

Worst service and very a average food!

There is a theme building online and it is such a shame. Four of us were booked in for a birthday dinner and as we are all of an age where we look for restaurants to stimulate us we chose Hix - for its reputation. The place was rammed but this was offset by the high ceilings but the service!! 55minutes after arrival and many attempts at attracting the attentions of a waiter we finally got served. Nice guy (I think he may have even been the maitre d' for the night) but he got the order wrong - pork served up instead of the Barnsley chop.. I ordered the Aberdeenshire fillet on the bone, medium, but it was burnt on one side, partially overcooked and it was teeny. For starters we had the oysters which were fresh so that was good. My wife had the Coley which was tasty and nicely presented - perhaps a 7. The maitre d' apologised profusely but I cannot help feeling that this is another example of over expansion. Nowhere near enough staff to justify the prices - anyway is it a brasserie or a restaurant? Won't be going again - shame as he has a good reputation and the location was superb. Downstairs bar looked good but it was closed for a private function but not so private as you had to fight your way through the party to get to the loo....

Dry seems to be a common thread here. I shared the 1kg Porterhouse last night. I was very disappointed - ordered it medium rare and it was overcooked and so dry I nearly choked. Afraid with greats like Hawksmoor and Goodman on the scene, Hix has got to up the game on the steaks or don't bother. Everything else was OK though but not good enough for a return visit.

What a dissapointment. Lackluster service and a space that lacks warmth. But most of all, the food was dry, bland and overpriced. The only bright spot was the gin cocktail I ordered and the beet and goats cheese starter. For my main, I had scallops that were a rubbery and served in a thick, yellow, paste-like cream. It didn't look at all appetizing. The sprouting broccoli was over-cooked and the breadcrumbs/nuts sprinkled on it made it even drier, nearly inedible. The doughnuts for dessert were stale and hollow. A seriously bad lunch which made me question if anyone with any cooking ability was manning the kitchen. I will not go back.

Vastly over priced for very average food.

Took my partner here last night for her Birthday so was hoping for a great meal, prices considered. I must say the decor is great but I did love the place before when it was Aaya. well what can I say about the food.... service was ok. I must say I am disapointed with being served a half meal for the price of a full one. For £20-£26 a main and then £4 for side, which you need, this really doesn't have any value. Had chips and minted greens, so over cooked they looked like a wet dish cloth. I have no problem with paying big prices for good food but there really has to be some value for money somewhere. It is a shame as the venue and name could really be something special.

I completely agree with the review below. Wonderful and fast service (we did not wait at all!), nice and relaxed atmosphere. Excellent advice on starters (try the rock oysters!), main dishes wnd wine. Friendly waitress told us NOT to order the chips (this would be too much food), we just had parsing mash & winter greens. Mains (seabass and goose) were delicious! Bottom line: ignore the ignorants and try for yourselves!

Went back last night (wednesday 17 nov) as thought i may have been a bit harsh with my review? I travelled back down from Manchester for a show and thought i'll give him another go as i'm a chef and we all have off days.....Still very,very poor........

he is a very lucky man that he can afford a place in Soho which is full of Americans and Japanese tourists, because i'm sure if he was in the suburbs he'd go bust quite soon? Not having to rely on locals must be a godsend? the same as not addressing bad reviews on here and there are enough! Ring me and i'll give my services free too....

i'm guessing mr hix has enough cash not to care anymore?????? or the gullible tourists pay the way? because he doesn't seem to care for the locals? it's not good not even close to good.......give me a shout and i'll come and show them how to do it!!!!!! for FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

was there sunday 31st october.....dire.... got in at 6:15pm and was gfiven a plastic ticket to hold for our coats? noone clever enough to know which coats go with which table?
15 minute wait to be asked if we would like a drink, then 15 minutes wait for the 40 quid bottle of wine...manager????? or some guy who turns up and takes your order....was in london to see friends not seen in two years and thought it was going to be good... big mistake. Beets as a starter, Haywards do better if they bottled different colours. Squid or something from the rubber works at Dunlops not quite sure, cold and the chorizo with it was so bad i've bought better at Aldi. Spent an hour and a half watching plate carriers, i hesitate to call them waiters, folding napkins and nattering. The table served before us sent all meals back as thay were cold and being opposite the bar we heard the staff swearing and saying the table were di**heads. All in all a great experience. Buck your ideas up mr HIX.

Really overrated and really over priced.
Grouse was over done Gurnard underdone and cold. Cocktails poorly mixed and over sweet.
£200, I won't return.

Me, my wife and a couple of friends decided to go to Hix for the evening as it had been reviewed so positively (a.o. best new 2010 restaurant by Time Out). We were seated in the bar downstairs on large sofas around a coffee table, on which our courses were served. The place is cool overall, especially the area downstairs where we were, with the pool, the long bar and the salooney atmosphere.

The menu was quite restricted in choices and uninspired, offering the usual gastro-pub courses. Prices on the other hand were impressive, suggesting that maybe the menu's simplicity was misleading and that we were dealing here with execution mastery.

For the wine list, i just looked at the whites, and was surprised to have to go to the last line (most expensive) to find a Sauvignon Blanc. I could also not find a trace of Chardonnay. Again, a pricing decidedly on the hefty side.

Anyhow, we ordered and then spent some time chatting about stuff of life for a while. It is when the waitress brought us our drinks that we realised we should have had these much before. But the place was busy so we gave credit to that.

After another -too long- while, our waitress brought us our courses. Then came the disappointment of the evening: a seabass, a few shimps, and nothing else. True, there were side dishes on the menu, and yes i should have asked the waitress. but nothing? Same for my wife whose brill looked great but came with no nothing. Both tasty and well cooked though.

A real shame. This concept of serving incomplete courses that need to be complemented by side dishes that often don't fit in should be left to the past. I really find this an annoying trick to boost the bottom line.

Deserts were allright, but the experience unfortunately was already spoiled.

Nicely enough though, after we gave our comment to to the waitress, the deserts were offered and the service charge voluntarily removed.

Overall a mediocre experience which confirms most of the reviews i now read: avoid!

Ate there last night. Two of us had the veal and sent it back. It was a thick and unpleasant block of something with the consistency of compressed rubber. The maitre d' handled returning the dish perfectly professionally, but I did find it a bit galling that they thought it was acceptable to send this up from the kitchen.

Swapped for the hanger steak which was nothing special.

This wasn't a value for money meal and so I probably wouldn't go back.

i must say i love hix...

i go there more than once a month. but i often end up eating at the bar down stairs as i am not a kind of person can make reservation in advance...obviously there is not many chance to get to know managers at restaurant area...

i had a bad experience with one of the mangers 2 weeks ago.
our porterhouse steak was overly cooked...we ordered medium rare...but sirloin part was more than medium and fillet part was almost welldone...
i actually called manager and made a word....
his answer was..."what you were showing was edge of the meat so it could be cooked more than inside and our meat is more than 28days matured so it could be darker than normal meat..."
i had nothing more to say as i didn't want to fool of myself in middle of the restaurant...i was totally treated like an idiot!
i actually picked up a piece of meat from middle of fillet.
and i have eaten that steak many times!! perhaps more than that manger has...also i do know how my lovely steak should be cooked!!!

anyway, i was quite embarrassed as i organized dinner for my friends' 5th wedding anniversary...and one of my friends wasn't impressed especially from that steak...
now i regret that i should have asked him for taking it back and bring another one...it is not high street steak chain...we do pay certain amount of money and service charge as well...it has to be perfect...that's what we are paying for....

anyway, i went back hix to eat burgers with an unimpressed friend last weekend.
we had amazing burgers and perfectly cooked...medium rare!!!
finally my friend was happy!

by the way a girl working at mark's bar is super nice!
she is really foody! she gives us right advice and we actually talk about food.
now a days it is hard to find waiter/waitress passionate about food...most of them are there to just serve...

It has to be said I disagree with most of the reviews here.

Touched down in London from a long flight and had a reservation at HIX that evening.

Table wasn't ready but I'm not the type to have a problem with such occurrences, especially when there is a quite brilliant bar downstairs. It was hard to drag me away!

Food was excellent and service etc was absolutely fine.

Slight confusion over service charge and an additional tip but it was rendered irrelevant as I had enjoyed a lovely evening over the course of a great meal with many drinks and wine, and great company.

People just need to lighten up.

Highly recommended.

I booked the private dining room for 12 for my birthday (It was a bit of squeeze as it is meant to hold 10- but I was told this in advance and it was no problem). We ate from the pre-theatre menu. The menu was a little limited and would certainly have benefited from an additional choice of main, however, the food itself was cooked and presented well and different enough to the standard fare. From reading other reviews, I was concerned about service and so notified staff in advance that we had a tight schedule. Our experience was a positive one however, as service was prompt and friendly. At just over £30 each for three courses and a drink (albeit we ordered no wine) HIX was good value for money.

book for four, had high expectations, but what a let down, the food was bland and service was slow.

mr hix need to take some lessons from his old employers.

avoid

Yesterday I went to Hix and had the menu...I was not going to the theater, I don't know who mr. hix is or I care, and my expectations were to eat good quality and tasty food in good company. A table of two, we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner, fresh salad with a twist and a juicy steak with the most crispy finger eating chips I've had in London. The blackberry eton mess albeit not having a sweet tooth was simply delicious. There you go, a very nice evening I will repeat at a total of £30 a head (with very drinkable Tempranillo thrown into the bill). The service was attentive and relaxed. Arguably the place can get very noisy so don't go there if you are annoyed by other people's conversations. Next time I am in Soho will pop in for another menu, maybe I can take my sister, no birthday, no big celebration, a nice meal in a nice busy ambiance to catch up on someone else's life.

Went for an evening drink with three friends. Took a full 20 minutes to receive our drinks after ordering even though the bar wasn't busy. When one of our group (who owns her own bar in Miami) complained about a terrible martini they had been given the bar staff didn't apologize but instead argued aggressively.
The way in which our entire group was then treated was disgusting so we left - after making sure they took off the tip they had still chosen to add to our overpriced bill.
Avoid this place like the plague - sums up the worst of rip off London in one location.

We decided to go to HIX in Soho as a special treat with the family as part of a birthday surprise before a trip to the theatre but despite Mark Hix's reputation as a great chef, it was the most dreadful meal I've ever paid for. Why on earth they think that Pre theatre diners would want fish fingers, burger or deep fried lamb is beyond me. The food was very greasy, flavourless and sickly. For example the starter of deep fried 'lamb scrumpettes' were sat on a puddle of tartare sauce, no veg, no salad. We were also told by our waiter that the portions weren't very big thus leaving us room to come back and have supper with them later! He had to be joking. We were given chips of which there were so few that my 7 year old could have eaten them by herself. Our bitter, over brewed coffee arrived before our dessert which consisted of a few raspberries and some double cream with lemon curd stirred through. So disappointing, I would like to challenge Mr Hix to try his Pre theatre menu.

I can only agree with the above comments. My Mother, Father, two sisters and I went to HIX prior to going to a concert for my Mother's 70th birthday. We had the pre-theatre menu.

This was the worst meal I've had in London for a very long time, perhaps ever.

My eyebrows were raised when Heinz ketchup and Sarson's malt vinegar were brought to the table.

I can sum up the whole meal by saying that every dish was dull, tasteless, untinteresting and greasy. Service was also poor with waitresses giving the wrong food to the wrong people at every course, pouring wine and water by leaning across the table to pour to someone on the other side...

I could not believe we were sitting in a Mark Hix restaurant. Never have my expectations and experience been at such odds.

My advice: give HIX a very wide berth. There is so much choice in London. Don't waste your time on money on this one.

Not good
They made a fuss about us getting there by 5 for the pre theatre - by 6 we were still the only two people in the whole place. The staff were attentive and the art work was interesting it is just a pity about the food. The tap water offered was slightly warmer than my main course. Choice was very limited on the pre theatre I chose the veal with garlic mash my partner choose the "fish fingers" and chips. My plate was very unexciting a sloppy cicle of belly veal barely warm and mash worked to a glue with so much garlic nothing else stood a chance, poorly executed poorly seasoned and dreary. The choice for pudding was tart or tart, Bakewell or Shipwreck, what chef offers only two puddings and then makes them both tarts, both with nuts and one overpowered with apple brandy. The sorry meal cost us nearly seventy pounds - never again Hix you had your chance.

unbelievably bad, everything over seasoned, terrible wine list and service, starter was cold, steak for 2 was ok but average..... how can this place get so many plaudits

unbelievably bad, everything over seasoned, terrible wine list and service, even the armagnac was served over a massive glass of ice,

outrageously overrated: food average and pricy, very noisy restaurant...there are many better restaurants in London at a better price!

The restaurant was fine, the food good but not exceptional (given it is hard to go that wrong with the quality of products they use) but I am missing something with the wine list? It is totally over priced. Most restaurants mark up wines 3 times max but here they seemed to have marked it up as far as 5 times. A lot of the reds start at £35+ and go straight to £55 in then far beyond for some fairly average wines. I liked the ambiance and the food but I like to also drink with my meal and I am not willing to drink at those prices so I will not be returning.