The plot thickens...

This email popped into my inbox yesterday morning:

Dear Helena

A link to your blog was kindly sent to me by a customer of ours enabling us to read what you have written about the restaurant.

 

I find it genuinely upsetting that you felt the need to slate the restaurant on your blog, rather than contact me directly so that I may look into this and address the points you raise over your latest visit. I see on your blog you have had enjoyable visits to us before (for your reference the caul fat around dumplings or faggots dissolves when cooked and is merely used to hold the dish together when cooking, so I think you may have had some bad faggots in the past, if that was still intact when eating!).

 

I understand that you were booked under the name of xxxxxx? At 5.30 you should have been offered the pre theatre menu and the dinner menu as we are indeed serving dinner at that time of day. We are open all day from noon so the receptionist was 100% on duty, and I can only apologise for the fact she did not make eye contact with you upon arrival whilst dealing with another customer on the phone. The table you point out in your blog does indeed seat 8 people and it was booked for 6.30pm. Therefore we could not offer you this table as you would have had less than an hour to enjoy your meal which I am sure you will agree is not sufficient time. I  can confirm that the table did not show up for their booking, but sadly we did not know that at the time and had no way of knowing either as they had confirmed that morning.

 

It is a shame that your whole blog focuses on a table allocation rather than the one sentence where you mention the food was cooked perfectly. And of  course so disappointing that I read this online before being given a chance to investigate the situation.

 

You state on your blog that you have not yet heard from anyone at HIX. As you did not contact us directly, there was no way I would have known about this if our HIX customer had not kindly sent the link to me direct to read.

 

Regards

xxxxxxx     

I'm struggling to find the words to reply to this email. I guess I could point out that the tone of the communication is quite aggressive and that this completely tallies with the reception we had at the restaurant.

Or I could say that the blog was a result of how the evening appeared to me the next day, and that unfortunately due to the lack of service the food didn't play as big a role in my mind as it should have done.

Or that as a private blogger - just like any food and restaurant critic - I am not in the habit of contacting any establishment before I write a post about them. Besides, I would have thought that any business with a brand would set up a Google Alert or similar to monitor their brand awareness.

Finally I might say that my aim was certainly not to 'slate' the restaurant. I merely expressed my opinion as a normal restaurant goer about the experience at this Soho restaurant.

But, you know what, just like they couldn't be bothered to greet us when we arrived or make any amends about moving us about, I don't think I can be bothered to reply to their email.

Eating Out: Invisible Diners at The Hix in Soho

On Friday we had tickets to see the play of the moment, Anna Christie, starring Jude Law, at Donmar Warehouse in London. I'd been looking forward to seeing the play for weeks, even months. (More about that on my other site Strindberg's Daughter, here, soon.)

In addition to the theatre, though, I'd also been looking forward to going out to dinner with good friends. It had been a long time since our last theatre evening.

Because it was a Friday and everyone had had a busy week, we decided to do a pre-theatre dinner. I proposed two places, Hix of Soho or Pollen Street Social in Mayfair. In the end we plumped for Hix, since it's closer to the Donmar, but wouldn't you believe it, the same day Pollen Street got a Michelin star. By then it was too late to change so we settled on Hix where I'd been with the Englishman a couple of times, but our friends hadn't yet tried.

The female receptionist (or Maitre d'?) was on the phone and didn't make eye contact as we arrived at Hix, which didn't seem like a good sign. We waited but there was still no reaction from her to our arrival. Finally a waiter showed us to a table and asked if we'd like to look at both lunch and dinner menus, since we were in between the two (it was half past five). It occurred to me that perhaps this explained the woman's behaviour at the reception. Perhaps she wasn't on duty yet...?

After being shown to a round table in the middle of the almost empty restaurant, we asked if we could sit at another one with a comfortable sofa for us girls to lean back against.

'Of course,' said the waiter. We settled down at the table and ordered some drinks. I spotted the woman from reception, clutching a clipboard to her chest, whispering something to our waiter just a few feet away from us. About ten minutes later the same friendly waiter came back and very, very nicely, told us that he'd made a mistake and that the table was needed by a larger party. (We were four and the table was for four people.)

I gave him a look which I hoped conveyed puzzlement.

'With the table next to you we can make eight,' he explained. As we began to move away, nodding towards the reception area, he added, 'She's not very happy with me.'

Now I felt sorry for him and laughed, 'She didn't like us either.'

The food at Hix was good, meat cooked just right, but the whole meal was overshadowed by the rude welcome. I also couldn't but notice that while we had our meal, there was a notable lack of diners at our previous venue. Nothing at all happened; there was no rejoining of the two tables. It didn't really matter; it was just annoying, since meal at Hix is not cheap - we spent a lot of money on wine and food, and the service.

A picture of the invisible diners who made us move tables...

So Hix, a lesson for you: if you ask your guests to move tables, at least try to make it seem as if there is a credible reason for pissing them off. Also give your reception staff lessons in customer service. Diners really like being spoken to when they arrive at your restaurant.

The moral of the story for me is: never recommend a restaurant to friends.

Lunch at Hix Restaurant in Soho, London

The Englishman and I have been doing a lot of lunching out lately. It's not by design or by some elaborate planning. (Very few things in our lives ever seem to be... just look at how me met!) Sometimes we don't go out for months, and then sometimes we have lunch together several times a week.

Last Saturday the Englishman needed to buy a new dinner suit. Knowing his method for shopping (short and sharp), I treated the invite to go with him as a lunch date. And how right I was. We'd only visited three gentlemen's outfitters on Jermyn Street in SW1 when the Englishman started to glance at his watch. 'Lunch?' he said and turned to me.

Using my iPhone Harden's app (which, by the way, is absolutely excellent for finding eateries in London), we chose Hix in Soho as the nicest place (sort of) close by. We'd been there once before after the theatre and remembered the food was nice.

The decor of Hix on Brewer Street in Soho is quite eclectic, with mobiles made out of food tins and light tubes adorning the long mirrored bar. It felt like a night-time spot, with staff milling about getting ready for a busy service. There's also a bar downstairs, with neon lights showing the way to the loos at the back, with low sofas and chairs for pre-dinner cocktails. Here too, the barman was polishing glasses and taking stock of the bottles in readiness for the evening ahead. In spite of all this hub of activity, the staff in the restaurant upstairs were attentive to the few tables that we occupied. There was a set lunch, which we both decided to sample.

I do love a proper cloth napkin.

Whipped beets with goat's curd, toasted walnuts and flatbread.

The first course of whipped beets, goat's cheese and walnuts was so excellent, I was really glad we'd come to this nightspot at the wrong time, as it were, and looked forward to the mains.

'It looks like a faggot,' the Englishman said when our food arrived. This was not some kind of rude or politically incorrect remark on his part. I looked down at my plate. He was right, the 'Veal dumpling' as it was dubbed on the menu did resemble the beef and liver faggots our old butcher in the country used to sell. I could never eat these, the animal stomach lining they were wrapped in put me right off.

However, at Hix, the first course had been so good, that I dared to cut into my 'dumpling' to see what it was made of. Besides, I spied no lining material whatsoever. At the end, although tasty, the dish was too meaty for me, and I could only manage half of it. Something green, in addition to the pickled white cabbage and the undercooked new potatoes, to accompany the lonely veal meatball, would have made the dish a whole lot better.

Their water jugs were nice too, although when I said 'Your jugs are nice,' to the waitress, both she and the Englishman burst out laughing. You can take the girl out of a foreign land but you can't take the foreigner out of the girl...

The set menu was quite good value, but I think next time I'll come here in the evening, go for the fish instead and leave the meat dishes for the boys.

Hix Soho
66-70 Brewer Street
London
W1F 9TR


Set lunch for 2 courses was £17.50 
Our bill with a carafe of red wine came to £48.50