Www.bycost­ello­⁠.com's review of Hix Mayfair

I fear a little at risk at repeating myself for another Hix restaurant review, but he keeps to his magic formula of simple food done well, very well in fact.

Calves liver on toast, soft and tender with a rich meaty taste and the lobster tart with cheese and samphire, whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the crisp light pasty, and the succulent chunks of lobster, I could help but think that the taste of the lobster was a little drowned out by the cheese.

Mains we ranged from a safe steak, and very tasty and full of flavour and cooked perfectly, to an adventurous squid and spicy sausage, the spicy sausages were great little juicy bites with a gentle kick. The squid was a little on the overcooked side and was a bit too much and too bland to want to eat a lot of it.

Deserts were sublime, chocolate mouse with honeycomb wafers and a ‘millionaires’ tart, light crumbly pastry, with a caramel and rich chocolate layers.

The bill came to around £60 a head for the food, coffee and service, which was quite reasonable although we easy doubled that with drinks!

Whilst I very much enjoyed the food, perhaps the squid aside (but that was more my bad choice than a bad dish) and the environment was quite convivial the experience was let down by the restaurant being very empty on a Saturday night so perhaps lacked a little atmosphere and the service was quite mixed. Food orders were swiftly taken as did the food swiftly arrive, but we were left to pour our own wine all night and when it came time to pay the staff were far more engaged in trying to set up for the next day’s service that to pay any attention to their current guests so it took quite a long time to get the bill, which made for a disappointing end to the experience.