At the suggestion of AHB, on Monday 19th November 2012 we tested an alternative venue, the Hix Oyster & Chop House, 36-37 Greenhill Rents, Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6BN, tel +44 20 7017 1930.
The food was most excellent, albeit more expensive than the Bung Hole would have been. The waitress provided us with some hors d'oeuvres selected to go with our "robust reds" before we ate - we received some splendid devilled chicken hearts, some sweet potato crisps and Heaven and Earth (black pudding balls on tarragon mashed potato). All in all an excellent introduction to the food at Hix'.
We followed that with starters (I had 4 oysters, which went surprisingly well with the 1980 Taylor), main (double pork chop, really tasty) and desert (credit crunch ice cream).
We had a round table that gave us just enough room for 4 people, their food, 20 glasses, 5 bottles, a water jug and 4 water glasses and tasting notes sheets. There are long, rectangular tables available further back in the restaurant if we wanted to hold a bigger tasting there. The glasses were OK, Hix only have one type of wine glass - a short stemmed utility glass - but it worked reasonably well.
The service was good, attentive but not pushy, and our waitress and manageress showed polite interest and willingness to try when offered a glass of port.
I was very pleased with the venue and would happily go there again if we were able to negotiate the same corkage terms (£5 per bottle). I think being a Monday night we had the advantage that things weren't busy so we were able to enjoy a long and lingering dinner.
The ports were pretty good, apart from the Churchill 1985 which was so badly corked that we left it for JDAW to drink. The Taylor 1980 might also have been slightly corked, but we couldn't agree - if it was, it was very slight.
Last edited by Alex Bridgeman on 15:54 Fri 23 Nov 2012, edited 3 times in total.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.
2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
The Dublin Bay Prawns that I had as a starter were superb. Order at least three. The steak was also excellent. I can't remember what they called it but I think it was a long cut of well-aged flank. Quite delicious.
A very good venue for a small, if relatively expensive, evening. I think we paid £65 per head.
We also found an excellent place for pre and post tasting beer. The Hope, a very traditional looking old English pub with many original decorative fixtures and fittings and a more modern and aesthetically pleasing European feature that proved to be very popular with the team.
"The first duty of Port is to be red" Ernest H. Cockburn
I can't remember what you started with but you had a large beef pie for your main course. The general enthusiasm with which you consumed it suggests to me you were happy.
"The first duty of Port is to be red" Ernest H. Cockburn