Restaurant review: Hixon chophouse Salisbury

My birthday celebration this year included a trip to see Hamilton at the Mayflower in Southampton - excellent seats for a fraction of the West End ticket price, and a fantastic cast, especially Billy Nevers as Aaron Burr.

We stayed in a hotel in Salisbury and had dinner at Hixon, a chophouse which only opened in 2023 but is due to close after two years very soon in June. If you get a chance to visit before it turns into a Mexican restaurant then I strongly recommend it!

The food was excellent though the service was very slow. We both wanted steak so both opted for the fillet (£35) though my husband was disappointed there wasn’t an option for bearnaise sauce - he had the garlic butter and I had mustard cider (an extra £2.50 each).

We had to wait 15 minutes for someone to take our drinks order and eventually when our food came our drinks still hadn’t arrived and we had to ask for them again. I also noticed the server had told the couple dining at the next table what the specials were but didn’t mention any specials to us. We also had to wait a long time for our desserts later. 

I had a French martini cocktail which was very good and for dessert a passionfruit Brule with mango sorbet (£8) which I enjoyed while my husband had a very good sticky toffee pudding (£8.50).

We enjoyed the food and the ambience of the restaurant though did find it a bit expensive even for a good quality steak - this was £35 for a 7oz (200g) fillet; my yardstick for steak is Hawksmoor in London which is expensive as it’s London but also some of the best steak I’ve ever had, and they charge £44 for 275g which is actually (slightly) more per gram, and it definitely wasn’t better steak, and I wouldn’t expect to pay London prices in Salisbury. The service was also remarkably slow; even so I think it’s a real shame Hixon is closing as I would have gone back the next time I wanted to have a celebratory dinner in Salisbury.