Hoggit & Hoof

The Hoggit is renowned in Newbury for being one of the best restaurants we have… Or it was. It’s been a couple of years since I last visited and I can’t believe the difference. What was once a top notch, high quality steak house is now way way below average. And it appears it’s no longer a steak house. It’s a Mexican steak house. The little cacti on the tables and the over-​priced, booze-​missing Mojitos somehow make this Mexican. Along wit the addition of Enchiladas, Burritos and burgers to the menu.
I’ll keep this as fair as possible and focus on both the good and the bad.
A group of 11 of us went for our annual Christmas do. You can’t fault the restaurant for the atmosphere or your surroundings. It’s nicely decorated and there was a chap playing guitar in the background — this was a nice touch actually, it wasn’t intrusive — just nice background music. The tables were nicely decorated for Christmas with crackers and napkins.
We were ordering off the Christmas menu but looking at the standard menu, we all agreed we would have to come back another time.
We’re a pretty easy-​going bunch — we just enjoy getting together, having a meal, quite a few drinks and catch-​up — therefore a couple of wonky tables don’t really bother us. However, when the tables are of different heights, it doesn’t make for the easiest eating experience.
We ordered drinks — £3.70 for a San Mig; £4.30 for a Leffe. «Reasonable» we thought, you always expect to pay slightly more for a beer in a restaurant. Except we were served HALVES. So that equates to £7.40 for a pint of San Miguel and £8.60 for a pint of Leffe. Probably the most expensive beers in Newbury. Well done on that achievement.
One of the lads who was driving had a non-​alcoholic cocktail. Aka fruit juice — £4.99.
The other cocktails were £5.99 — off a generic cocktail menu. I had a taste of my mate’s Mojito and as he put it, it might as well have been off the non-​alcoholic menu too. Fizzy, mint-​flavoured water.
Onto the starters — I had the prawn cocktail. This was shredded iceberg lettuce, prawns and prawn cocktail sauce. And that was it. I managed to pinch the cucumber off Fish’s (alcoholic but not really) Mojito to make it a bit more interesting. No complaints on the baked Mozzarella — looked good and tasted good. Same with the mushrooms on bruschetta.
The mains were either traditional roast turkey or steak. The turkey came out looking good and lots of it. The only complaint was the roast potatoes weren’t roasted.
The steak came out — and this is my biggest pet hate — none of us were asked how we wanted it cooked. How can a steak house serve steak without asking how you want it cooked? Fortunately we all like our steak rare which is how it came out. Perhaps the saving grace is that this is probably the best steak I’ve had all year. Nice and large and just melted in the mouth. A decent portion of Lyonnais potato was delicious. Bit of an odd combo of carrots, green beans, broccoli and cherry tomatoes but not too bad. The overall consensus was that the mains weren’t too bad. But they certainly weren’t brilliant.
A few of us ordered a bottle of red to go with the mains. £16.75 — again, not bad. The description on the bottle label said that this wine was best suited to pasta and white meat dishes. Maybe I’m being picky but if your main selling point is red meat surely the wines should match that? Saying that we only had the one bottle of red — there were others to choose from.
The desserts came out — a choice of mince pies (two mince pies and clotted cream — standard), Christmas pudding (we think), Mexican Churros (a type of Mexican Doughnut with some chocolate sauce) and a cheese board (a selection of three cheeses, some chutney or pickle, apple slices, celery and crackers fresh out of the Jacob’s selection).
The restaurant was pretty busy. There were 3 waiting staff and a (really saucy) manager on. Couldn’t fault the service from them. They looked a bit harassed and maybe a little embarrassed at the food but to be fair, they were very good and had some banter with us.
While it was a pretty underwhelming experience, it wasn’t the worst meal I’ve ever had. It was ok. Just ok. And that’s a real shame because as I said earlier this used to be one of the best places in town.
It feels like the restaurant is struggling and has given up — there’s no sense of pride. There are some redeeming features which they can build on but it’s gonna go one way or the other. I hope they build on what is good and bring the quality back as a steak house should really stand out and do well in Newbury which is overrun with Italian and curry houses.
And stop selling beer at £7−8 a pint!!!

We love this place! Newbury is enhanced by the addition of this high quality eatery. My husband is a life-​long shopper at Griffins, and says they have never disappointed him, always providing excellent quality meat as well as generously constructed sausages and pies. We expected any enterprise Griffins was involved with would be reliable and customer-​focused and the Hoggit and Hoof ticks those boxes. The front of house service is welcoming and helpful, there is a very good wine list and the food leaves you feeling satisfied and uplifted. We had been once on our own before we took my vegetarian sister and her carnivorous husband to eat here and they both enjoyed it very much — we had a lovely evening, thanks! We will be back. All good wishes to the Hoggit and Hoof, Jane Wilder

if you like a steak this place does a good steak ! services is quick and nice enough. BUT the menu other than the steaks lacks a bit, starters ok not great in choice or application, mains other than steak just not quite good enough for a four star review an sorry but we didnt try dessert so cant tell you about them, But the place is good enough an reasonable priced.

was Le petit Square in Market Place
Hoggit and Hoof as of november 2010
not great actually, meringues were clearly processed, salad was out of a bag, turkey was processed, atmosphere cold — apparently the radiators were playing up, no christmas crackers, no avocado in the prawn and avocado salad. mince pies too hot to handle — no tea plates or napkins.
it was so much better in May as Le petit square! what’s gone wrong?