The Old Hare And Hounds — Restaurant in Birmingham

We have been into the Old Hare and Hounds on several occasions over recent year.. meeting old friend's for drinks and a couple of wakes after loosing family members. Our experience has always been positive. On 22nd Sept 22 me and my wife decided to book for food and on arriving we had a table reserved. The bar staff were very welcoming and we learned that the pub was closing for a 3 week refit on Sept 26th. I guess this could explain while only half the usual range of cask beers were available. I ordered a pint and took it to our table.. it was very cloudy and did not taste good. I returned it to the bar and the bar person agree it was not good and took the beer off sale . I ended up with a bottle of Newcastle Brown.. "hard to mess that up" ! We ordered food and a full menu was available. I had a starter & steak and my wife a burger & sweet. All the food seemed fine and I shared some of my wifes burger. Off we went home...... at 2a.m. in the morning my wife began to be violently sick ( vomiting and diarrhoea). This continued for 4 hours and by 6a.m., I too was violently ill. It became clear, very quickly that the only thing we had shared was the burger and with the pub referb year 3 days away, it was clear that food hygiene was slipping. We spoke toour doctor the following morning and were advised that if the illness did not clear in 48 hours then we would need to provide samples for analysis... thankfully we were feel mostly better with 24 to 36 hours. I filled in the contact form on the Ember Inns site and got a reply asking us to supply "samples" and complete a very complicated questionnaire. We didn't supply samples, as not deemed necessary by our doctor. It was clear that without samples Ember Inns werent going to do much. We did get an assurance that it would still investigated, but it seems hard to see how, as by this time, the pub was covered in scaffolding and the interior, including the kitchen was being ripped out!! I have left posting this review as I had hoped to include Ember Inn final response, but I am still waiting! Let's hope that the refit with bring a clean slate for food hygiene. I think will will be very hesitant to go back for...

The lady who was supposed to seat us was working behind the bar, so waited 10 minutes to be seated!

That said…..

Once seated, the waitress was really friendly and very attentive…

I expected the food to be awful seeing as getting us to our table didn’t seem to be a priority!

The food was really, really nice!

£14 mixed grill…..

You’d expect that to be sub standard but it was really well cooked, steak was cooked perfect medium rare, chicken was juicy with a beautiful chargrilled taste, gammon was juicy, egg yolks a little too cooked for my liking but I really enjoyed the meal (sausages are lovely).

The gravy is utterly delicious

The barman with long hair and a beard (light coloured beard) was really friendly and good service was received!

If this place had a better system for seating people, it would be close to the top of my list for a place to eat!

Maybe have a dedicated front of house!

The Beefeater is a pub, the harvester is a pub, miller and carter are a pub, they all manage to have a member of staff meet and seat diners on arrival!!!! If you can’t manage this, then you shouldn’t offer table bookings!!!

The good food is clearly a reflection on the chef and not the management!!!

WILL NOT...

We went as a small group for a family get-together and was seated at a table at the back near a real fireplace. The lunchtime set menu option was great value, though a bit limited ( I would have loved to have a small steak option for a supplement). But there are other inexpensive options and everyone at our party was happy with the choices. The staff were friendly and attentive, and the food was served quickly even though the restaurant was quite busy on the Friday lunch time that we visited. You have to order at the bar and they will bring the food out. We had the breaded mushrooms, homemade nachos, soup of the day, beef and ale pie, fish and chips, sausage and mash, chicken breast, chocolate brownies and Apple pies. They were all fairly good and excellent value for money. You get what you pay for. The pie crust was a bit thick and not so generous with the filling, and i would have preferred the chips to have been cooked a bit more. I also found the brownie a bit too sweet but quite a big portion. But we all enjoyed our meal. We had also ordered the kids' burger, and it was quite a generous portion. Overall, I can not complain for a three course for £8.49. We have been here before and have always had...