The Fox Inn — Restaurant in Dover

We visited this pub today; my father-in-law who lives in a nearby village took us here to park to attend the church, with the intention that we would pop in for a quick drink or two before heading home for lunch as we had not booked. When we arrived, the eagle-eyed publican came out and told us we weren’t welcome to park there; that he doesn’t open until 12 and look at all these other cars parked here that aren’t his customers. We apologised, explained we were popping in for a drink after church but we wouldn’t park there next time. He gave us a bit of a dirty look, which I can only presume was a bit of a “yeah, well we’ll see if you do” and stomped off indoors. We arrived back at the car park (still half empty; no patrons had arrived) at 11:50, and waited patiently until the doors were opened; went in and ordered our drinks as intended. We attempted to make conversation with the landlord, my father-in-law attempted to get him to converse about the beer on offer, and only received one word answers and made no effort to make us feel welcome at all. We took a seat at a table made up for diners (every single table was) and took great pains not to disturb the cutlery or napkins; and settled to try and enjoy our drinks. The entire time we were sat there, we were being thrown filthy looks by not only the landlord, but also a woman who obviously worked for the establishment who we’d not even encountered yet! God forbid they have patrons who only popped in for a couple of drinks when they were expecting other customers to come and eat at some point! They needn’t have worried; they made us feel so uncomfortable and unwelcome we opted chug our drinks down, forgoing a second round and make our exit rather more swiftly than we had intended, barely 15 minutes later. On our departure, we said thank you, and took our glasses to the bar, to be ignored entirely by both the landlord and his employee. Funnily enough, he still had no other patrons, and if anything the car park was emptier at 12:15 than it had been before. What a way to treat customers eh?! My mother and father-in-law insist that they’re not always so rude, that they’re always busy and they’ve enjoyed the food there on one occasion before so can’t understand this reaction. However, I feel the pub let itself down. Fair enough, the parking is only for patrons, and we won’t park there again to attend church. We obviously had not intended to upset anyone by parking there, but we weren’t doing any harm and we DID intend to go for a drink afterwards. Unfortunately, this whole experience has put me off ever returning, and by leaving this review I will have done my part in hopefully deterring others to too. If you can’t be bothered to welcome new patrons, would rather make a point of your annoyance that they used your parking but didn’t use your pub immediately, even though you weren’t actually open and there was plenty of room; then you don’t deserve...

I like the Fox, one of the last bastions of a proper little country pub. The beer garden with the trees and stream is lovely on a Summer's eve. They host Smash Burgers there a couple of nights a week, which are simply delicious!

Also, good choice of some tasty proper beers. The Red Kite is spot-on!

(Dear The Fox, I was writing about somewhere entirely different the other day, 'Misty' doesn't work at your place at all!! Apologies, review deleted and...

Have eaten at this pub a few times with family and relatives. We have always had a good meal . The carvery had a good selection of meats , pork, beef, chicken and lamb and also a vegetarian dish. There is also a good selection of ales and a nice cosy fireplace. Parking at the rear of the pub offers about 10-15 spaces, and there is a quaint little garden where the stream runs along the back up to...