Ego at The Fox, Haslington — Restaurant in England

Booked a table for 8pm for my partners birthday, arrived at 7.55 and checked in. The greeting was quite abrupt, told to go to the bar and order drinks and take a seat as the table would be ready in 5 mins. No "welcome to Ego at the fox" etc... So we did as requested. The drinks are very over priced, some run of the mill cocktails are nearly £10 each and mocktails £3.95. Soft drinks started at £2.95! Nearly £3 for a glass of coke!! Seriously? Anyway we sat down with our expensive drinks and chatted away waiting hungrily for our table to be ready, at 8.23 we had still not been sat at our table, I said to my partner if we're not sat down by 8.30 we're going to go. 8.27 a waitress came over and said "are you ready to eat?" I don't mince my words and made it very clear that we were ready half an hour ago. We were sat down and given menus and told the soup of the day. We waited a further 15 mins before our food order was taken. We ordered the sharing tapas, duo of pork and the lamb rump. The waitress who took The order came back to The table to check which kebab I'd ordered, I told her I didn't order the kebab I wanted The lamb rump.. more incompetence! The starter quickly arrived on a hot slate, there were 3 pieces of the manchago between 2 of us, either put 2 on or 4, not 3, how is that a fair share? Lettuce on a hot slate? Just wrong! Olives on a hot slate? Again just wrong! Personally we prefer our lettuce and olives cold not hot, that wasn't nice at all, the calimari was limp, very oily and not crispy. It was meant to come with aioli, do they know what that is? Garlic mayonnaise if you don't know, it was disgusting, tasted noting like aioli, more like a very over powered vinegar salad cream! The king prawns batter wasn't crispy. The chorizo however was lovely with the honey. When the waitress came to collect the finished starter my partner asked if the aioli was home made or bought in, she wasn't sure so said she would check and come back to let us know. She never came back... the original waitress came over almost immediately after the starter was taken away and asked if we were ready for the mains, at that point I felt rushed due to their mistake of not seating us at the correct time. I looked at my partner to answer, he asked for another drink and said sure. Very quickly, a bit too quickly in my opinion our mains arrived, again feeling rushed! The lamb was a small portion for £17.95, overcooked and burnt on the bottom, it clearly stated it was served pink on the menu, just how I like it, not what I got though! the gravy had no taste of red wine only demiglas mixed with rosemary, the bed of crushed minted peas was nice and the dauphinoise potatoes were a little aldante but lacked garlic, served in a separate dish, but get this, the lamb was served in a deep pasta bowl!! Really? Have you attempted to eat with a knife and fork from a pasta bowl, very awkward angle on the wrists. The duo of pork.. again small portion of £17.95, again served in the same deep pasta bowl, so same issue, awkward wrist position! My partner said he enjoyed the belly pork part of the duo however the fillet he said was dry. His gravy he said tasted just like demiglas, and not great. Where I didn't mind the aldante dauphinoise potatoes, my partner didn't like them that way and would have preferred them cooked a little more. We were deep in conversation when we had finished eating, when we were rudely over talked by the waitress who wanted to take away our plates, eager to push the desert menu! As we felt rushed and didn't want to stay any longer we decided to skip pudding and coffee and asked for the bill. I paid and we left, feeling very...

Booked for my daughters bday meal. Waited nearly 50 mins for the starters and then when the main meals came 2 had to be sent back as they were cold. One of the starters was suppose to have 3 small side dishes with the nann bread but came with 2 tazaiki and 1 guacamole. Questioned the waitress why there were 2 the same. She went to ask the chef and came back with an answer - the chef said we’ve ran out of it so that’s why you have 2 of the same. Not good they should have come back to tell us before serving it.The mashed potato on 1 of the dishes were that cold it was as if it came from the fridge. The sirloin steak dish that was cold was sent back 3 times, it seemed To have been put in the microwave as the plate seemed hot but the steak still cold. Sent it back for the 2nd time and the manager ?? Came over to say they were doing a fresh one. Not very sincere that it was cold in the 1st place and didn’t seem to be bothered. 3 - 4 minutes later they came back with another steak saying it was for meant for someone else but they wanted it cooked different so they’d plated it for me. Looked half the size of the original but the waiter said they’re all the same weight. I beg to differ on that to be honest but gave him the benefit of the doubt.Same mushrooms, chips and sauce came back with the steak 3 separate times. Asked for a medium steak originally but when this one came it was rare, jellyfied in the middle and not at all what I asked. Told the waitress once again who apologised but the rest in the party had nearly finished their food. Told her I wasn’t happy, she said it would be taken off the bill. I ate the chips and dipped them in The peppercorn sauce and that was it. I’d waited and looked forward to this all day but was so very disappointed. Last time I ate here they’re were10 of us and a couple of meals were cold and my daughter found an insect in her salad. We left it as we are not the type to complain but it’s not acceptable and I was not accepting it again. When the bill came they hadn’t even taken the £80 deposit I had put down on the meal and I’d forgotten till my daughter said. Think the management need to address these sort of issues with more sincerity and mean it when they say they are sorry that this had happened and prob have a word with the chef / chefs. Even when they said they would take the meal off, they took off the cheapest meal and not the...

My wife booked a table today to celebrate my birthday. We ordered our drinks and food 3 course meal, starters came we both had pate which was nice. The main course was of normal waiting time but we were sat next to the pass so could see everything. I noticed that a plate had been sat there for approximately 5 mins looked liked a steak pie of which my wife had ordered. Then I saw one of the chefs put a few chips on to the plate. Still sat there for another 7 mins before it was served seemed like they were waiting for my order to be ready which was the fish & chips before finally serving it to us. First of all the portion was minimal to say the least, my wife started to eat it but realised that the veg was cold she told the waitress who took her plate away and came back with fresh veg. My wife then discovered that the chips were stone cold, the waitress was informed who was not very polite but took the plate away once more came back and you can see from the picture attached the pie had been burn't and was now unfit to eat. by this time I had finished my main course which was in my opinion just average. We informed a different waitress this time a young girl who was very pleasant and apologised for the appalling turn out. My wife was then offered something else from the menu she ordered another steak pie as that was what she still fancied but then was told they didn't have any left. She then ordered a rump steak of which was nice but the whole experience had been ruined. Some of the staff are not very accommodating and seem to go about their duties as if it's a chore. The young girl was the only one who asked if everything was ok the second time around and i told her she was the only one who was interested the assistant manager didn't come near. They didn't charge us, and only as we were going did the manager approach us and apologise which was to late really. I always say first impressions last but this place is somewhere that i will not be...