Fox & Hounds — Restaurant in England

Honestly I never write reviews but today (this evening) we had a meal at the fox and hounds and I strongly feel my experience needs to be shared not only with others considering a visit but also the management. This is the 2nd time we have had a meal here the 1st time we visited we used Tesco vouchers the service and the food were pretty average nothing to write home about but overall okay. So we decided to give it another shot as on our way home from Ringwood Carnival and had received a ‘try our new menu email’ However to say that our experience was average this time would be pushing it! We arrived at around 5:30 granted the beer garden was generally busy the restaurant was not. To start we were greeted by a very pleasant young lady who seated us. I asked about specials the young chap who initially served us just looked at me blankly I then pointed to the board as it specifically said Sirloin (no pricing just 8oz Sirloin under Saturday) so I queried it...we were then quickly told there wasn’t any left, ok so ordered pork belly for hubby, special fish and chips for me and nuggets for my son. I was then told you were out if chicken nuggets???? We quickly changed to sausages. When the food arrived my plate of food was not as described I was missing two items (scampi and bread/butter) I advised one of the serving staff of this who quickly went off to the kitchen to investigate when he returned he told me the server had mis-heard me and instead I had been given a different fish and chips (as there are two on the menu?????) and to be honest this was very much a computer says no scenario until our waitress (lady who had seated us) came to check if we were ok I advised her of my complaint she then promised that the kitchen would provide me with the missing scampi which they did however not until I’d finished eating. As for the meal overall the cod was dry and tasteless not what you would expect from a 12.50 cod and chips - I left half of my dinner not good at all. To be fair my husband enjoyed his and my son had sausage, chips and beans so no problems there. We had to chase for the bill at the end of our meal. In my opinion the whole place was a shambles, so you might think that my story is not too bad but all I kept hearing over and over with other diners was ‘we’ve run out of this’ ‘we are two chefs down’ ‘there’s a wait on food’ for pub food and quite noticeably your trying to promote the restaurant as it very much separate and your charging top prices it’s just not good enough. We will not come again it’s just not an enjoyable experience, you have a beautiful pub with great potential but it’s just not dealing very well with the demand or in managing customers expectations!

I would say though your only saving grace was the very pleasant, attentive and well mannered female server - as mentioned earlier she seated us and sorted out the scampi issue .... she is a credit to you and was quite clearly trying to do the best she could despite all the issues she was facing. ( I’m sorry I didn’t catch her name pretty, blonde, young lady who clocked off around 6:30)

I’m not looking for any vouchers, or another invite back to your pub or a call to apologise I just had to be honest and get this off my chest the whole thing was just so ridiculously below average and disorganised I really wish we’d gone somewhere...

First time visiting and we were hoping to find a new local pub which was dog friendly to take our new pup, following our experience would definitely recommend avoiding!

Didn't even get to try the food or even get inside the pub! We parked up and proceeded to try and let our pup run off some steam before having lunch but as we walked down the driveway we were shouted at by an incredibly rude female who unfortunately refused to give her name but can only assume she was either the landlady/manageress due to the references to "my pub". She told us we could not park in their car park if we weren't going to use the pub. We explained we were just walking our dog but were then going to have lunch with them, however we were then spoken to extremely aggressively to say "why should she mind our car while we went for a walk?" telling us to park in the road and move it when we returned. She then asked what time we were booked in as they were fully booked, when I tried to explain that their website states that its "first come first served" for the areas with dogs and you're not able to book she told me that I was lying and if I had clicked on the booking form I could put information in the special requirements. Despite trying to explain, she was unwilling to listen and then was again extremely rude and aggressive stating that she would inform head office.

Having read other reviews, this lady really does need to be spoken to about her manner and tone with customers even if she felt she was in the right and we were wrong there are appropriate ways to speak to potential customers. We could understand if it was a busy location where the parking facilities could be abused but this pub has a large parking area, of which there were only 2 other cars parked in when we arrived at 11.50am, and is in a quiet country location.

Unable to leave a review without giving 1 star but wouldn't give that if we were able to. Appalling experience which could have been handled completely...

I ordered the vegetable grill and was shocked to be charged £18 for what turned out to be nothing more than a side of chips (worth about £3.50) and a handful of very pathetic looking vegetables. Honestly, it would be hard to justify charging more than an extra £5.00 for what was served but at least make them look half decent and stick it on a skewer surely?! Let’s break the portion down - 1 mushroom, a quarter of a small red onion, 3 thin slices of courgette, 1 cherry tomato and a slice of butternut squash which is all enough to just about fill a sides bowl.

When I questioned it, one of the staff members simply raised her eyebrows, nodded in agreement, and said, “take it up with Greene King” which, let’s face it, feels about as effective as talking to a brick wall and definitely the kind of response which will further irritate the customer.

Overall, I left feeling disappointed, overcharged, and let down. Definitely not good value for money, and I won’t be rushing back for food which is unfortunate as the setting was very nice and otherwise had an enjoyable experience.

I guess a bad review is the closest I can get to “taking it up with Greene King” - a shame as that could have been avoided with better service at the time. I can see that 1 star reviews have had some politely retaliating responses, so I will say that yes, I did eat the meal because it was edible and I was very hungry after a long walk along the river, I also had a baby with me which at the time I was more concerned on feeding her, so only decided to discuss it at the end after receiving the bill as I couldn’t believe it cost me £18 - in hindsight I should have complained much sooner but that doesn’t take away from the meal that was presented (clearly in agreement that it was daylight robbery) and the service given around it...