The Fox Inn — Restaurant in England

Average food served poorly.

Went in with high hopes because the menu proudly talks about locally sourced produce. Sourced from the local Iceland perhaps.

£8 for a lamb kofte starter that consisted of two sad and phallic looking lamb “sausages” on sticks. Not an ounce of seasoning to be found in them and we were mildly surprised that Kerry Katona didn’t spring out of the kitchen doing the conga.

Next up is £14 fish and chips for mains. Perhaps the other half of the fish got lost en route like the waiter did but for 14 shells I’d expect more fish than a finger but that’s just me. Chips, bland and unexciting, the amount of salt needed to make them taste of anything would have cleared out the local mine. Peas were there, mushy they were not.

I would write about dessert but apparently the kitchen closes on a Saturday afternoon so we didn’t even get that far. Thankful for small mercies I suppose.

If you’re in the market for an incredibly average meal and find your wallet is far too heavy then the Fox Inn is for you.

Just make sure that you get your orders in before chef decides he’s had plenty and clocks off at 4pm. Also, make sure your waiter writes down drink orders unless you fancy wandering around the deserted restaurant trying to track down a forlorn looking staff member.

There are lots of businesses that haven’t survived the last year but the Fox Inn has held on even though they are making seemingly every effort not to.

RESPONSE:

Perhaps therein lies the problem. Your time would be better spent training your staff and showing them the ropes instead of typing out sarcastic responses on Google.

You’re telling me there is only one cook and the kitchen must completely close when they take a break? Surely you don’t need anyone to tell you that’s not normal. You’re charging £8 for two koftes on a stick, you have the means to employ and support staff.

If this is the attitude of management then honestly I’m not surprised at the experience I had. Perhaps you could try running a bath instead of a restaurant? It may be more to...

We recently stayed at The Fox for 4 nights and held our wedding there. The staff have been incredible helpful over the last 12 months helping with planning and ideas, we had multiple meetings in person to ensure we felt comfortable at all times. Specifically Ali, Issac and Tori were beyond helpful throughout our wedding in preparations and running the day, the day was perfect!!

The stay was brilliant, between our friends and family we had 11 rooms throughout the week and everyone commented on how great the rooms were; comfortable, clean and a very good size! The complimentary breakfast was also a big hit, being able to choose from a menu instead of having buffet style meant everyone got a freshly cooked breakfast to their liking. We had a large family & friends meal on the Tuesday (about 16 of us), everyone commented on how good the food was and the portion sizes were great! I also think everything is priced quite reasonably for such lovely food in a village pub.

The garden and marquee was a beautiful setting on the big day for our guests and us. They let us set up a whole day before the wedding and pack down the day after, so there was no last minute rushing the night before! We had a Vegan BBQ Buffet for our main course and the Chefs did an excellent job, the food was delicious and there was plenty to go around and a good variety of options. We also had a selection of Vegan pizzas in the evening, again the chefs did brilliantly to give 3 different choices of pizza for everyone.

We had a paid for a drinks package, which we adapted to suit the needs of ourselves and our guests and it was served throughout the day in a very smooth fashion. We had pitchers of Pimms, pitchers of Cider, Bottles of Wine and Prosseco for toasting.

Overall I can't compliment the pub, the food or the staff enough or recommend it...

(Updated 2024)

Having been back to the Fox a few times since my previous review, I thought it important to update things. Every time I've been there in the past few years, the service and food have been really good. From a simple meal out with a friend, to a full-on family birthday celebration, things have always been great.

Went again last night (Feb '24) and had an excellent meal. Staff were, again, really helpful and friendly.

(Originally posted in 2018)

The Fox is one of our local pubs and we've visited for a meal occasionally, but haven't been for while. We booked a table for early evening by email, which was confirmed in due course. The staff were nice and friendly and the main courses were really nice. Good quality and sensible portion sizes. After the main course, we ordered dessert. We were told there would be a 10 minute wait for these as they needed to be made (Waffles and chocolate fudge cake in this case). Not a problem, we thought.

After half an hour, the desserts arrived. We'd almost given up on them! The fudge cake was OK, quite tasty and very rich, but both of the servings of waffles were pretty much stone cold - a bit like eating cardboard. Unfortunately, they were pretty much inedible.

The staff were apologetic and didn't charge for the waffles. It's a real shame, because all the other parts of the meal were very good, but the huge delay and poor quality of the desserts was a real let-down.

At £55 for 3 people, (no alcoholic drinks), the prices are around the norm for pub dining. We'll try again in the future I'm sure, and hopefully be able to rate it a bit higher.

(The cheesecake we bought in the shop on the way home...