The Brown Dog — Restaurant in London

FOOD POISONING AT THE BROWN DOG

I attended The Brown Dog for an early family Christmas meal after a good experience the previous year, when the pub was under previous management. This year I was served a cold, undercooked burger which made me violently sick from food poisoning, and I was left recovering from stomach issues weeks later. I raised concerns about the raw burger at the time but was assured & encouraged to eat it by our waitress.

Amongst our group, some ordered steak while others ordered burgers. One of us requested his steak be cooked medium, but the waitress told us the chef wouldn't cook it beyond medium rare, as that was the "correct" way to prepare this cut. We found this policy unusual, but the others proceeded to order theirs medium rare. However, the steaks arrived extremely rare, and several members of our group had to send them back to be cooked further.

Meanwhile, I cut into my burger and found it bright red inside, cold, and essentially raw throughout. The other burgers ordered looked rare and slightly undercooked, but not to the extreme extent of mine. I pointed out my concerns to our waitress and showed it to her, but she insisted it was cooked properly, assured me that its bright red appearance was due to the type of meat used, and encouraged me to eat it. Foolishly I trusted her explanation and ate the burger. It was not hot in the middle and tasted like raw meat.

I felt fine until approximately 4:00–4:30am that night, when I woke up suddenly and began vomiting violently for about 30 minutes non-stop. I have never felt so unwell in my life. While vomiting, I could clearly see bright red pieces of the raw burger I had eaten earlier. It was immediately clear that it had given me food poisoning. I spent the next 24 hours bed-bound.

I called The Brown Dog the following day to report the incident and was initially told I would hear back from a manager the same day. It was over one week before I received any response from management, and only after numerous emails and phone calls. They initially insinuated that as there were no other reports of food poisoning that night, I was likely to have caught it somewhere else, despite all evidence to the contrary. A free meal was initially offered, which was no comfort as I would be afraid to eat at The Brown Dog ever again. Eventually they agreed on a refund of the full meal as "a gesture of goodwill".

Their delayed response was a huge frustration and lead me to believe that they did not take the issue seriously enough, and were more concerned with not admitting any liability for the incident as opposed to the welfare of their customers.

The Brown Dog seems to prioritise the chef's personal standards for how meat should be served over the preferences and safety of guests. The waitress dismissed my valid concerns about the burger appearing raw and insisted it was safe to eat, likely due to her reluctance to send another plate from our table back to the kitchen. The staff appeared rushed and highly stressed the evening we dined, resulting in oversights which caused me severe illness.

The management eventually assured me that they would raise my concerns with the team, but our family will never be comfortable attending The Brown Dog again, and I would warn other...

We visited The Brown Dog on Saturday evening after a recommendation from a friend. Having endured regular disappointment in other restaurants this was like a breath of fresh air. The food, wine and service were exemplary.

Upon arrival our dog was given a pigs ear to chomp on, and a bowl of water.

We managed to get a table, which was lucky because they were pretty busy and we hadn't booked, so I'd recommend booking if you want to eat there. We were shown to our table and that's where the little things make a big difference, such as:

We were brought a bottle of chilled water without having to ask They brought some delicious warm bread The butter was at room temperature, so easy to spread They were prompt in taking our order

All small things in their own right, but it shows a great attention to detail and knowing things are under control you can relax and really enjoy yourself.

The food was absolutely delicious, from the starters right through to dessert (the steak was cooked to perfection), and they had a lovely selection of wines, including some nice dessert wines. The staff were fantastic... friendly, attentive, knowledgeable and quite happy to jump over our dog who's an expert at lying in the most inconvenient place.

They put us first throughout the evening and even called us a cab home, which was the icing on a very nice cake. I'd highly recommend The Brown Dog and will definitely be going back.

It's my new favourite eaterie in London, so thank you for...

We’ve been regular visitors to The Brown Dog for some time and used to really like the neighbourhood local feel. However, during the last couple of visits, we feel like there is a continuous churn of staff who are either not adequately trained or managed. The lack of knowledge and care of has been noticeable.

On the most recent visit, we were served warm glass of white wine and when we queried this, we’re just brought a replacement that was exactly the same. Then were offered ice, which of course alters the taste. When we declined this, we were told all the white wines are kept in the same fridge. We ordered some nuts with our drink and the scoop had been used to take olives from an oily pot resulting into the pot and nuts being covered in garlicky oil dripping all over!

We were served by so many different people which was confusing in itself. The waitress who served us for the drinks/ snacks first time round seemed to have disappeared, but another waitress did deal with the issue well.

We hope the management team will restore the pub back to the standard it was... We’d love to be back, as we like to support independent and local businesses and hope to see some improvements on...