The Fox - Twickenham — Restaurant in London

I wrote the following review on TripAdvisor:

Having been in lockdown for months I chose to come to this establishment as I thought I would be able to have a friendly catch up with my mates. I was completely wrong. We ordered three drinks in an hour and a half and then the manager kicked us out as apparently we were drinking too quickly. The manager stated that he knew we were trouble when we walked in which I thought was discrimination. Additionally, he said that because we were changed drinks that we were going to be more drunk. He said he could 'smell' that our behaviour would become unacceptable as the progressed. It was clear to me that he assumed that because we were under 30 that we would be 'trouble'. He had preconceptions about us which was clearly discriminatory. He had no reason to kick us out as he stated none of our behaviour was unacceptable and that he could predict that we would cause trouble. This was categorically untrue. One of the waitresses even asked why we were being kicked out and was befuddled as to why we were being kicked out. If you are under 30 I would never recommend going here as the manager is discriminatory and we could not even have a discussion about why this occurred. He was being unreasonable and will never be going back here. P.S the rest of the staff were delightful.

Having received a response from the team at the fox I am appaled to see the manager has stooped to unacceptable levels. He said we were asked to leave because we were 'intimidating' which is categorically untrue. He said this to us in person and we assured him we were not trying to intimidate him and we just wanted a plausible explanation as to why we were being asked to leave. The reason for being kicked out was because we had a Guinness, an Amstel and a glass of red wine over the course of an hour and a half. He even said in person we had not behaved in any way which meant we were being kicked out but that he could predict our behaviour would become troubling. The manager said we were 'rude, demeaning, insulting and intimidating in varying degrees' in his response to my review, which was completely made up and ultimately amounts to slander. As a preson who has worked in hospitality for years I know the behaviour from the manager is unacceptable, especially when we were not at fault and he continues to make things up as some sort of power play. I would suggest replacing the manager immediately as I am sure this can only benefit the business. I also know people who have worked under him in the past and confirm to me that he is not a good manager and has insulted customers in the past for no other reason than he is having a bad day. I will never be going back and I will be telling everyone I know the experience I have had. I expect an apology...

On the outside the pub looks warm and friendly however, strange to find two security guys at the door in a backstreet boozer, but none the less we entered with a view to listening to a band and meet up with some friends.

The process of ordering our drink was a little lengthy, the bar man announced it was his first night, so unfortunately, did not understand that prosecco is served in a flute glass and not a gin and tonic glass. He went back and poured into a flute, but unfortunately, my glass was not clean so he had to make a third attempt of transferring the prosecco into a) a clean glass and b) a flute!

A little later we decided to get a second round, this time, there were just two guys serving and one woman dealing with a large order down the end who didn't seem to want to engage with the other end of what was now a very busy bar, with customers standing up to 20 minutes to be served. I felt lucky that I waited just 10 mins!

The chap that served me, a different guy this time, scowled at me, when I asked if he was able to serve me as he seemed to be just flapping around and not serving anyone at this point in time.

I noticed that two different bottles were used for my wine, but judging by his attitude I could not be bothered to challenge this.

Sadly, this guy also had a hygiene problem which permeated around the bar when the pub started to get busy and there was limited ventilation. The card machine was handed and I paid, no smile, no thank you, just my drinks dumped in front of me.

Later on, my friend ordered a round of drinks. He waited up to 15 . I asked for a bottle of water and we were literally just handed that! No glass, no ice, no lemon. We had to repeatedly ask for a glass!

Overall experience in the bar; to be honest the atmosphere is pretty macho, ratio 80/20 to men. Loads of rowdy shouting and singing which is fine, but not if you are just wanting to come out for a quiet drink and listen to some music.

Glasses were cluttering up all tables, some smashing to the floor as there were not enough staff to clear up.

So my advice to management for what its worth. Train your staff on how to serve drinks correctly, have more staff working on a Saturday night and suggest a shower before they start their shift.

Finally, teach your staff the basics of please and thank you and try and remove this mentality that you are doing us a favour by serving us a drink and taking our money and that we should be grateful with having some drinks served in dirty glasses as we hand over nearly £20 for the...

A year ago I gave it 4 stars, today, we had our Xmas lunch there (had to have it a week earlier since we will be catching a flight in 10 days so self isolating to ensure we won't catch anything, so pretty much our last "social" meal of the year). After asking for 3 different wine options from the menu that they didn't have available we ended up going for any red wine they had available, which wasn't bad. The glass had lipstick on it so we had to ask another one, the table was also dirt and sticky, so was the floor and toilets. When the starters arrived they were cold and the cutlery had something that looked like an old gum attached to it. Not sure if our expectations were too high due to our circumstances but at this point I wish we weren't there. I've never left a place mid dinner but was seriously considering to. We decided to stay in the hope that the main course would turn the whole experience around. I was expecting some special Xmas meal, instead we were served the worst Sunday roast I ever had. Meat was ok (I had beef, wife had turkey that tasted like pork), potatoes were old and the vegetables were so overcooked that they were turning into a mash, not sure broccoli and sprouts makes for a good one. Coupling this with the £130 bill a clean place and an average food is the minimum one would expect.

For the person replying to these reviews I'm not interested in "solving" anything or compensation for the bad experience. Focus your efforts on actual actions that will ensure others won't loose something you can't give back: time. My intention with this review is to ensure others that in case they have similar experience they don't feel like: "I must have been the one...