The Fox — Restaurant in London

We booked for the Boxing Day Menu. Arrived early waited 10 Mins until anyone came up to us. Shown to seats.. Table ok... no Christmas Crackers though. Then things then started to go down hill. Given a menu... looked at it could not see any thing that we originally had chosen from the one I printed off at home. Then noticed each item was priced. I went up to or waitress who informed me that due to staffing issues they could not deliver the Boxing Day Menu. Went back to my table and explained that the menu was off. Then the waitress took our Drinks order. I asked what Bitters available, but was surprised that only one Bitter on tap. My Mother asked for the wine list (That was not on the Table) My Mother went for a Glass of Red Wine. After a long wait a young guy came up to our table and told me that there was no bitter. I enquired why. Told that as there was only 2 Bar staff behind the Bar they could not afford to have one go and change the barrels. I asked what was going on. Told most of the staff had rung in sick. That was the reason for the Menu change, slow service and drinks problem. I was offed a Pale Ale, I accepted. THEN he said that the Wine my Mother wanted had run out. So she looked again and Choose another Wine. Our Drinks came. Mine was just a very fizzy larger. Nasty tasting. My Mother's Glass looked strange. So before she could take a sip I looked at it. Lipstick marks all around the rim. The Bowl of the Glass had finger prints on it. The Glass looked like it had not even been washed. This is when we decided enough was enough. Whilst we accepted that instead of us having Cod Loin and Pork Belly we were having to settle for Fish & Chip.. and a Burger... The Only things what seemed appealing. However the issues with the Drinks and a Dirty Glass really pushed things over the top. I Told the waitress that we were leaving. I said deduct the drinks from the deposit I had made in September when I booked the table. She said she would have a world with the Assistant Manager. I Do wonder What the Manager was doing at the time ?. She came back and said that she would refund our deposits and that we did not have to pay for the drinks. We left. During all the time in the pub I did not shout I discussed each issue as it came up. BUT I do think that at the outset, an apology shout have been given when handed our menus. It should not have been down to me to spot that the menu was different. Burgers, Curry, Fish and Chips, Lasagne.. etc is not Christmas food. The only thing that needed any real cooking was the VERY overpriced Steak. All the rest looked like things you stick in the Microwave. People on the table next to us told me before leaving their food was not nice. At the end of the day The Fox is a PUB. Running out of Beer, Wine and Dirty Glasses is unforgivable. I have been using The Fox for the last 40 years. This will be my last visit. Thank You for ruining my Boxing Day and that of my 94 Year old Mother. This was meant to be a meal to celebrate my Birthday. Thank You for...

Full disclosure - after complaint 2 of our 8 meals were compensated and extra chips were given. However this was not volunteered and occured only after complaint.

We visited the Fox at the weekend. On entering we were told there would be a wait for food. After 1.5hrs of waiting - with no updates, food arrived. This delay with 4 under 6s was bad enough but we were willing to overlook this. However, I ordered a meat feast pizza which had no meat. Seconds later a member of wait staff handed me a bowl of meat saying 'and this is for you'. Had it been explained there was a mistake I would probably have accepted a small discount but this was passed off as completely normal which was bizarre. My friends meal was, in his words, 'warm at best'. My wife's meal however, the grain and cous cous salad bowl, came 5 minutes later and was a bowel of rocket, not a grain or a cous cous to be seen. Again, no explanation and the expectation apparently was 'whats the problem?!'. The kids meals whilst fine was severely lacking in content. I NEVER complain to wait staff, I know most of the time their job is impossible but this was too much and I did. The first person I spoke too honestly made me feel guilty by looking so upset - completely unreasonable of The Fox to put her in this position by making such a mess. Our intial waitress then came over and confessed that the situation was really embarrasing and clearly empathised with the situation. For us the main issue was the complete lack of communication and the apparent attitude of 'this will be fine', had someone been empowered to take the initiative and got ahead of this, rather than make me feel a monster for pointing out these flaws the review would have been more postive despite the f&%k-ups. The initial waitress was very nice and produced more chips for the children to pad their meals out after my request and the two wrong meals compensated. However, clearly we cannot gamble on returning here and having a similar experience which is a crying shame as it's in a beautiful location and some of the food that did come out - warm and correctly was really good. Whether there is chaos in the kitchen or management (or both) is unclear but...

I had booked a table for 4 on line at 1.30 on the 29th May at 1.30. Hardly any customers when we arrived and staff to be seen. Waited over 5 mins before we saw a girl come out to the bar. She tried to look for our booking but couldn't find it. As the pub was almost empty I suggested we just fine a table ourselves.my husband and the lady from the other couple we were dining with went to order the meal. Sat and waited. Our friends got their meal and we waited for ours but it never came. My husband went to ask where our meals were, no one around. Finally a staff member said their system had failed so they had to order it again. My friend asked to speak to the manager but no one came. Result was young man in black baggy shorts and a rude young girl attended to us. He agreed he was not the manager and his manager was off for the day. I suggested that there were so few staff that they couldn't cope. He agreed and he should have apologised strait away instead trying to explain a faulty system. I suggested he contact his manager and complain about the shortage of staff. He agreed he was in a poor position. Our food when it did come was charred and had obviously been sitting around for some time. He offered a full refund which we accepted. I told him we would not return and that he should not be left to run a pub of that size with 3 staff and 2 chefs. He agreed. The service was poor and the staff were defensive and rude because they were stressed out. I hope managers will listen and address the situation. The young man said he had forgotten it was half term and he was not prepared. I think he may have been straight out of school and I feel sorry for that but where...