The Hare & Hounds, Osterley — Restaurant in London

I went there this morning with four ladies for the first time. It’s in a great location with impressive outdoor space. Perfect for families and dog owners alike. But alas that’s where the positives end.

The food is a different ball game. Firstly the App kept saying ‘dish currently unavailable’, so the waitress took over. I didn’t think it would be possible to screw up a Beef Burger. Especially when it costs £16, but alas today I have been proved wrong. The offering given to me today was truly disappointing.

The burger was presented in a standard bread bun that nobody thought to lightly toast or even warm. Three bites in I started to think that maybe I would just take the meat home for the dogs. It was clearly a frozen burger, dry and tasteless. That was until of course I was hit by a truly acrid nauseating smell coming from the centre of the bun. On closer inspection it appeared to be dollop of aromatic pickled red onion. Although our waiter appeared to be under the impression it was pickled red cabbage. Either way the smell was such, the plate had to be placed on an adjacent table to avoid the smell. My colleague who ordered the same dish luckily has no sense of smell (not COVID related), so she was fine. However the rest of the table were as bemused as I by this somewhat bizarre acrid burger topping.

Even the so called ‘triple cooked chips’ had a huge question mark over their authenticity. I believe these were simply standard frozen chips that visited a fryer twice. Cooked in oil that was clearly past its best.

It’s unfortunate the food really lets this place down. It’s a prime example of a venue that thinks because it’s competitors charge in the top price bracket, they can do the same. They however probably make an effort with their fresh food, and don’t experiment thinking they are Heston Blumenthal. Though reading H&H bland generic responses to genuine issues raised, and having done nothing to address them. They clearly don’t care. The Tenant of this Fullers Pub really needs to get their act together if they wish to survive the current business climate.

Unfortunately the smell still hasn’t left me.

And yes the waiter was aware, and no, no apology or replacement was offered.

I have now read your reply, sent four days after my complaint.

As it doesn't appear I can reply to your message I'm adding to my original post.

Your reply in line with others you have written 'disappointing' and does indeed seem patronisingly generic. Providing no more than lip service.

And though I would happily drink in your beer garden I would on no account order anything from your food menu again.If I want to gamble I'll buy a lottery ticket.

I would also take this opportunity to forewarn any diner that they really should look elsewhere when it comes to a pleasent dining experience. Unless of course nausea and disappointment...

Never wrote a bad review in my life, but the pub visit tonight did qualify for a bit of writing on good old Google. The beauty of Web 2.0 is apparent: user generated content. Here we go: starters arrived with one dish having been undoubtedly left overnight outside the fridge, when challenged, the staff told us it was prepared the day before. To that I can agree, but leaving it outside the fridge was a bad move.

If you want to find a place where they can mess up a battered cod, you found it. Salt and pepper is not in the vernacular of the sous chef, the cost of the side chips was 10 pence, as they were harvested from a frozen chips £2.00 a 5 kg bag. An exquisite entrepreneurial acumen.

The flesh of the cod was odd, odd, odd, well well overcooked. Chips were placed for delivery with an old crusty crust over the oily (oily again) bits facing the top of the chips basket. The selection of meat for the burger was beyond any of my writing skills, resume: very bad. Actually, you have to spend some time to find a vendor of that low quality. The word "cheap supermarket" came to mind. Would not be surprised if it was.

Delivery barely touched 1 point on a Google scale. They made it to the table. We saw the prep work for the aioli source, which involved a remarkably fresh mayo from the Hellman's industrial size tub, a clean spoon and a serving dipper dish. Such an excellent recipe, my mates in the gastro trade across London got it all wrong. Salmon was served with the skin up on a bed of... (end of it! Can't do it anymore). The icing on the cake was a polite reminder from a waiter that we had a bill to pay when we left the table for "an after dinner smoke". £58.70 for a dinner was a disappointment on all angles and half angles of 360 degrees circle..

They do have the potential to make it into a good nice eating place, for that you need a will from the top (the owners), that will was not there. What I was taught by a legendary market stall trader from East London called John, back in the days of the proper Covent Garden market: Greed makes you look ugly. A big problem with eateries in London. Good, the right type of temperature for a pint of London Pride, though!

There will be no comments from the owners, I will put a thousand on it! Bad reviews are not my forte, wrote this partly to entertain a digital type of punter looking for quality. Thank...

Mixed feelings about this visit, we were a large group of 20, the seating plan was a little snug. The food was pre-ordered so no problems were expected.

The starters arrived in concert and everyone received thier dish in good time. The same delivery was true of the main courses, all arrived as the staff served and joked with us.

Service was impressive especially as the pub was bustling on this sunny Saturday and the staff were also busy elsewhere.

There were no complaints from the table regarding the quality of the starters, all were consumed; I have to recommend the scallops with chorizo (very tasty). The main dishes however received mixed reviews from the table, ranging from delicious to inedible.

I had the sea bass with thai curry sauce, it was well cooked and nicely presented. Personally, I didn't think it was a good taste combination, the curry although "light" was still the dominant flavour; white fish requires extremely subtly flavoured sauces. That being said, someone else is sure to find it to thier liking.

My wife had a steak, the mushroom was hot, chips were warm and the steak was cold upon her first bite, it was edible but her experience was sorly diminished.

My sister in-law had the rabbit stew, I could see that it wasn't a winner as she winced after her first bite. It lacked the main ingredient "rabbit" and had so much tomato in it that it was red rather than brown, it was more like a ragu than a stew.

She sent it back to the kitchen, there was no argument from the staff and the dish was deducted from the bill.

Overall, the experience was positive, the logistics of preparing and getting 20 dishes to a table simultaneously isn't easy. The occasion was more about the family getting together and for that, I give the venue and...