The East End Fox — Restaurant in Scotland

I feel I have to report on our experience on Friday 14th October. We were so looking forward to our night. We arrived and gave our name for our pre booked reservation for dinner for four to be taken to the back of the restaurant to be told this table is reserved for dinner which was what we were there for but then we were shown to another table pre booked for us. We ordered our meal which didn’t give me much confidence as the waitress didn’t appear to understand what starters and main meals were. We asked what the pate or terrine of the week was and she had no idea. She went to ask and told us it was smoked haddock or horse radish which seemed rather odd. Poor thing seemed nervous and ill informed of her duties. This was acceptable and I understand fully that there might be a few teething problem issues which is acceptable with a new venture although this being night three things should have been a bit more gathered. Starters eventually arrived forty minutes later. We love hot food but this was luke warm and seemed to come out of a microwave as the haggis was overdone and crispy on the bottom. My grandson had his dinner with our starters as requested. He is nearly four but wondered where the cheese was in his macaroni and was not keen on the green stuff which I presume was chives. I would advise to omit this from a child’s dish but he is a fan of Mac cheese but it was sadly lacking in a nice tasty cheese. Our mains eventually arrived but one out of three orders was nearly correct. Rib eye steak appeared to be lacking the anticipated shoe string fries which were replaced with some second grade French fries. Our two fillet of beef were replaced by two items from the market menu. Both were over done to say the least and so not what we ordered. We told the waiter and just decided as long as the bill was amended accordingly we would go along with it. The waiter suggested a free glass of wine and my husband quite rightly so said I think a bottle. He didn’t argue and slapped his shoulder and duly brought an opened bottle of wine free of charge. I am not used to complaining and felt really uncomfortable and couldn’t wait to leave to go home. I asked for the bill which came and was billed incorrectly two times. I understand it’s a new venture and expected a few teething problems but the service and staff attitudes were all sadly lacking. We were extremely disappointed and wasn’t the type of birthday celebration I was expecting. I am a Glasgow housewife but could have ran the whole evening so much more professionally. Understand your reservation plan Be welcoming Be aware of the items on menu. Surely the chef would advise staff of the items they should be familiar with. Our waitress was ignorant of what she was serving and indeed announced who’s the two medium well. What is that? Please if water is requested and indeed promised please serve it. Please remove menus as they take up a lot of table room and our neighbours kept pushing them away when they required to leave their seats on various occasions. Please supply basic condiments ie pepper. Having to ask for pepper and then receiving a pepper mill which to me is extremely unhygienic and should be a given to have on your table. It seems inadvisable to have a fire exit chained up. This can’t be correct. If that was my establishment and I was faced with so many preventable mishaps I would be more than apologetic. I was also flabbergasted to see I had been charged 10% optional service charge. Really ???? I was expecting and indeed deserved so much better for my birthday celebration. I so wanted to recommend you to all my friends and be proud to take my family there on a regular occasion but things would have to change dramatically before I would return. I feel you have opened prematurely and are indeed a work in progress which I take no delight in informing you of. Hopefully you will take these comments on the chin and pull yourselves up and become the establishment I can be proud of and want...

My family and I visited The East End Fox for the first time, we were so looking forward to it after seeing some great reviews but unfortunately we were let down from start to finish. The service was awful and food wasn't great. Your front of house manager really needs to work on his customer service skills.

Firstly, we were seated at a table with low, leather arm chairs - not ideal for most of us for a meal. My mother suffers from osteoporosis and arthritis, I have a slipped disc in my back and my partner has sciatica so having to perch on the edge of a chair to reach the table for a meal wasn't a winner for us. However... for a relaxed drink they would have been very comfortable.

We waited over 40 minutes for our starters, two of which were wrong and one was luke warm. My prawn cocktail was severely lacking in taste and we had to request spoons for the 3 soups. There was no check back to see how our food was either.

We then waited another 40 minutes at least for mains. Several waiters and waitresses walked by our table during this time and not one asked us if we'd like another drink whilst we sat there with empty glasses and crushed cans. It was also impossible to have a chat across the table due to how loud the music was, I'd expect that in the bar perhaps but it was too much for a restaurant area. I was forced to go to the bar and highlight my concerns to the manager after watching tables who arrived after us receive their food and additional drink orders. A different waitress was then sent over to take our order.

When the mains arrived the lamb shank was stone cold, the plate was hot but the meat was cold. The manager proceeded to tell my mother it couldn't possibly be, it was just out the oven... clearly not and being indirectly called a liar really isn't what you expect when out for what was meant to be a nice family meal in a new local, up and coming restaurant.

My partner is coeliac, this was advised in the booking before hand. When we were seated the manager told her to tell her waitress this when ordering. You can't place an order without knowing what you can safely eat so the waitress had to go find out as she wasn't confident advising without checking, which is fine, better safe than sorry. There is no allergens noted on the menu. She was told she could have the fillet steak, this was meant to be served with fries, these were no where to be seen. She literally had a bit of steak with a single slice of potato and a few small cuttings of carrot. She advised when ordering the steak she can't eat any pink meat at all due to her condition. The meat was pink when it was presented, so that too was sent back.

The katsu curry and steak pie however were lovely as was the lamb shank when it came out second time. That being said, the manager tried to say the delay in food was because the lamb alone takes at least 50 minutes to cook yet miraculously a fresh, hot one appeared 10 minutes after being sent back.

There was only one waitress that actually thanked us for coming, apologised and wished us a good night as we were leaving, she wasn't even our waitress and the manager proceeded to walk in front of us cutting up our group and said nothing.

Overall between service and food, we were really let down. I was so hoping for a better experience. Attention to detail was severely lacking and we won't be back any time soon.

I have since highlighted these issues to Ferrier who has kindly responded and referred to these reviews so I think it's only a fair reflection if all experiences are noted.

Definitely potential to be a great addition to the east end but the front of house needs a shake up and...

We arrived at 7pm for our booked table and gave our name at the front desk, the guy dealing with it walked away with no explanation then the manager I assume came and advised we didn’t have a booking. We advised that we did and had this in writing which we showed him, he apologised and asked us to sit at the bar to have a complementary drink while he tried to sort something for us. We sat waiting at the bar and after 50mins we got told they had a table for us, up until this point we hadn’t had any updates on what was going on and started to think we might be best leaving and trying somewhere else as it was our wedding anniversary.

We sat down to enjoy our meal, excusing the mistake with not being booked in correctly. We ordered our starters and main, a few minutes later the waitress returned to let us know the pate had ran out a little disappointed but we choose another and moved on the starters arrived and we enjoyed them. Then our steak order arrived, at this point we had to wait for our knives to be replaced as we didn’t have steak knives usually this is down once an order for steak is placed. My husband commented that we seemed to have peppercorn sauce that we hadn’t ordered as the menu said the steak came with garlic butter. We were told by the waiter the menu was wrong and needed to be updated, we asked if we could have the butter he said he’d go and check. The butter arrived and we started our meal as I ate my steak I did notice it getting rarer towards the centre and felt cold so I choose to leave the rest, I emptied my fries (French fries not shoestring) out to realise they were pale and very oily making them soggy so again chose to leave them.

When the waitress came to take away the plate she noticed the left food and asked if everything had been ok, I explained the steak was rarer than I’d prefer and the chips were soggy she apologised and we left it at that. I had been planning to order a dessert and when she said the manager was going to pop over to chat to us. The manager approached and told us he had spoken to the chef and he didn’t agree that the steak wasn’t cooked correct and the fries were fine. It was rather annoying that giving feedback seemed to have resulted in a manager approaching our table to tell us we were wrong. At that stage I thought ok we will just leave having a dessert as I now felt very uncomfortable to have been ‘told off’ for not agreeing with how the steak was cooked. He then returned and said the chef was coming out to speak to us.

The chef approached and as my husband was away from the table said I’ll come back without even letting me say anything. When he approached he seemed to direct most of the conversation to my husband, I had to interject as the feedback had been given by myself. I also had to make the point that while I was speaking he seemed to be speaking back to my husband. I was advised if I was unhappy I should have returned my steak. I explained I had been planning to pay for my meal I had never once said it was a complaint but the waitress asked if the meal had been ok and I gave my honest feedback.

This was our anniversary meal and put a dampener on the full meal it was also insulting for the chef to tell my husband ‘’maybe this establishment isn’t for you’.

Was looking forward to having a nice place to eat local instead of having to travel into the centre or uddingston but since this place isn’t for us maybe we will have to continue to do so. Maybe La Vita...