Horse & Hounds Restaurant — Restaurant in Florida

My sister in law and her husband reside not far from this restaurant. We went there after visiting them and to begin with, our drinks came out fast, Menus were then passed out to us and little tiny drink napkins were placed on our table. 10 minutes elapsed and our waitress came by to get our orders but then turned around and went to people behind us at the long bar and talked to them, THEN came back and began AGAIN taking our order.This was all very confusing. But, we ordered a large Bavarian pretzel as an appetizer with both dipping sauces -- beer cheese (Which was terribly runny -- almost like water and not very cheesy at all) and the horseradish mustard (Which had so much horseradish in it, we all had to stop using it because just a little bit would make that burn in your sinuses!) My husband ordered the fish and shrimp dinner with steak fries done extra crispy, I ordered the beer cheese burger (before I knew how runny the beer cheese was) but with onion rings (an upcharge, but I don't really care for fries), my sister in law got the prime rib 8oz and ordered it medium well with a baked potato and my brother in law ordered a bowl of the broccoli cheese soup, a side order of mashed potatoes and side order of macaroni & cheese (he recently had dental surgery and cannot chew well so needed soft food).The pretzel arrived and was barely warm, but we didn't care since we were starving! It wasn't anything to really take note of, so we figured our dinners would take care of our hunger. Time passed slowly and another 30 mins go by. The waitress carried out the tray with our meals on it and starts to hand them out...and I notice there's no onion rings with my burger and no bowl of soup for my brother in law..what happened to the rest of our meal, I ask. The waitress says oh yeah...we're out of onion rings..."Can't you get something else?" the waitress asks me.No...there's nothing else I really want. "But what about his soup?" I ask pointing to my brother in law. "We're out of the broccoli cheese". We look at our plates closely, only to notice the food we'd been so looking forward to had obviously died in the window from sitting so long. The prime rib looks like it had been sitting there for almost a half hour and was rare, nowhere remotely CLOSE to medium well. My bottom bun is soggy from the watery beer cheese while sitting and the burger is cold. My husband's shrimp and fish, fried and steamed veggies are ice cold and look pathetic. The breading is claggy and mushy from oil and from sitting so long. The baked potato next to my sister in law's prime rib is so stone cold that the butter she's given won't even melt! Two little bowls or rather, cups of sides were all my brother in law got in the end. One of mashed potatoes and one of mac & cheese. Both were cold. When we finally flagged the waitress down and told her this, she said it wasn't her fault & She said she'd go get the manager for us...who arrived several minutes later. He said he'd take some percentage off our meals and was sorry...but here's the catch. I NEVER GOT my premium side of onion rings. I ended up with fries -- what normally COMES WITH THE BURGER anyways. The burger and fries meal is listed as $14.50. My burger with onion rings on the bill was $18.00, BUT I NEVER GOT THE ONION RINGS. They never took them off the bill. And the bowl of soup my brother in law never got? Still on the bill. The manager gave us a discount of $27 and change. But wait a minute. $14 worth of that bill was items we never received! So in actuality, he only gave us $13.63 off of a almost $100 bill for horribly greasy, cold food. He did come by the table and hand us all cards for $25 towards each of our next meals...and we pushed them all towards my sister in law who laughed and said she's giving them to her friend who loves the place 😂😂😂😂

Our first and last impression of Horse and Hounds Restaurant? Horrible customer service, terrible food, extremely high prices that do not match the food in quality NOR quantity.

1/10 definitely do not recommend and we will...

UPDATE: 1/17/20

Previous review below. Interesting was given a specific Lunch menu this visit (This is good in my opinion.) This menu had the older lower price items I mentioned in previous review. The server did tell me though they are coming out with new menus next week (We will all have to wait and see!) Today's service was a little slow, several doggie patrons were there on patio, overall decent experience. (We chose not to sit inside due to odd smell, like dirty mop water.) Note in picture of wings I will post today, we saw the outside table not wiped down well before ready for new guests. Again food and service was overall good, little long on cook time. But, OVERALL, I still highly recommend Horse and Hounds if in Ocala. I was able to add a couple pictures this time.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

Food and service were good... We had lunch... wife had the Cowboy burger, requested medium (Perfectly cooked) with steak fries. I originally requested a French Dip with Jasmine rice, but was told later they were out, but I could have a Philly instead. Philly was alright, no wow factor. Rice looked and tasted like plain white rice, no flavor... server offered me another side of my choice. I got the mixed vegetables (squash medley), nicely seasoned with good flavor.

The outdoor covered patio was very comfortable. It is dog friendly. Water bowls available for your furry guests.

Now for the down side... I noticed the menu prices had gone up since last visit (several weeks ago). It appeared to be almost $1 to $2 increase in many menu items. For example, they have a wonderful Prime Rib sandwich, was $11.99 now $13.99. And now most of their other sandwiches that were $11.99 were $12.99.

I understand food costs can fluctuate, but that much of an increase for lunch type items may turn off guests to not come as often... Don't get me wrong, it was good, however this is still Ocala and this place is not Fine Dining. Simply put, if your looking for an economical full service place for lunch or dinner, this is not the place for you. But hey what's a dollar or two among friends! 😂

Overall good experience and we will go back. Sorry will have to add pictures...

We visited Horse & Hounds in May 2025. They are located on a corner, so getting in or out can be a challenge, depending on your direction. Horse & Hounds has the option of dining inside or out. There is a sign near the front door directing folks who would like a table outdoors, to see the host for seating. The host is just inside the inside door. We decided to eat indoors because it was warm out. The hostess, greeted us and told us that we could sit wherever we like. So we chose a booth along the wall. The building decor is kind of rustic themed. There is a very prominent bar the dominates the main room. There is aa second room inside in the rear of the restaurant. There is corrugated metal and such around. Our table surface, found probably use some attention. But that was minor and the restaurant seemed adequately clean and maintained. The covered porch outside also looked like a nice option if you so choose. Every staff member we had contact with were nice and professional with us. Our server did a good job and never left us looking for her. We ordered our food and drinks at the same time. Our order came out fairly quick, considering they were starting to get a crowd. We found the food to be quite good. Although the wife found her Spinach chicken wrap a little spicy. But peoples tastes do vary. She seems more sensitive to spice lately. So most folks may find the food excellent. I orders some wings. I found them to be some of the better wings that I have had in the area, if not the best. Yes I enjoyed them. I found the prices to be reasonable considering the times we live in lately. We decided not to have dessert. So we payed the bill and were on our way in fairly short order. One note that I found negative, is the Horse & Hounds charges 3% extra for credit card usage. This is becoming more common in this area. So H&H is not alone in this practice. All in all, I found H&H to be a nice place for a meal. No they are not by any means perfect. But they were a decent meal and experience at a fair price. As such, we’ll...