Friendly Fox — Restaurant in Fort Wayne

We are regulars, live nearby. Sandwiches, soups & salads are good. I like the building and atmosphere. Unfortunately we'll not be going back. Was there with my 90 yr old Grandpa on a Sat afternoon 5:30, was told they are out of soup (which is one thing he loves). Asked for a discount on some other item to make up for it, or maybe some extra chips. Was told "no" by my waitress. I asked what can she do. "Nothing, sorry". I asked for a manager or owner. None available. Asked to leave my number for them to call me. She walked away.

Later in the meal, the lady at the next table to the right called the same waitress over to complain of the cold temp (it was cold in there). She told the lady that the kitchen staff gets hot, so they keep the heat down. The lady spoke with me about it for several minutes, expressing her unhappiness.

At one point, I waited for a second beer for at 5-10 minutes. Where did she go? It's a small place, I would have seen her. I finally flagged the other waitress to get it, THEN our waitress materialized and brought it.

The whole evening was marred by her lack of service, and upset attitude toward me (even though she still kept my tip).

Several days later I called to let the owner(s) know. I was told that I had been rude, and other tables apologized on my behalf (there were 3-4 other tables including the cold lady. The other table to the left was a lady and her son, and they left before I did). I asked nameless owner #1 what I said or did that was so rude.. she said "I don't know, but I was told you were rude". I replied that I indeed was not happy for the rest of the meal, but it's not incumbent upon me to put on a happy face so that the waitress will feel better. After some time spent on the phone arguing with owner #1 (she wouldn't tell me her name), and being told over and over that I just wanted free soup (I did not), the conversation ended when she hung up.

I called back and asked for the names of the other owners. Owner #2 informed me that she's an owner, and after asking several times, she indicated there are 4. I began to explain my perspective, she cut me off, told me that she heard the previous conversation, and that there's nothing she can say that would please me. I told her that's a defeatist attitude, and that I'm taking my time to call because we like the food and the place, but the service was not a pleasant experience, and that's it's her job to try to resolve the issue. She repeated much of what owner #1 said, and that I need to be friendly and nice if I expect to get anywhere with her (I was calm and steady, but I have laryngitis so I have to speak up to be heard). I reminded her that it's not my job to be friendly and nice, especially when I'm calling TO HELP, and that I only expected to be heard and understood, and I'm being gaslighted into thinking that I'm the problem by both her and the other girl (owner #1). THAT'S when the conversation really took an ugly turn.

She told me that now I'm just being mean, and that kind of language is not called for. Gobsmacked, I asked here what she was talking about. She did not like that I said the "other girl". Told me that people like me are not welcome. Told her I meant it innocently, and I apologized if it offended her, it was not intentional. She really went off on me, and asked if I wanted her to leave a 50 dollar gift card at the register. I told her "no", I do not want that. She said "good, because I would never do anything for you ever". I made another attempt to divert back to the core issue of the lack of service, she again said that no matter what she said I would never be happy, and after I calmed us down, I told her that what I expected was for an owner/manager to say something like "sorry for your bad experience, we appreciate your business, and being a part of this community. Thank you for your patronage, I'll do my best to correct this". She actually began repeating it back to me. I told her that I don't want to hear her use my own words. She then again told me that I was...

Definitely the Not So Friendly Fox… I really REALLY wanted to love this place. The service I received today is why I am giving this place two stars. I decided to make a special trip to this place and left feeling sad and dissatisfied. I sat at the bar and ordered a turkey panini with a side of potato chowder (soup du jour). A very nice lady sat two seats down from me at the bar shortly after I ordered. We shared a server and I overheard the lady ask about the soup of the day, to which the server replied “potato chowder”, the nice lady asked “how is it?”, and the server replied verbatim “I wouldn’t”.

After working in the f&b industry like I have, when you overhear a server NOT recommend a dish, it’s concerning. Having already ordered, I decided I wasn’t going to eat the soup once it came out however I wasn’t going to mention anything. I still planned on paying for it however when my server returned to ask how my food was, I told her it was good but she could take the soup as I wasn’t going to eat it. She asked why I wanted it taken away and I told her that I overheard her tell the lady next to me that she doesn’t recommend it.

My server got immediately defensive and told me the reason she didn’t recommend it is because she knows the lady sitting next to me is gluten free. FYI, potato’s are a vegetable and not a grain so therefore they are gluten free. I told my server that I would rather not eat the soup. She then began to berate me by saying “you didn’t even taste it” and continued to try to get me to keep the soup. Her persistence was off putting and I politely told her I wasn’t going to ask her to take the soup away again.

She stormed away to the kitchen where I heard her complain to the chef about me. This place is pretty tiny and at this point the rest of the servers where gawking at me and I apologized to the lady sitting next me. The lady next to me agreed with my choice and didn’t fault me for asking for the soup to be taken away. I was feeling extremely uncomfortable so I asked another server for my check. When I received the check I just wanted to pay and leave as soon as possible as my server was still in the kitchen complaining about me. I waited for someone to come back and pick up the check however my server finally comes out of the kitchen, goes to the POS and prints a new check with the soup removed. I didn’t ask to not pay for the soup. I tried to apologize to the server and told her to please not take this personally.

This was by far the most uncomfortable dining experience I’ve ever had. I left feeling sad, confused,...

I want to love The Friendly Fox so badly, but I leave with a bitter taste every single time. My home is a 5 minute walk away, yet the service is so terrible that I regret each and every time I choose to support their business.

Waiting for 20+ minutes just to get a menu when there are more employees than customers is just insane. This has happened multiple times. This time my girlfriend and I decided to just try their ice cream, because how could they mess that up right??

I ordered a cookies and cream milkshake and asked if there were sizes. I was told they are either one, two, or three scoops. I ordered one scoop and my girlfriend ordered the espresso malt, which we were told they were out of. No biggie, she got a Vietnamese Espresso coffee milkshake instead. After a short wait my girlfriend received her espresso malt milkshake (I thought they were out of that????) and I received a single scoop of ice cream in a bowl.

I’ve had enough experiences here that I just wrote it off as the usual awful service and was going to leave when my girlfriend went in and told them that I received the wrong order. This was met with the response “he said he wanted one scoop.” I want to support local business so badly, but I have yet to have a positive experience here. If you have all the time and patience in the world then this very well may be the spot for you. I will no longer support a business that surprises me with their staff’s incompetence each and every...