The Fox & Hounds Restaurant & Tavern — Restaurant in Village of Richfield

So my parents took me here for my birthday because I had mentioned I wanted to come here someday and visit nearby Holy Hill along with it. My dad booked a reservation here a week in advance, and despite having a reservation we waited for 20 minutes to get seated. I've never heard of this happening before with a restaurant reservation being forced to wait. Turns out between Homecoming Weekend and a massive wedding onsite the restaurant and pub were absolutely packed. I believe the restaurant was overbooked.

We did eventually get seated and we had a really great seat by the window near the little lake they have. I had ordered their Prime Rib with a side of their fries, and my dad ordered the same thing except baked potato instead of fries. We also ordered side salads, mine with Parmesan Peppercorn dressing (my favorite type of dressing that is apparently really rare to find) and my dad ordered a balsamic vinaigrette because their Italian dressing was a creamy Italian and my dad does not like creamy dressings.

Both of us liked our salads, my dad really liked his balsamic vinaigrette dressing because it was certainly better than other ones he had tried. The bread was also very good, though I skipped the honey cinnamon butter because I can't stand cinnamon.

The Prime Rib was just fine. We both felt like the Prime Rib lacked seasoning. For me, when I think of Prime Rib I'm thinking of heavy flavor and a nice, deeply seasoned crust. That was not this Prime Rib. Now, it was tender, it was cooked correctly in terms of being a medium, it was not a terrible Prime Rib. But, compared to other Prime Ribs that I have tried it was not nearly as good. It had no crust and the flavor was just not there. I would not order it again and would have instead tried the steak or scallops since I saw both on the menu. The fries were a similar fate, though I typically don't eat the fries a restaurant has anyways so it's a wash there. My dad enjoyed his baked potato.

Now, this is my birthday dinner so I ordered desserts. I ordered a Brandy Alexander and I ordered a chocolate cake. These were both amazing. The cake was really good and not too sweet but very chocolatey which is how it should be. The Brandy Alexander was also very good and I enjoyed it. My dad ordered wine and ordered a Maker's Mark and both were good. After dinner desserts and drinks were both really good and I'd order both again.

Now, overall I give the experience 3 stars. I feel like for what we received, it's good there was a special because I felt if we paid full price on everything it would be overpriced and underwhelming. The food was fine, but for a restaurant hyped up as much as this one I hoped for more. The crowding impacted the experience and I feel contributed to a less than stellar experience because having to wait when having a reservation is sus and the crowding meant extra waits on everything including getting food to our tables (though, the servers we had handled it as well as possible and were very professional). I think if I were to come back, I would go on a day when it's not crowded and I'd order...

Food is not worth the time or the price.

Was here for Mother’s Day this year and the food was great, but came back for my birthday and it was a total 180 experience.

We had a 6:30 reservation for two and we arrived at 6:25. We were told that they were running 20 minutes late and were given a pager.  We then waited at the entrance because there was no place to go.  We do not drink, so going to the bar was not an option.

For the next 30 minutes, people constantly bumped into us as they were coming in or being seated.  We checked up with our table and was told that there was one more person in front of us.  An additional 30 minutes later, still being bumped and pushed while people came in and others were seated, we were still waiting. Our pager went off as we approached the hostess stand the second time to find out why we were waiting so long.

I happened to glance down as the hostess was checking our name off the list and saw that several 6:30, along with all the 7:00s and half the 7:30s, were already checked off the list, yet we were we the very last 6:30 reservation to be seated.

My friend & I was finally seated next to the aisle that the servers used to go to and from the kitchen. A table station was set up next to our table and two of our chairs couldn’t even be used. My friend sitting towards the aisle was constantly bumped by passing servers throughout the night.

Our server came to our table, gave us water, and asked for our drink order.  My friend ordered coffee, and I was good with water.  It was some time before she returned for our food order.  I ordered the filet, and my friend ordered the special, prime.

The server brought our soup and some bread.  I ordered broccoli cheese soup.  It tasted cheese-less and below expectations. After soup, we waited for another 15-20 minutes before recieving our food.

The “filet” I recieved was square cut and ¼ of an inch thick. It was grizzly and chewy with a hint of liver taste. I have never seen nor tasted a “filet” such as this and with the audacity to be charge $49.99 for it!This was like a poorest quality piece of meat I’d expect from a fast-food place.

My server offered to make it again, but how it was cooked wasn’t the point— it was cooked correctly, it just tasted terrible, and I didn’t care to another 20 minutes.

Then our server returned minutes later to ask my friend, who had his fork in his hand, chewing with ¾ of his prime on his plate and had not even started his potatoes or veggies, if she should get him a box. It felt like she was asking us to leave.

Later, Our server returned asking about dessert. We said no. She pushed, saying mine would be free because of my disappointing excuse for a steak. Again, we said no. She continued to push by saying we could take it home. Again, I said no. The server brought the check, my friend paid for it, and we left. I will go to work tomorrow and be asked about my birthday.  Needless to say, I will share this...

The bright spot of our dinner was the young man who brought it to us. He was friendly, asked if we were celebrating (we were, our 23rd anniversary) and congratulated us. He was sincere and kind.

The rest of our experience was anything but remotely even just ok. Waitress came and introduced herself and asked what we wanted to drink. No - are you celebrating anything, any appetizers etc. Came back with drinks, and we ordered. Got soups and bread within about 5 mins. So, not bad. That was the last time we saw her until my husband was taking his last bite of his actual meal.

She never came back to refill our waters that she said she would when she brought the soup. We didn't see her even for most of the meal in our dining area. We finally saw her and waved her over to order drink refills and asked for water again - about 30 minutes later. At this point our soup bowls, bread board, lobster tail plate (which were incredibly tough but no one came to check on us so we ate some of it, not all as it was not good), empty water and original drink glasses etc were still piled up on one side of the table, and she removed nothing.

We saw her again later when she brought our drink refills, but you guessed it - no water. She left all the dishes again, which now also consisted of my husband's dinner dishes.

We finished those drinks and asked another waitress for box for the rest of my meal as she stopped to pick up some of our dishes. She brought that back, and then the host stopped over to pick up the remainder of the dishes and asked if we would like any dessert. We declined and he brought us back bill.

Magically, as soon as my husband put his credit card into the folio, she appeared and took it to cash us out, but still no water. Loved the explanation of how tipping works before the B1G1 too. I tip on service, never the bill itself, and still gave over 20% on the discounted bill, but struggled to do so. I work in the industry, so I don't ever not tip as I know this is how we pay bills - however with attentive and kind service that tip would've easily been tripled.

We were there about 90 minutes from arrival to departure, and 80 of those were at the table with her of which we saw her 3 times for a total of 5 minutes tops.

F&H should really invest in some steps of service and training for their wait staff. Unsure if we will return. We were hoping to make this our new anniversary dinner spot, but this initial encounter left much...