Fox and Hounds, Bursledon

A few years back we used to lunch occasionally at the Fox & Hounds and I was sure that on re-visiting the Lone Barn I would be able to post a glowing review of our latest meal. I was wrong.

To be fair the setting is pleasant, the pub is child friendly, and the service is satisfactory (although not great). We dined as a family of 4, the adults ordering breaded whitebait and breaded Camberbert starters respectively, and the children each having a child-portion of the Sunday roast (beef). The staff offered to serve the children's meals at the same time as our starters and made a note of this on our order. Our starters were delicious, but our (very hungry) children�s meals didn�t arrive until our main course was served.

For mains both adults ordered the lamb cutlets in red wine sauce (at �10.33 a head). And this is where it all went horribly wrong. The food was extremely disappointing, to put it mildly. Our lamb cutlets consisted of more fat than meat, the (three) saut�ed new potatoes were burnt, and the tasteless carrots and tablespoon-worth of cabbage served as vegetables seemed to be a complete afterthought. The children�s meals weren�t much better. The roast beef was tough and extremely dry, same token carrot and cabbage for vegetables, and mash that tasted more like mashed butter than mashed potato. Only the roast potatoes and Yorkies seemed to have gone down the hatch without a hassle.

The treacle pudding ordered as dessert was delicious and did manage to remove the taste of the awful main meal from the palette.

But never again. Although I would not consider the prices to be extortionate should the meals have been prepared to a satisfactory standard we will most definitely not be risking our hard-earned cash on a meal memorable only for its shortcomings.

1 Mar 2009 21:30