The Fox

Joe:


Tonight we decided to go to "The Fox" in downtown Anderson. It is an English pub themed restaurant with appropriate decor.

[I will do my best to be objective about this visit, but I will say up front that this is our third visit. Our first was a tremendous experience that we enjoyed immensely. The second visit, a week later, was the opposite. We decided that tonight would be the tie-breaker. Having said that, I will try to focus on just this visit.]

When we arrived, we were seated immediately by Ashley, who turned out to be our waitress as well. She took our drink orders as we sat down.

I was concerned about what appeared to be the evenings entertainment setting up. I will admit that I am not one that enjoys live music while I am trying to eat. If that is your thing, great. My thing is a meal and conversation with the person I am having dinner with. I asked Ashley when she returned with the drinks, and she said that there would be some sort of "techno" show later.

A small argument broke out between Ashley and one of the other waitresses as to whose table we were seated at. This occurred table-side.

Carolyn had the Curry Chicken (which I had enjoyed on our first visit). Because I am trying to branch out, I had the Chef's special: Pork tenderloin with cranberry sauce. I also had the rice and asparagus as sides. As an appetizer we both ordered the tomato basil soup.

The soup was good. I added a couple crackers to give it some extra body and enjoyed it.

The cranberry sauce was very good. I daresay it made the meal, as the special was just the tenderloin plus two sides. The meat was cooked as I asked (medium) but was definitely not fork tender. I actually would have liked a sharper knife to cut it with, as the standard table knife had a bit of a challenge getting through it. The rice was, well, rice. Nothing notable positive or negative about it. The asparagus was also quite good.

For desert we split a deep-fried Reese's Peanut Butter Cup with ice cream. It was, as expected, chocolatey and delicious.

Prices were a bit higher than I would attribute to the food, but our waitress this time was excellent. I am not sure what to think of the fact that on all three visits our waitress has explained to us that she was new. On this visit I looked around and only saw 1 waitress and 1 waiter that I recognized from either of the other visits. Like I say though, I don't know what that necessarily means.

Wrapping up:
Pro:
Mostly good food. Excellent service. Got away before the entertainment started.

Con:
Tough meat. Price was a bit high. Scary wall of six 4 foot high Peavey amplified speakers threatening to deafen us at any moment.

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Sadly this trip didn't decide my future with The Fox. I may go back, I may not. It seems like they have decorated for an English Pub, but their ambient music and entertainment (including the last visit on this one) just don't give it the same feeling. Maybe it is just a difference of taste between the owners and myself.

Carolyn:

This evenings dinning out experience was The Fox at Anderson. Let me just start by saying this was my fourth visit: once in September with my oldest daughter for her birthday lunch and the others with Joe.

Visit #1: Lunch: Awesome! Chicken tender plate with fries and coleslaw.... great service, nice atmosphere... that's why I returned. Lunch rating for this visit: 5 out of 5

Visit #2: Dinner: Awesome!! Bombay Chicken was fabulous!!! Our server Kristen (I believe that was her name), was new that day... but her service was so wonderful we stopped to let the manager know how happy we were with our waitress (and the food!). Dinner rating for this visit: 5 out of 5

Visit #3: Dinner: Not my favorite, actually it was pretty bad... I had the Chicken Pot Pie... I will NOT be ordering that ever again.... The "flaky top" was just a baked pastry puff square they loosely placed on top of the bowl. The contents of the "pie" was a few chunks of chicken and what I assumed to be various vegetables. The sparsely placed bits of meat and veggies were drowning in an extremely heavy cream sauce. I'm sure this chicken pot pie of sorts may have tasted better hot, though I wouldn't know as mine was served on the little less then warm side... leaning more towards cold. Did I return it to the kitchen? No. I wasn't in the mood to deal with the chaos... as I don't think the kitchen nor staff could have handled it that night. We barely saw our server. That evening there was a "live" performance going on that night. I usually LOVE entertainment during a meal, but not this evening. The performer mumbled through most of the songs and the sound system was only making matters worse. BAD NIGHT!!

Dinner rating for this visit: 0 out of 5

Visit #4: This is my defining moment for The Fox....

Dinner: Joe and I are seated right away by the girl who was to be our waitress for the evening. She took our drink order and moments later a new waitress came by to take our drink order again... she and the previous waitress had a brief "moment" in deciding who was our server. The first waitress apparently won the battle, because we never saw the second one again.

We ordered a tomato soup as an appetizer. When our waitress returned with it she came without crackers and asked us if we would like some. Notice here I keep referring to her as "our waitress" because she never once gave us her name that I can remember. The tomato soup in my opinion was a little cold, watery and salty. I was surprised that the soup wasn't warmer or even hot as it was only 6:00 pm and the evening service had just really started.

I then ordered the "Curry of the Day" Curry Chicken... good, not great. I seem to remember Joe's curry chicken to be creamier then mine on the night of my 2nd visit. It looked so good when he ordered it then I thought I would try it now, since it was the "Curry of the Day". I enjoyed the vegetables on the plate that were mixed in well with the chicken. Green beans, broccoli, mushrooms, water chestnuts and a red bell pepper. As I ate my meal I noticed that the closer I got to the bottom/middle of the plate that most of the curry was in a paste like mass within the rice, more so under all the food then on the food. The mass of curry was more then I could finish so at that point I was done with my meal.

Side note: My sinuses have cleared and I can breathe again! :)

We decided to order dessert, to share. A deep fried candy bar. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I have NEVER had a "deep fried" candy bar before so I figured this would be my ONE opportunity as I will not be ordering it again, just for my own purposes. But to have this experience and share it with you... I will "take one for the team!" It was good. A warm Reese's wrapped in a breading with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. Of course it was good.

Our waitress, Ashley, who's name I only discovered by reading the check, was good. She kept our glasses of tea filled and tried to be as perky as she could. This too was her first night on the job. This seems to be a pattern. Dinner rating for tonight: 2 out of 5

I love the atmosphere of The Fox. It has a great English pub feeling. The decor is spot on, and I do like the fact that they have activities. I would love a chance to take part in some of the more relaxed activities... but I never seem to be there on those nights... This evening was a "Tech-NO!" sort of thing and I have to say I'm glad we left before it started. I like the idea of hearing "Gaelic" tunes while I am there... just to get more of that feeling... but this evening it was a mix of 60's/70's retro that I'm just not in to. It seems to me they are trying too hard to be "the place to be on Saturday night." When I think they would be a perfect English Pub, if they would just stick to that. Just my opinion.

My meal was priced fairly:

Dinner rating for this evening: 2 out of 5

Total experience rating in my opinion: 3 out of 5

Will I return?  Only if Joe asks me to.