This Place Hasn't Gone To The Dogs!

The Fox & Dogs

Pubs
in/near Birmingham, Shropshire (Inc Birmingham),
England Heart Of Inc Birmingham

View Map

Review added: 21/04/2006 15:07
By: dewberry (£0.00 earned from reviews) Earn £££'s

"I found a great pub/restaurant last night, we fancied trying somewhere new as (being regular pub goers) we were finding our small selection of 'locals' are getting a bit stale.

We arrived at the Fox & Dogs after a friend telling me that there is a Wacky Warehouse for the kids, and the Wacky is always a big bonus as it'll keep the kids entertained before we eat and it gives us adults a much needed bit of peace and quiet.

The pub itself is a large building separated into three different areas; the restaurant, bar and Wacky Warehouse. The restaurant area is spacious with plenty of room between the tables and wide aisles allowing unhindered wheelchair and pushchair access. The bar is a smaller room, affectionately dubbed 'the locals bar' because it has a less formal atmosphere than the restaurant and does seem to be populated by people who use this as their local boozer. In the bar is a large TV tuned to one of the various football matches which were happening last night, also a Pool table and plenty of seating for customers who are just going in for a drink rather than eating.

We sat in the non smoking restaurant area, both for our drinks while the kids were in the Wacky and (obviously) for our meals. Menus are laid out on the table when you're seated and once you've chosen what you want you simply go to the bar to order. The staff are all knowledgeable about the food they sell, and will answer any questions you have or make recommendations with regards to side orders, desserts etc.

The Fox & Dogs operates a 'Two for One' offer on all their adult main meals, order your meals and the cheapest one will automatically be free. This offer runs for the whole time that food is served, and makes eating out as a family reasonably priced.

As a starter we shared a Combo For Two; which is basically a finger food platter and fun to eat. It consists of breaded chicken breast chunks, breaded mushrooms, onion rings, chicken wings, potato wedges, garlic bread and a selection of rich sauces to dip your food into. The reason I've made a point of listing the different items in this meal is to show you that although this is called the 'Combo for TWO', it's a huge enough selection of food to easily satisfy a family of four as a starter. The food is all cooked well, not as greasy as these combos are in a lot of other pubs although you will need to wash your hands after handling the buttery garlic bread!

The main meals are standard pub fare, all very reasonably priced and well described in the menu. You're asked how you'd like your steak cooked, and you're free to choose either a jacket or boiled new potatoes instead of the chips which will otherwise come as standard with your meal. I ordered an 8oz Rump Steak with a jacket potato; this was served with grilled tomatoes and peas. I'd requested my steak cooked 'slightly pink' and using this (rather vague) instruction, the chef managed to get my steak perfect for my taste. The steak was tender and still beautifully moist in the middle, while the cut itself was thick with very little visible fat. Perfect. My jacket potato was light and fluffy with a lovely crispy unburned skin, the butter is served in small packets so I could easily add as much (or as little) as I wanted.

My partner ate a huge Mixed Grill; which consisted of rump steak, gammon steak, sausages, lamb chops, chips, fried egg, grilled tomatoes and peas. Again, the rump steak was cooked as he'd ordered it (medium to well done) while the rest of the meat items were also cooked to perfection, all being tender and moist. His chips were cooked well without too much grease; they were actually pretty dry indicating to me that good quality oil was used in their cooking rather than bog standard cheapo supermarket vegetable oil. The Mixed Grill is only to be attempted by people with a massive appetite as this meal is absolutely massive. A large serving place just about has room for the masses of meat, not to mention the mountain of chips which is piled high on the side of the plate.

The children both had Squidgy Pizza & Chips from the kids menu; they could have had peas or beans with this but declined. The pizza was great, very authentic and obviously freshly cooked. The reason behind the name is obviously the fact that the pizza has a thick deep pan base; my seven year old who HATES getting her fingers greasy tried eating this pizza with a knife and fork and this proved to be impossible. To eat Squidgy Pizza you need to be prepared to grab the thing in your hand and ignore the tomatoey grease which runs down your arm and coats your chin. Grease in a good way, of course!

The desserts are lovely at The Fox & Dogs, I had a rich pudding of Hot Chocolate Waffles with Ice Cream which was delicious. The kids had a Donut and Profiterole concoction from children's menu which was served with a ramekin full of hot, thick chocolate sauce.

The Wacky Warehouse costs £2 per child for an hours play, it's a large section of the pub and is well staffed. The area is very clean and safe with lots for the children to do during their visit, including the very popular ball pit and climbing apparatus. One thing which stood out is the highly publicised special times for disabled play, this is an hour set aside on the second Sunday of every month especially for children with special needs and disabilities. I asked about this and apparently special staff are brought in for this hour who know about the care these disabled kiddies need whilst playing, this hour is very popular and at the time of writing, the Fox & Dogs are considering extending this 'disabled play' to several times a week. A fantastic idea.

In all, we spent around three hours in The Fox & Dogs and this cost us around £50 including meals, drinks and admission to the Wacky. Draught beers available include Carling, Stella Artois, Guinness and a wide range of other lagers and bitters. All drinks are reasonably priced and are served wonderfully chilled in clean glasses. The wine selection was, I thought, disappointing with only a very small selection and the one glass I drank didn't taste as crisp and fresh as it should – a minor niggle, however, as I soon moved onto Baileys!

Parking is very good at The Fox & Dogs, with a good number of disabled spaces near to the entrance. Careful as you leave, however, as an oddly placed patio area cuts the car park in half and leaves drivers with a very sharp bend when leaving the premises.

To get to this lovely pub by car, head into Sutton Coldfield Town Centre and follow the signs to Mere Green. Drive directly through Mere Green and you'll arrive at a residential area, The Fox & Dogs is clearly visible as you pass the first couple of rows of houses. Public transport isn't really practical as whichever direction you come from, you'll need to catch up to three buses and then have a pretty long walk to get to the pub. And busing it home after a large meal and a relaxing two hours isn't the perfect end to the night…

The Fox & Dogs
Little Sutton Road
Sutton Coldfield
Birmingham
B75 6QB

Tel – 0121 308 7560"

Comments

I shouldn't have read this on an empty stomach!