The Dog & Fox is a well known and long standing Youngs Pub in the heart of Wimbledon Village, with a separate restaurant. Their web site highlights the chefs Pacific Rim influences (interesting), but shows a very British Pub style food menu (not so interesting).
The entrance via the Pub, past the bouncer, is off-putting, but fortunately there is also a side entrance that takes you directly to the restaurant. The room is warm and nicely decorated.
On our visit, I found there were more negatives than positives here:-
1. All the prices on the menu had been tippexed out (an indication of a recent and unjustified price increase in my opinion – £19.30 for a lamb chop! – see review for Coq d’Argent, where my excellent 3 course lunch in a vastly superior venue cost less).
2. The Salsa and Relishes provided with some of the dishes were really OTT. The Salsa I had with my Thai Chicken cakes (Chicken Rissoles) for example consisted of a small bowl containing huge chunks of tomatoes with red onion and chilli – I could not eat it, it just killed my taste buds. One of my companions had the burger which was nicely cooked, but accompanied by another completely OTT Relish containing way too much garlic or horseradish. It was so strong you could not tell what it was. The Smoked Haddock was cooked ok as well, but would have been better if the accompanying egg had not been hard boiled.
Basically this was a missed opportunity. The Restaurant has a good room, it’s in an excellent location. It just needs to get it’s act together and be more like a restaurant and less like a bar food area. In it’s current incarnation I do not think it even qualifies as a gastropub!
Marks out of 10
Food 3
Service 3
Ambience 4