Trying To Find Happiness At (Early) Happy Hour: Fox and Hounds

There's some crap going on at my company, so we were all allowed to go home at like 10:30 am today. Instead of going home right away, a bunch of us decided to have an early "happy hour."

But what's open for drinking in the Valley at 10:30 am?

It was between Mexican restaurants or British pubs. We chose the British pub.

Since Robin Hood is our regular pubbish watering hole, we opted to try The Fox and Hounds in Studio City this time. I was the first one to arrive at this cottage looking establishment. Oooh, there's people inside! Oh, no wait, they're delivery people and vendors. Great. I think I had that fish out of water look when the bartender and another employee approached me at once. "Uh, yeah, I need a table for, like, seven please?"

"You mean seven o'clock?"

"Uh no. I mean seven people. For now."

"Oh! OK. Well, uh, wherever you'd like," as he pointed to the completely empty dining room.


The room and I got to know each other very well


I got bored waiting, so I took pictures of the restaurant's "creedo"

My coworkers started coming in one-by-one, thank goodness. I don't think I could have standed waiting in isolation any longer. Even though it's a bit lushy to be pubbing it at 11am by American standards, I was a bit surprised that the place was empty. I would have expected a least a few old locals having their morning martini, which is a regular sight over at Robin Hood.

To drink, a Stella Artois with lime juice, which was a lighter, more refreshing option this early in the day, though I think they went a little overboard on the lime. But was it this or was it all the crap I ate with it that gave me the biggest headache of my life a couple hours later? Perhaps a combination of both...


Ste-LAAAAAAH! Ste-LAAAAAAH!!

We didn't try much of their traditional English fare besides the fish and chips, but judging from the one dish, the Fox and Hound's food is more American than it is English. Though the cod pieces were fresh, I was highly disappointed by the batter which was, unlike the lightly and flaky battered fish I've had in England and even at Robin Hood, thick and fried to a dark golden brown. It came with chips in steak-fry style which were crisp but still not impressive, and peas that were a bit on the dry side. Shit, for a more authentic "English" dining experience, go get Indian food right across the street at Bollywood Cafe!


Is that fish and chips, or fried chicken?

All of the other "bar crap" food we ordered was just that--bar crap. I'm not sure if I enjoyed the potato skins and beer battered mushrooms because they were actually good, or because they were bad for me and because they tasted good with beer. Our fried calamari had a good seasoned breading on them but looked more like onion rings than squid...obviously made from cheap, large squid rather than the smaller, more tender kind with tentacles & stuff. And our chicken nachos? Yuck. The nasty cheese, jarred salsa and canned olives weren't evenly distributed amongst the chips and guacamole was not to be seen anywhere, though shame on us for ordering nachos from a pub.


Fried 'Shrooms


More grease via potato skins


Fried calamari disguised as onion rings


Na' Cho' usual nachos...totally disgusting.

The place is quite charming, with its cottage like exterior and its welcoming interior; I've even heard that this place can get pretty happening at night. But I think that's the appeal of this place--wanna watch a soccer match (oops, I mean football) amongst younger, prettier folk while enjoying good beers and ales and while eating mediocre food? Go to the Fox and Hounds. Want to hang out with sassy old waitresses that are actually from the Motherland and with crumudgeony old locals while enjoying good beers and ales AND good food? Go to Robin Hood.

Well at least you have choices.

The Fox And Hounds Pub
11100 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604
www.thefoxandhounds.com