Someone once described Fox & Anchor’s food to me: it’s like your grandmother’s old-fashioned cooking – humble and generous.
The description was spot on. The Fox & Anchor doesn’t serve fancy or pretentious fare nor has it ever heard of haute cuisine. All the portions of food, from the chunky chips to the Sunday roast, were simply huge.
Logically, its strong point lies in its roots, British cuisine. The kitchen more or less pulled off the quaintly presented 1/2 pint of prawns (£6.25) and Shrimp and Avocado Cocktail (£7.95). Almost sprawling over the plate the Traditional Sunday Roast (£11.50) proved to be excellent value and the roast beef and carrots were top notch.
Problems arose when we stepped off British shores and entered French territory. At first glance the Steak Tartare (£16.95) looked impressive. At second glance the hump of meat gave off a strange, evil-looking green hue which turned out to be capers. Although the actual bit of meat was of good quality, 30% of the mixture turned out to be capers and 25% onions, which made for the most revolting Steak Tartare (£16.95) I had in my life.
Dessert was pleasant enough but a “Marquise” it definitely was not – more like layers of chocolate sponge and mousse.
Quick Overview
Food
5/10: You can sense the underlying good intentions of the food but someone needs to do some quality control.
Value
8/10: “Abundance” is in this restaurant’s vocabulary.
Service
8/10: Jolly and upbeat staff.
Toilets
7/10: Clean and in working order.
Ambience
8/10: A real pub through and through. Manically busy in evenings, and cosily quiet during the day.
Recommend
5/10: Stick to British dishes to increase your chances of being served good food.
P.S. I was a guest of Fox & Anchor.
Fox & Anchor
115 Charterhouse Street
Smithfield
London
EC1M 6AA
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