Enter the Fox's Lare (sic) (Fox & Anchor)

Member Name: mattygroves10

Product:	Fox & Anchor
Date:	02/07/09 (78 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good beer, lovely pub, amazing landlord and staff

Disadvantages: A bit pricy, a bit dark

Tucked away near Smithfield Market (indeed, near the Smithfield pub), there is a gem of a pub. But shhhh. Don't tell anyone.

I am torn. Part of me dreads writing about the Fox and Anchor, as it's such a wonderful and secret find, I'm afraid to share it, in case it should become inundated. It is a treasure.

I am a bit of a pub aficionado. I love real ale (despite being American) and traditional English atmosphere. The Fox and Anchor serves several real ales in pewter tankards (nice touch), including one of its own. You can buy your beer at the bar or one of the incredibly friendly bar staff (or even what seems to be the world's greatest landlord - a young Irishman who clearly took landlording lessons from a master) will come and serve you with an actual smile. You'll pay around £3.30 for a pint of ale, which is a tadge dear, but not unexpected for the Farringdon area. They serve a variety of ales, including their own (Fox & Anchor, unsurprisingly). They have an ever changing variety of guest ales, and will happily recommend and let you taste the selection.

The food is a bit pricy - I paid just over a tenner for a burger, for example, and a fiver for soup, but it is excellent. It is home made - my burger was requested medium rare, and lo - medium rare it came! Again, the food service is excellent. If you are eating, as you sit down (and there aren't that many seats - it is a narrow pub, with displays of oysters and the carvery cart near the back of the main room, and then a bunch of snug rooms, including the charmingly signed 'Fox's Lare' - that spelling is theirs) you are given some very nice bread with stunningly good butter and a little bowl of salt to start - like I say, classy. My friend had a lamb and pea pie - the crust was freshly cooked, though the filling a wee bit runny (but tasty and obviously freshly cooked).

The Fox and Anchor also does rooms - they have six 'boutique style' rooms, ranging from £95 a night on the weekends to £165 a night on weekdays (and going up). I haven't stayed there, but I did ask the astonishingly friendly landlord if I could have a look, and he happily showed me around several. The rooms, even the smaller ones, are remarkable - one even has a large and deep bath at the end of the bed! The rooms aren't huge (as you might expect, in such an old building), but they are tastefully decorated in a modern, boutique fashion, with recessed halogen lighting, full panoramic pictures (all the rooms are named after areas of London, and the décor reflects this), Bose sound equipment and both baths and 'drench' showers. I'd love a chance to stay there, despite not really having a need to stay in Farringdon.

There is a website http://www.foxandanchor.com/. On it, you can download the food and drinks menu (and they serve breakfast as well), and do a virtual tour of the bedrooms. You cannot book rooms online, but there is a dedicated phone number displayed prominently.

All in all, this pub should be held up to show how good pubs should be. The staff and landlord are amazing, the beer is well kept and immaculately served, and the décor is charming and old world.

Highly recommended.

Summary: A charming, friendly, olde worlde pub - a haven in the middle of Farringdon