The Fox (ExCeL) is a charismatic, Grade II listed, converted tobacco warehouse transformed into a stunning gastro pub near ExCeL London. With a large capacity of 1200, it serves as a popular venue for dining, drinks, and social events, especially during expos and conventions. It offers a lively atmosphere, often showing football, and features a downstairs bar perfect for team nights and cocktail masterclasses.
Customer Perception
Customer perception is mixed. Many praise the food as 'incredible,' 'delicious,' and 'cooked to perfection,' highlighting dishes like crispy chicken, flavorful chicken poppers, and fresh prawn pasta. The atmosphere is often described as top-notch, especially for watching football and socialising, with some staff members receiving commendation for friendly and welcoming service. However, a significant number of reviews point to severe issues with understaffing and slow service, particularly during busy event days like Comic Con, leading to long waits, forgotten orders, and a perceived lack of care from management. Toilet cleanliness and maintenance are also noted as areas needing improvement.
Additional Details
The venue is known for hosting cocktail masterclasses, making it a fun option for group activities and team building. Its unique setting in a historic tobacco warehouse adds to its distinctive charm.
Weekends are ideal for enjoying the lively atmosphere and watching football. It's also a convenient spot for visitors attending events at ExCeL London. However, during major events like Comic Con, be prepared for potential delays and service issues due to high demand and reported understaffing.
We visited on a Sunday early evening specifically for a Sunday roast, and the experience was disappointing from start to finish. The restaurant was almost empty, yet service was incredibly slow. Our waitress took a long time to even take our order and then seemed to disappear entirely.
Despite there being very few customers, the food took an unreasonably long time to arrive. To make matters worse, the meals came out one plate at a time, meaning nobody at our table was served together. By the time the last plate arrived, the first dishes had already been sitting there getting cold.
Once all the food finally arrived, we noticed our roasts were missing the stuffing. After waiting and unsuccessfully trying to find our waitress, we eventually stopped another member of staff. She was very polite and apologetic, explaining that she was new and would check with the kitchen. She quickly returned to tell us that they had completely run out of stuffing and that our waitress should have informed us when we placed our order.
By that point we gave up and ate what was in front of us. Unfortunately, the roast itself was poor — the chicken was dry, overcooked, and burnt in places, and the whole meal looked and tasted sad and uninspiring. Considering this was their Sunday roast offering, it was well below expectations.
To top it all off, our original waitress never returned to check on us or even bring the bill. We ended up paying through the new waitress, who was the only member of staff who seemed interested in helping. The final insult was the price: very expensive for small portions, poor quality food, and some of the worst service we've experienced in a long time.
We went out of our way to visit for a Sunday roast and left wishing we had gone somewhere else. Unfortunately, we won't be returning.
I've never been so completely baffled by a place in my entire life. My friend and I went to Fox Excel during Comic Con on a Saturday. We figured we'd make a reservation to make sure we'd have a seat. So we get there and the man doesn't seem to care much about it. He says we can sit wherever. We pick a place. Fair enough. We sit down, we choose our order, it takes a long time to order. We order.
Now the first thing I notice is that it's not that busy. Still quite a few empty tables. We came early. Makes sense. Then I notice that there's one person behind the bar, one guy who receives the people but also somehow seems to take the orders, clean the tables, take people to their tables, and take food and drinks to their tables, with one other girl who only seems to wait tables. It kind of seems there's one more guy who came from the kitchen to help deliver the food sometimes, I guess he's a cook? Okay?
Now it becomes increasingly busy after a while. I'm thirsty, it's hot. A nice temperature inside, but still, I've been dragging myself through that heat for hours and just wanted a nice cool drink and good food.
We wait. People come in after us (some with children). They get served before us? We continue waiting. One hour and twenty minutes pass and we still don't even get a drink. I'm starting to think that I should've hired a child to get served (they seemed to get served faster). I must be delirious at that point.
My friend asks the guy. Eventually finds out we haven't even been put in the system. I'm sorry, what? He puts us in the system. It still takes ages to just get the drink part of our order. I didn't know pineapple juice was so hard to come by. Maybe they're squeezing it personally.
All the time during that wait I'm wondering whether I should just up and leave. But I'm hungry and thirsty. They're clearly understaffed for this kind of day.
To make things worse, the state of the toilets was lacking, no toilet paper, it looked unclean, someone was nice enough to leave their empty drink there, and it didn't seem well maintained. For some reason they were all auto-flushing at a set pace. Guess you gotta go fast before the splash.
At this point I'm so confused I can't even fathom what's going on. I didn't know it was so difficult to receive food and drink at a place that serves it.
More and more people come. It still takes ages for our full order to arrive. My friend tries to at least get it compensated a little, since we sat here wasting our time. The lady says no, it's Comic Con.
Wow, well, if you knew that and I knew that, wouldn't you have more staff to deal with all these people? Sure, this guy keeps saying sorry. I'm sure he's nice, but I literally had to waste several hours of my life trying to be fed, for money. Even the people behind us put in a complaint because their order was messed up and never resolved. Guy goes sorry again, girl goes it's okay. She was obviously not okay. Getting it fixed would probably take longer than she was willing to invest.
Honestly, weird place. My friend had to ask them so many times for our order. Maybe that's normal in the UK? Doubt I'll ever want to come back here. I'd be more understanding if they actually cared, but the woman was very blasé about it. Not enough menus to go around (watched them take them from other tables for new people coming in), not enough staff during a busy con and sure, the food and drink is good enough, if you're willing to wait and be forgotten during the process.
4
Came here after the IFE expo next door. Loads of people having a drink in the afternoon. Decided to have dinner too, the prawn pasta was cooked very well and the prawns were fresh.
5
Me and my family visited after going to the Friends Experience and we’d read the reviews online which were poor but we thought we’d give it a try anyway and I can tell you now that the food is incredible! We very much enjoyed how crispy the chicken coating was with the juiciest chicken inside. Chips cooked to perfection and I must say the Chicken poppers were bursting with flavour. To top it off, it was all served with friendly faces and smiles. Thank you for making our visit so enjoyable.
3
Went here with some friends before heading to a gig at Silverworks. Managed to find a table outside, although it's a pretty big place with loads of seating inside too.
The thing about this place was that there were only 2 people serving at the bar. And it was busy! So getting a drink took a long time. I really felt sorry for the staff as there needed to be so many more of them.
We ate food which was really good and there were vegan options - more than one too!
Great place to get a drink of two before heading to Silverworks, but be prepared to wait a little bit for a drink.
