Fox & Hound

Having been invited to a party at this place by a friend I figured it would be fun. mind you we did have fun but it was mostly because of our good nature and good friends, from what I saw of the way they treated my friend with the situation at hand I can say this was poor customer relations. My friend having won a party there with included pizzas and wings and such you'd think it would be good. however if you dont have the required amount of people they pretty much want to brush you off, If youre gonna offer a party prize i dont think they should require a minimum amount of people to honor it. It's bad business in my opinion. and then even if you want to buy the pizza they offer with the deal its not on the regular menu. I would think youd want to serve people something on the menu so theyd want to come back and try it again. I guess not. and from what i was hearing most of the stuff they serve comes out of a box anyway. well if i go to a place that serves food id like to think it was fresh made not something like a frozen pizza! I know i wont waste my money there. And if im invited by anyone else to go there ill kindly warn them and suggest something different.

Hope you're ready for a rant, but I highly suggest you read this if you're considering having a party here, especially if you've "won" a party at some convention/expo.

I went here under the full realization that my visit was based on a marketing ploy. I'd gone to a business expo in Feb. & entered my name in a drawing, having "won" a "free" party. Now, having worked in sales for 10+ years, I completely understand the premise...to get you in there to spend more money. And, knowing full well that this was the objective, I went anyway, justifying it by the fact that at least I would get SOMETHING free & have a good time with a handful of good friends & probably leave still having spent some money. Win-win for me AND the restaurant, right? Think again.

The "free" part of this deal was 2 pizzas, an order of wings, an order of endless chips & salsa & an hour of free pool ($9 an hour after that O.o). Sounds like a pretty good package for just entering my business card in a fish bowl right? The number one stipulation? I had to have a MINIMUM of 10 people show up.

I found it a bit difficult to round up 10 reliable party guests...especially to trek all the way out to Bloomingdale. But I figured if I invite enough people & get at least close to the minimum, they'd let us slide as long as we were all spending money. WRONG.

7 people in my party showed up & we were ordering food AND alcohol right from the start. I asked them to bring out the chips & hoped to see a couple more people roll in or maybe I would grab someone random to be part of our party. But they kept a hawks eye on who was really at our table & who was part of the other groups.

So they brought the chips & our drinks & I requested they bring out the pizza. Let me pause here to mention that they DON'T have sausage as a choice...what kind of place serves pizza but doesn't have a traditional favorite like sausage???

Moving on...they then apologized &  politely mentioned that they couldn't bring any more "free" food until we had 10 in our party. By this time I had a bit of alcohol in me & instead of getting upset or irate, I tried being sweet & charismatic to try to convince them to bring out at least one pizza for us, since we DID have 7 people who were all drinking AND ordering off the menu. But the event coordinator was a stickler & couldn't violate their policy. Disappointing, but understandable...& a total downer on the whole night.

So I bite the bullet & ask how much a pizza is, I'm just going to suck it up & pay for it...are you ready for this? THEY DON'T SERVE PIZZA AS A REGULAR MENU ITEM. Why on earth would you advertise this free party to everyone & serve something not normally on your menu? Isn't the idea to get people in, spending money & COMING BACK?

I say "advertise to everyone" because I am pretty sure anyone who entered that drawing "won" a free party. How do I know? I must've somehow entered my personal email AND dropped in my business card, because a day or two after I was notified at my work email about winning, & had a conversation with the event coordinator setting the date...I received the same notification at my personal email address as if I was another person. Scam? No, as I said...a marketing ploy & a slip up I shruggingly brushed off.

What's a scam is the fact that they can't even budge a little on their policy even if your table is dropping money.

To their credit, the event coordinator brought a flatbread appetizer, which could have fed all of one person. But I honestly think she was going to charge us for it, had it not been for some schmuck at the next table who took the opportunity to eat off our table while we were playing pool & darts. I will hand it to the event coordinator, she has a hawks eye. She caught them & then told us she would bring another for us & that the other party would pay for it. But...I'd thought it was like a consolation, compliments of the house?

The one & only redeeming factor of this entire debacle was our waitress, Heather. She was very nice, funny & entertaining, & I thought she was awesome. She was very attentive & served us well, despite the fact that the place was jam packed.

In the end, an appetizer platter & 9 drinks was $90 before tip. 3 of my other guests ate off the menu AND drank & the other two just drank. All in all, we HAD to have spent at least $200. But I would rather spend HALF that & drink at a dive bar or another restaurant that is going to TAKE CARE OF ME. Marketing is about drawing people in. Customer service is about keeping people coming back. I consider this night to be a $200 lesson learned. I will NOT be returning to any fox and hound location, nor will I recommend it to anyone else.

I surely hope our $200, plus the amount you saved on 2 pizzas and an order of wings was worth getting a terrible review and a loyal discreditor of your establishment, fox and hound!

When my friends Are home from school, we generally end up here. There aren't too many local bars in Carol Stream to go to. The bar is venally loud but that goes with a lot of bars. They do have darts and pool tables which is nice. The food, well, it's hard food so it's decent. I would never decide to just go there to eat. The drinks are priced right and there is a pretty decent beer list. The service overall is okay. Sometimes that I've gone, it's great and other times its slow. If you are looking for a place to,watch a game or shoot some pool in the area,this is probably the place to go.