THE GOOD OLD BRITISH FOX AND HOUND PUB....

 It has been good catching up with friends whilst we are away..  When we dropped our van off at our good friends Ian and Kathy when we first arrived back in Brisbane, we planned to have a days outing together for the following Thursday.

Whilst we were away camping, our friends John and Barb had told us about a visit they had to the Fox and Hound Pub which is situated at the base of the beautiful Tamborine Mountain at  Wongawallan.   

We were both keen to check it out and thought a drive up to Mt Tamborine would make a great days outing stopping off at the Fox and Hound Country Inn for lunch on the way...

The Fox and Hound Country Inn is situated in what seems like the middle of no-where but I can assure you it is well worth the trek. Furnished with ye olde style English furniture and decorated with all sorts of English tidings and memorabilia -  it feels like you've instantly been transported across the world, to a quaint but vibrant village pub. 

This 18th century country inn was shipped over from England and looks every bit like something you'd find in the land of the royals right down to the red phone box and mini double decker bus gracing the entrance..

A fixture of Wongawallan since 2007, this iconic pub has far earlier origins, with most of its internal fittings coming from the Sussex Arms, originally built way back in the 1700s. That’s some serious history.

The pub has a couple of dining rooms (Scottish and Tudor-style) which are ideal for larger groups or private functions and surprisingly  they were full of diners, which indicated to us that the food must be pretty good.  The menu on offer is consistent with the overall theme and boasts a number of traditional English meals, like a Cornish Pastie or a Chicken and Leek Pie.   No English pub would be complete with the obligatory open fireplace and both of these dining rooms have one..  

We were ushered to a table in George's Bar, the very authentic English replica pub dining room.   There were so many antiques to cast our eyes over  and certainly bought back many memories for us of by gone eras.  It reminded us of restaurants we had been to whilst we had travelled overseas... Menus were bought to us and we placed our orders.  Once again, Steve and I decided to share a meal and we ordered the Lamb Shank cottage pie with vegetables.  Ian and Kathy ordered the Crumbed steak, and battered fish and chips.   

Whilst we waited for our meal, I couldn't help myself, I had to have a wander around and check out this interesting Pub.  It was much bigger than it looked, with at least 4 large indoor eating areas as well as an outdoor eating area...

Inside, there’s a couple of cosy bars (one English, one Irish) adorned with an eclectic collection of British paraphernalia, ranging from medieval trinkets to football scarves and cricket bats.

One of the two bars at the Fox and Hound...

The service was good, and it wasn't long before our meal was delivered to our table.  It was quite a large serve so we were very thankful that we had ordered a meal to share.  These days we tend to do that.  We are trying to eat better and eat less and we usually find that when we eat out, the servings are huge.  We now figure that if we are still hungry after sharing a meal than we can order something else and share it also.  

Our Lamb shank and cottage pie..

The pie had a whole lamb shank in it with the bone sticking up out of the pastry.  There was also a little bit of pastry in the shape of a foxes head on the top of the pie...

The pie was huge and we loved the facial expressions on the pot it was served in.

Kathy had ordered the crumbed steak and salad..

Ian had ordered fish and chips with a little salad.

The food was good... and reasonably priced.  We had another look at the menu and some of the deserts really tickled our fancy so in the end, we decided to lash out and order a desert to share also.  We went for a raspberry and meringue mess and Ian and Kathy went for the sticky date pudding...

Ian and Kathy shared a sticky date pudding...

Steve and I shared a Raspberry & Meringue Mess - so YUM...

 After our meal we had a really good look around the other dining areas at the Pub.  There were lots of great photo opportunities to be had..

Paddy's Bar..

We made sure that we had our camera on hand as we were keen to have our  photo taken with Queen Liz and her favourite corgi – or, at least, a rather life-like replica. There’s also a palace guard keeping an eye on proceedings, and several knights in armour dotted about the place.

After making sure we were photographed with all the iconic statues and of course the Queen and her corgis, it was then time to check out the other function rooms within the complex...

The Queen had pride of place in the largest function room which comfortably seats 100 of guests, making it an ideal destination for a wedding reception.    

 

There was one last dining room that we checked out and it had a couple of pianos in it.  Ian couldn't help himself and had to have a play, the rest of us just sat and enjoyed his playing  We could of sat there all afternoon listening to him play.  

We have thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Fox and Hound Country Inn.  It is one of those places we would be happy to come and dine at again...

We were so thankful to John and Barb for telling us about this iconic little pub, we have thoroughly enjoyed our visit, and as we still had a little time up our sleeve, we decided to take the long route home and head up through Mount Tamborine.  

There are some stunning views of the coast to be had from up on the range and we stopped a couple of times to check these out..

We didn't really stop to do any walks this afternoon as Ian's feet were really playing up and quite painful to walk on.  Must be our ages,  we have all had some form of mobility issues the last few times we have managed to get together.  The drive was lovely though, and Ian and Kathy took up for a drive up to show us the campsites where the Keswick Convention is held each year.  It is a massive complex with commanding views from there also...

We arrived back to Ian and Kathy's somewhere around 4.30pm.  It has been a lovely day and we have really enjoyed our day with these special friends...