The Hoxton Pony
our comments
A stone’s throw, or a short bus ride, from the city, Hoxton has developed into a popular spot for evening entertainment and the Hoxton Pony has found its niche in this market. A cocktail bar and nightclub, it has a very modern feel, brightly decorated, with a liberal use of neon lighting on the ceiling and even in some of the tables. Their menu is made up of a range of bar snacks and a range of fish and chips, pies, and salads all with the aim of delivering locally sourced traditional East End food, and this influence is seen in a number of the dishes on offer in their menu.
We each had a cocktail to start. High Heels was very fruity, bursting with summer fruits, while Summer in the City was a refreshing gin creation with mint, elderflower and cucumber, nice to sip while we planned our meal.
We started with the glazed chicken wings, a generous bowlful of juicy and tender wings that had been cooked in their sweet marinade, which had some chilli heat: a little messy to eat, but well worth it. With these we had two deep fried scallops, good-sized meaty ones cooked in a tempura style batter, perfectly executed and served with a dish of tartar sauce, although these full flavoured nuggets were excellent without dressing.
We moved on to mains: the plaice and chips was another big dish, containing two pieces of moist fish, fresh tasting mushy peas, made with petit pois and a decent portion of chips that had a nice crispiness to them. The tuna salad, was also quite large, served in a bowl containing mixed leaves and chunky pieces of beefsteak tomato, with a good dressing, the tuna hade been lightly seasoned, before cooking, served medium it was a tasty, meaty piece of fish.
Manfully we went on to try the desserts, the rhubarb crumble had a buttery crumble and sharp fruit, served with a jug of chilled vanilla custard, it was excellent. The hot chocolate cake was awesome; two hunks of very chocolaty cake with a drizzling of strong chocolate sauce and a scoop of vanilla cream, it is a creation that the most devout chocolate worshipper would love.
The cocktails at The Hoxton Pony range from £7 to £12 and the wines from a little under £13, with many sold by the glass, we tried the Bacchus, a fruity acidic English white and a very fine muscadet, each selling at £5 per glass and both very pleasant. Service throughout was good and very attentive. The Hoxton Pony, is creating excellent food, generous portions at reasonable prices and it is well worth trying.
AK - September 2008
your comments review this restaurant and win a bottle of champagne
Horrible experience: no service, no food, no return thanks......
Booked a table for 6, went to the bar to order drinks - 5 people behind the bar. One person polishing glasses, one person polishing bottles, one person running around trying to look busy. Two people serving drinks. After 5 minutes of waiting I finally asked the person polishing bottles - his response was: I DON'T SERVE DRINKS. Hence had to wait 10 minutes for a beer. After a 1/2 hour of sitting at our table we finally flagged down a waitress, only to be told that we wouldn't be able to order food tonight because the kitchen was too busy. Then to top the evening off they turned the music up so loud we had to scream to hear each other. As we were leaving one of our party decided to speak to the manager at the restaurant - only to be berated – the manger blamed us for not informing them that we wanted food when we booked the table!!??
Lovely experience NOT!! – I just wish I would have read the reviews for this restaurant before we went.
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Chris
Overall rating 
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Friday, September 26, 2008
We booked a table for 14 people, and the evening turned out to be an utter shambles. After messing up our drinks order (one of our party got a shandy instead of a white wine spritzer) and taking a huge amount of time to serve even the simplest things (three beers took about 10 minutes), the waitress told us that most of the food on the menu (both the printed menu and the specials board) was not actually available, and that there were no vegetarian options. When the food arrived it was ok quality but nothing special; pretty basic fish and chips and meat pies.
After we had paid our bill, the waitress slapped down another bill and told us aggressively that we had to pay that as well. We pointed out that the bill was food that we hadn't ordered or been served, and that the time on the receipt was two hours before we even entered the building. I suspect that she had forgotten to charge a previous party at our table and was trying to make amends. She told us, again very aggresively, that she would double check the bill, and stormed off. She then let the matter drop, but didn't apologise for falsely billing us.
Later on in the evening, some (not all) of the bar staff started charging us servive charges for the drinks we ordered at the bar. When we refused to pay this, they again got indignant and aggresive. Again, I suspect that they were banking on people being so drunk that they didn't note the added charge.
The service in the place is dire, and the aggressive money-grabbing behaviour of the staff left a really unpleasant taste.
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Simon H
Overall rating 
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 5
Sunday, August 24, 2008
We ordered two tea parties for a Friday night at the Hoxton Pony, and the evening was a disaster from start to finish. We arrived to find no knowledge of our booking (though once email records were checked it was confirmed) so were shown to one table then swiftly moved to another in a very dark and cold corner. We were told to expect a 15 minute wait for the food and drink though this was more like half an hour, so we ordered a round of cocktails to tide us over which were very good indeed. When the tea party did arrive, there wasn't actually enough room for it on the table to which we'd been moved, so some of the food got put on adjacent table. This however was despite less than half the promised food arriving! The menu stated that for each tea party there should be sandwiches, cakes and a dessert. What arrived was beef sandwiches (though both beef and cucumber were promised, which was an issue because we had vegetarians in the party), scones and brownies. Hence the desserts were entirely missing.
We complained and were informed that the chef had changed. How this accounts for missing food is beyond me; surely any professional chef is capable of making bread and butter pudding? The cucumber sandwiches were brought upon further complaints, though only at the removal of a plate of the beef sandwiches which the waitress admitted would only go in the bin. This irritated me since there was not much to eat anyway. The infusion jars of cocktail are a clever concept but are not nearly as tasty as the cocktails from the bar, so not really worth getting unless you are going for the full tea party - which I still think is a great concept, but only if it can be delivered as promised. After much further complaining the management removed one of the infusion jars and only charged us for the other and no food, which was very fair of them, but all the talking to management basically ruined the evening and we left feeling as though we'd spent a lot of money (on the bar cocktails) and hadn't actually enjoyed ourselves at all.
It's such a shame because the brownies, scones and sandwiches were all tasty and the concept is great, but it should have been perfected before it was rolled out.
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Emily
Overall rating 
Food 8 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Monday, August 18, 2008
Cocktails are so expensive that I could only afford one drink and for sure not going back. I mean come on: £11 for a prosecco cocktail! This is Shoreditch! Would not give them more than 6 months!
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Natalie
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Friday, June 13, 2008
Very pleasantly surprised to come across this gem on Curtain Road last week. Had an impromptu sit down lunch and discovered how great a pie can actually taste! There were a few to choose from and I went for the Duck and Turnip. Exquisitely put together, with a delicate pastry, no stodginess in sight. Served with perfect mash and a gravy which you can add yourself, YUM!
The bar/restaurant itself is beautiful and unlike anything else I have seen in the area. I was expecting the bill to come to more with such surrounds, such pleasant and professional waiting staff and organic, sustainable, seasonal food... But no, I actually had change out of a tenner!
I am definitely coming back for more, thank god - quality has arrived in this area at last!
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Saskia Stevens
Overall rating 
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, May 25, 2008
