It is important to remember that for every bad review there are probably lots of satisfied customers. These reviews are the comments of individual visitors to Information Britain and have not been authenticated by us. They should not be taken as the views of Crawbar Ltd - publishers of this web site.

Reviews of Brantham Bull, Brantham

Best rates for a Local Hotel

Review by Andy on 15th April, 2011

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I completely agree with Charlie. It soon became apparent that the staff's career path does not lie in customer service. Surly is in appropriate description. It got off to a bad start when we arrived and advised the waiter we were paying with a coupon. You should have told us when you booked he said. Why is that? Because we might be busy. Looking around there was only one other couple in the restaurant. We started with a coffee - sent back because it was cold. Starters, pate - inedible, soup bland. Main course, fish with salad. The 'salad' was one piece of lettuce. The other main course steak - ok (a steak knife would have been good. All in all poor food and very poor service. Not recommended unless you're going with a girlfriend you want to get rid of.

Date visited: 15th April 2011

Review by Carla on 10th January, 2011

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Just wanted to say what a wonderful New Years Eve we spent at The Bull. The Food was lovely, The Service was attentive. Real effort had gone into decorating the tables in the "Vegas Theme". My friends and I enjoyed the Casino Tables although disappointed my winnings weren't real money! Looking forward to Next year!

Date visited: 31/12/10

Review by Mrs Lee on 30th November, 2010

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I visit The Bull regularly and am always very satisfied with my food and service. Most recently I celebrated a family birthday and the large group of us were served promply and the Sunday Roast in particular was lovely. Clearly home cooked and not frozen meat and veg as seems to be common these days.

Date visited: 28/11/2010

Review by Alex on 30th November, 2010

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In response to Charlie, I have eaten The steak and ale pie at the Bull and not only was it delicious but it is clearly not frozen. It is served in a ceramic bowl with a short crust lid which was clearly handmade and put on before cooking the pie.

Review by Charlie on 6th October, 2010

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If you're even remotely considering going to this place, I beg you not to. How does this place keep going? I went there with a friend a couple of Saturdays ago; it was half dead when we walked in (at 7.30pm on a Saturday night!) and it didn't take too long to find out why. Surly, off-hand service; we waited for what felt like decades even to get a drink, and as for the food... How can it take over an hour to prepare a Caesar Salad, and heat up a frozen pie? We chewed our way through poor quality food (and sent back an inedible pudding) while listening to the two neighbouring tables complaining to the manager, who argued aggressively with them and refused to accept their complaints. Then it was our turn. He (eventually) arrived with some drinks for us, banged them down on the table and announced the ice had run out. We pointed out that overall the evening had been disappointing, and he became even ruder and more aggressive, as if that was possible. No apology, no interest in us as customers and totally indifferent as to whether we returned again in the future or not. How does this guy keep his job? I can only assume this place actually wants to go out of business. Watch this space.

Date visited: 25th September 2010

Review by Mrs M, Brantham Resident on 22nd September, 2010

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I have visited the Bull since the refurbishment a while back and had uncooked fish and under cooked chips. I heard of an excellent meal had by a family member and decided to give it another chance. I was VERY impressed to say the least. I went with my two children and the children's dinners were of impressive quality. My dinner was lovely too. Service was brilliant and the garden/play park great for children. A business is only as good as its staff and evenmore so offering freshly cooked meals. I recommend the Brantham Bull and think maybe the staff have changed since previous comments were put on this site.

Date visited: 19/09/2010

Review by Rev Steph on 24th July, 2010

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We had a very nice dinner this evening. Having read previous reviews it grieves me to read personal abuse on a respected website.

Date visited: 24-07-10

Review by Sue Daish on 5th July, 2010

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I met 3 friends for lunch at the Brantham Bull today and we were all hugely disappointed with the food. I had Asian-style beef and noodles and they all had baked potato with coronation chicken. The potatoes had clearly been baked several days previously and reheated at least once. One of my friends sent hers back and was served a freshly baked one 10 mins later. In the end, they ate the insides of the potatoes and left the hard blackened skin. My crispy noodles looked like recycled pet food and the batter round the beef tasted rancid. I only ate the salad and the beef because I was so hungry but it is repeating on me still. This was not a cheap meal and not good value for money. The service was sloppy - all the dirty plates and glasses from previous customers had been left out in the sun. It was one of the most disgusting meals I have ever had and neither my friends nor I shall be returning the to the Bull.

Date visited: 05/07/10

Review by L. DOUBLE on 5th April, 2010

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I've never taken the time to write a complaint before but we ate at The Bull lastnight as a group of 7 and had it not been for the fact that my elderly grandma was treating us, we would not have eaten the food and certainly not been willing to pay for it! We ordered four roasts which consisted of a tiny portion of poor quality 'sandwhich' slices of meat, a dribble of gravy, the dryest yorkshire pud and microwaved old potatoes. Barely any veg. No gravy boat and no offer of any extra and the whole thing was cold. The two steaks ordered were better quality but arrived with about five cold chips and a mountain of merky, wilted rocket salad. We were still so hungry after our main courses that we risked a cheesecake which, though presented nicely and more likely to have been homemade, was also disappointing on flavour with the wrong balance of cheese to cream- like eating a big lump of Quark!! I sensed the embarrassment of the helpful waiting staff and not once did the manager give us the opportunity to comment on our experience, even when taking our cash. Big thumbs down.

Date visited: 04.04.10

Review by riversc on 28th September, 2009

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We visited this pub as a group[ of 6 adults and 3 children, I would not normaly take the time to write anything like this, But i feel strongly to advice you NOT to visit, the Manager is very rude and arroganr and quite hoestly has no clue about porofessionalisum within this business! Firstle the resturant was empty, so theres a clue!!! a lack of staff ment we were kept waiting far too long, We were told we could not have at least 4 choices from the menu as they had run out??? when we did finally make a decision it took 55 mins1 with one elderly customer a pregnant lady, and 3 hungry children this did not go down well. the food was of the poorest quality i have ever seen, infact i thought twice before giving the spagetti bolognaise to my 3 year old son,I really hate complaining espically making an added stress at the end of a BAD meal, but when we did the Manager was nothing but Arogant, He waswearing and old vest with bare arms on tatoos for the world to look at, certainly did not look the part of a professional! Plaease take my advice and do not visit this pub, its a disaster!!!!!

Date visited: 27th september 2009

Review by Mrs Sutherland on 15th August, 2009

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We went with friends to the Brantham Bull and had a very good meal in a good atmosphere. The staff were very friendly and the food was very tasty and good value. We will definitely return.

Date visited: 14/8/09

Review by Alice Cooper on 10th August, 2009

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Service extremely poor. Attitude of manager extremely arrogant and rude; with no regard to his clientele. We were not the only party with issues. Will certainly not be going again and will advise everyone we know not to visit.

Date visited: 9 August 2009

Review by Mr M Crowley on 30th June, 2009

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Firstly I would like to say how stunning the Brantham bull is, I've always enjoyed visiting with my family and friends.I am shocked to say the least about my last visit on sunday of last week. Knowing that the pub has now been taken over the new owner/manager seemed completly out of line towards a member of his staff, The young lady was shown up infront of not only my family but plenty of other customers. I thought the procedure for explaining to a member of staff they had done wrong was to take them aside not shout at them and cause them to cry with an audience. To me this is unexceptable behaviour and I will not put my children through that again anytime soon.

Date visited: 28 June 2009

Review by Mr Clarke on 11th May, 2009

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After having read the previous comment, I feel that I must respond to this. I use the Bull regularly, and have always found it a great place to go. I won't go into specifics as to why I like the Bull, but I have never had the need to complain about anything. Infact, quite the opposite. I did hear from the staff that a table of four left without paying for their drinks and food that they had ordered. And when they insisted that they had waited for 45 minutes, it had actually only been twenty minutes. Does this sound familiar?

Review by L Phillips on 24th April, 2009

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I have never written a bad review about anything before, but on this occasion I felt it appropriate, not only to inform the Brantham Bull, but any future customers, that they have a few problems. We waited 45 minutes for our meal, which was not worth the wait! My cod, chips and peas were overcooked and could only be described as 'warm'. My cod, was infact HALF a cod!!!! and therefore SMALL, even with the burnt hard batter puffing it out. My husband described his chicken as small, warm and bland. After sitting for some ten minutes with the half empty plates in front of us, we had to request our desserts. After a further 15 minutes, they appeared - how long does it take to put three dollops of ice cream on a plate? It was a lunch time, and the restaurant was far from busy, so the long wait seemed inappropriate. We were not the only people to think so, a table of four eventually walked out after informing the waiter that they were no longer prepared to wait for their meal. Other people were also looking restless and displeased. There was just one waiter, and one person on the bar area. Even after we advised the bar person that the meal had been unsatisfactory, we received no apology, just the words "I don't own the place, I just work here". Mmmmm!

Date visited: 24 April 2009

Review by mrs patterson on 5th August, 2008

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I visited the bull at Brantham after it being highly recommended by friends that live in the area, I had heard that there had been a change in management recently and found the atmosphere very welcoming with very polite staff, which was most refreshing, The food was the best I had tasted in a very long time, so with the superb settings over looking the river stour the wonderful food and warm service I will be recommending it to all my friends too. JP

Date visited: 1/8/08

Review by elsdon on 15th October, 2007

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we had a lovely meal the only thing was there was not a lot of it, & its a bit expensive, the staff was freindly.

Date visited: 14-10-07

Review by M King on 11th September, 2007

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The pub is absolutely lovely but the food portions are very small and the meat rather tough.

Date visited: Tuesday Sep 2007

Review by murray on 11th March, 2007

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last evening a party of 5 went to the bull for a meal, it was a friend of ours sons 18th birthday and we recommended this place as we heard it was good. how wrong we were. the staff are nice and the place was nice but the food was terrible. the poor lad we were with had a mixed grill and couldnt work out what the meat was as it was burnt. I had a steak well done but it was so burnt that all i could taste was burnt meat for the rest of the meal. My friend had jaw ache and her husbands steak was half fat which he left.We paid £96 for this and left without having a desert it was very embarassing even the starters(prawn cocktail ) had no bread. The main was so dry i asked for some coleslaw just to get some moisture on my plate. I would not go again i can have oven chips at home! It was a real shame as we had looked forward to it all week.

Date visited: 10/3/2007

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