The Bull At Blackmore End - Braintree

Saturday lunch with my daughter was excellent, food good, ambience excellent and staff really helpful and friendly. An extra special thanks for looking after us as there was a pre drinks reception for a wedding but nothing was too much trouble. Have previously been for Sunday Lunch which was excellent and will certainly return soon.

Disappointing experience! Invited friends there who had not been before wanted them to like it, BUT ... On the menu was Cromer Crab on main menu at £13.95, but a special on the night at much less. Also chilli crab cakes as a special . The two ladies ordered the dressed crab salad. When servered, the crab meat was BLACK, smelled decidedly off and tasted foul! The new potatoes were cold. No self respecting chef would have served the dish in this condition! The waitress kindly offered to exchange the two crab dishes for some other dish, thereby delaying the whole meal for the four of us. We were told the cost of the two crab salads would be taken off our bill really! Admittedly, the replacement steak was good but my wife 's replacement fish and chips was poor. Again, the fish was not fresh and was undercooked no doubt in haste! The chips were cold and tasted stale (as did mine with the Bull burger)! Our bill was approx £100 a significant amount for a disappointing eating experience. On the positive side, the place itself is lovely and the staff very helpful with good service. We suspect that the crab, and fish, had been in stock for some while and was being off loaded as specials , the chilli in the crab cake there to mask the off taste. This is dangerous practice with crab in particular. The problem is probably in the kitchen and needs addressing urgently.

Great service but very average food that was well presented. Wine list disappointing. The highest priced red was barely average in taste. This restaurant looked promising but sadly didn't live up to its promise.

The restaurant was packed and the workers were overwhelmed, leading to slow service. My spouse ordered a cheesecake that was deconstructed, which seemed trendy but was hastily put together and lacked taste. We were informed that they were busy and were offered complimentary drinks, but we declined.

After waiting 20 minutes to be seated at our table in the restaurant my husband went to the bar to ask if we could be shown to our table. Ten minutes later the restaurant manager seated us and explained that they had some big parties in and one of their chefs had called in sick so service was 'dragging a bit '. We chose our food from the menu and waited for a waitress to come and take our order, which didn 't happen for another half an hour. Just as we were considering leaving, the waitress came and took our order finally, an hour after our booking time. Our first course arrived around 20 mins later (nearly half past nine) and the soup was very nice. When we asked if it came with bread, we were told no as it had croutons in it. I asked if we could have some bread anyway and the waitress reluctantly got us some. However, eating a first course at 9.30pm just seemed too late so by the time our main course came out at 9.50pm we just wanted to quickly eat it and get home as it was late and we had babysitters to get back for. We therefore asked for the bill as soon as the main course was finished and left. I understand some nights are busy and it cannot be helped if the chef is unwell but what I do object to is the attitude of staff, who really didn 't seem too bothered about serving us or making the experience a positive one. If somebody had told us on arrival that there would probably be an hour 's wait to order our food, we would have understood and we would have had the choice to wait or go elsewhere but being told that service was slightly 'dragging ' was nowhere near the truth. It was very delayed indeed. A simple gesture such as a complimentary drink and some snacks to keep customers happy while they were kept waiting would have been all that was needed. Nothing was taken off of our bill as a good will gesture for all the time wasted and there was no apology when we paid. All in all it left a bad taste in our mouths and we will not be returning.