Open Mon–Sat 11am–11pm; Sun midday–10.30pm
The style:
The Bull is Westfield’s token pub, sitting among the long strip of restaurants that runs alongside the complex. Unsurprisingly for a purpose-built area, it has rather a contrived feel; a bit like a pub in an airport; convenient but not somewhere that you’d actually choose to spend much time. The decor is a mix of a Wild West saloon and hotel lounge; then someone decided that they needed a theme, chose The Bull and covered the place in anything to do with bulls; pictures, photographs, skulls, cow hide foot stools.
The crowd:
The place was busy on our Thursday night visit. It definitely had an after-work drinks feel to it, or perhaps somewhere to down a post-shopping pint. Or maybe Shez Bu is low on pubs where you won’t get told to down your pint by an Australian.
The food:
Pubs should always stick to serving traditional pub grub but of a high quality. The Bull is verging on this but has unfortunately tried to make their menu a bit more upmarket. Our shared starter, a fishmonger board (£15) ranged from delicious king prawns to grey fish fingers via rubbery squid. My ham hock hash, fried duck egg (an unnecessary pretension for a pub) and HP sauce (£8.95) wasn’t bad although the sauce was rather rich and cloying. My friend’s rump of lamb, artichoke, peas and marjoram (£14.50) was well cooked and a good size although what were billed as artichokes were actually Jerusalem artichokes, a different breed of vegetable altogether. We had to order hand-cut chips (£3) (what is wrong with machine cut?) and wilted spinach (£3) as sides which pushed the price up to beyond what I thought it was worth. The chocolate brownie (£5) was absolutely superb, a really decadent, squidgy treat. The lemon posset (£5) was slightly too creamy for me. Overall, not bad if you got stuck there but by no means a good-food destination.
The drinks:
There is a good wine list but nothing over £25 a bottle, otherwise the usual pub beers and a cider on tap that isn’t Strongbow, which is always nice.
