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Hours
Sun
12:00 - 22:00
Mon
12:00 - 23:00
Tue
12:00 - 23:00
Wed
12:00 - 23:00
Thu
12:00 - 23:00
Fri
12:00 - 0:00
Sat
12:00 - 0:00
What is Travellers’ Choice?
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Details
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PRICE RANGE
£8.00 – £30.00
CUISINES
Bar, British, Pub
Special Diets
Vegetarian friendly, Vegan options, Gluten free options
meals, features
Does this restaurant have live music
Details
About
Pub, Restaurant, and Rooms set in the heart of Battle, East Sussex! Under new management since May 2021.
PRICE RANGE
£8.00 – £30.00
CUISINES
Bar, British, Pub
Special Diets
Vegetarian friendly, Vegan options, Gluten free options
Meals
Lunch, Dinner, Drinks
FEATURES
Reservations, Outdoor Seating, Seating, Highchairs Available, Serves Alcohol, Full Bar, Free Wifi, Accepts Credit Cards, Table Service, Live Music, Gift Cards Available
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4.0
89 reviews
Excellent
51
Very good
14
Average
7
Poor
6
Terrible
11
The Codnor Traveller
Codnor214 contributions
May 2024 • family
We booked in for breakfast at the Bull Inn, in the beautiful town of Battle and we are very glad we did.
The Bull Inn is a beautiful old pub/inn with all sorts of period featured juxtaposed with random pieces of kitsch artwork.
We were welcomed by a man named Steve (I know his name because I overheard him on the phone) who was incredibly welcoming and thoughtful. He took the time to make sure our table set-up was just right, including baby high chair positioning. It's little things like that which make a difference for me. I love little thoughtful things like that.
The food itself (though neither my wife nor I were particularly bold in our choices, which were bacon/sausage and egg sandwiches!) was excellent and I could quite happily have sat there and had it again.
We were the only ones dining for quite a while, but slowly but surely people began to drift in to the inn, either from the beautiful rooms above the inn or from off the street.
I love Battle as a place and, were it not in the south, could quite happily live there. I hope to come back to Battle again many times (I like to try to get to their annual Medieval Fayre - my reason for being here this year) and if I am lucky enough to come back next year, or whenever, I will definitely try to stay at the Bull Inn.
In summary - beautiful place in a beautiful town, with really good food. A final salute to Steve too, who made our brief visit very good indeed. 👍
Written 27 May 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Pedro P
3 contributions
Jul 2021 • family
The Bull Inn looks very charming from the outside - 17th century building built with some of the stone from Battlle Abbey, following the monasteries dissolution in 1536.
Inside, probably depends on your own taste, but not what I would expect from a historical pub.
We chose two starters as portions seemed quite large by the waiting staff’s own description, one was fries with pulled pork ribs and slaw and the other one fries with pulled brisket; both with cheese sauce. As BBQ oriented restaurant, I was expecting a bit more, to be honest. The ribs weren’t pulled but grilled (they might even have been barbecued). The sheer amount of cheese sauce in both dishes (more so on the brisket) made everything taste of sauce and made tasting the meat a bit difficult. The sauce on the ribs was quite salty.
At £9 a piece for such large portions, I guess one cannot complain much. However, the titles and the meats involved (slow cooked pulled pork ribs and smoked brisket) are niche enough in the UK to hint at the fact this is a restaurant that knows how to handle them (and not just to drench them in sauce).
Both the gin and the South Downs cider we drank were delicious. As excellent was the way they accommodated our son, who needed a high chair.
In the end I told the staff about the pork ribs (which was the starkest contrast between the menu and what was served) and they told me it was a work in progress, missing an opportunity to have a customer back soon.
You might be luckier with full main dishes but the handling of these bbq starters doesn't bode well for larger mains dishes.
I don’t think we’ll be back. In general, it’s not affordable enough to be worth the risk. I with it had been different because there aren’t enough houses with hot slow smoked meats in Britain.
Written 27 July 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Siegfried Ruthe... S
1 contribution
Aug 2024 • friends
I've been to The Bull several times over the last few months and the food has been excellent each time. The staff are friendly and knowledgeable and wait times are quite short for food to be cooked and served. A very fine establishment!
Written 18 August 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
eweeden
Hastings16 contributions
Feb 2024 • family
The staff were nice enough and it was clean. But other than that, everything else was pretty dismal. The service was slow, it was really expensive for what it was, my husbands burger was not cooked though and no mention that is how they serve them, the kids chicken burger I ordered was just a dry chicken breast not breaded or battered, they put crispy onions on a kid mac and cheese meal and the ice cream didn't taste of anything and came with lemon when asked for it plain. We left the main part on two of the meals, the chicken "burger" and the beef burger, and weren't asked if anything was okay. We didn't complain at the time as the kids wanted desert, and I never 100% trust any establishment after you've complained.
Also they don't do roasts.
It was a waste of a meal out, I wouldn't go back!
Written 25 February 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Greg M
3 contributions
Jul 2023 • couples
So on arriving at your bar restaurant we were greeted by a lovely young lady that asked us to wait just a second while we waited for another person to greet us and ask our names, the first impression was that everyone was very pleasant and we felt quite comfortable.
The person booking us in looked us up on the iPad and then said I'm really sorry I'm not sure what what room your in let me check on the group what's app. There were some alarm bells ringing however we are we are reasonable people so we accepted this and waited.
After a couple of minutes the person dealing with us found out which room we were in and took us up a flight of stairs and showed us in.
On first impressions the room looked like it had been recently done up but to be honest a poor standard.
The most notcible thing was that the room was at an angle, it slanted at every angle, you could tell because the skirting boards were at different heights, the dressing table was physical wonky and the bed I almost rolled off off during the night.
And just to mention the bed a again it was really noisy, creaking every time you moved and upon looking we discovered that there were loose screws.
Also there is a step into the bathroom which caught me out twice and should be addressed.
Upon looking up and down the street for local restaurants were decided the food was quite limited in battle high street, so we decided to eat where we were staying and I have to say this was our biggest mistake.
I ordered the prawn cocktail and BBQ wings and my partner ordered the nachos.
My prawn cocktail arrived with no source and I had to ask for lemon, the chicken wings were bland and pink in the middle(I have photos) the only saving grace was that the nachos were ok.
But for the prices you charge and food that we received we were not satisfied.
Although I will say that the did take off the price off the food we were not satisfied with there was no offer of an alternative so we both went to be bed hungry, in fact coming down for crisps because we were so hungry.
The fact you charge £14 a burger and expect another £4 for fries is ridiculous.
And the same for breakfast(which should have been included) you get breakfast for £10 but doesn't include drinks but if you pay £12.50 you get coffee and tea, this is obviously a rip off.
The saga continues!!
Although you are a busy bar especially as I can appreciate on a Saturday I was kept up until 12.40am by what appears to be staff members that you employ, shouting and swearing while we were both trying to sleep
Surly as an owner you would respect the people that were paying £110 a night to get good night sleep or not as it feels.
And just to rub insult to injury when we left there was no one to say goodbye, did you have a nice stay all we got was a couple of guys outside smoking and when we did leave he went back inside to see if we had left a key.
I emailed the manager and the response did not once mention an apology which made our experience more disappointing, a sorry goes a long way sometimes,
Overall do not stay here if you want any type of customer service.
Written 20 July 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Curiosity50151386210
1 contribution
Dec 2023 • friends
An absolute shambles we waited. 1 1/2 hours for our food to arrive I had the turkey it was a small plate, only three turkey slices,no stuffing, it was warm , roast potatoes over done and hard , and the Brussel sprouts few to number were rock hard altogether a small plate if food, other people in our group had similar plates. We are a small group that suffer from Parkinson's any additional stress adds to our Tremors most of my party were disappointed
Written 21 December 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Nick F
4 contributions
Jan 2022 • family
Eaten at the bull a lot, usually good value and ok pub food with pleasant attentive staff.
Sunday roast was a terrible let down started badly with a table for 4 that would only seat 3, at one point I honestly think the staff were ignoring us on purpose, had to go to the bar to pay, even after putting coats and hats on at the table.
The roast consisted of a charcoal bottom Yorkshire pudding, three of the smallest roast potatoes ever they would have been small for chunky chips! A tinny amount of supposedly Apple wood smoked pork that tasted of literally nothing, some red cabbage stewed to a sort of mash and a bit of broccoli that tasted of soil. All this for £16, in a pub that wasn't even pleasantly warm. We all had takeaway pizza after to fill up.
Shocking value for money and overall an unpleasant experience.
Written 24 January 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
PaulS269
Bury St. Edmunds104 contributions
Apr 2023 • couples
The staff were very pleasant and friendly. The food was decidedly average, from a very limited menu. Despite being assured that the steak and ale pie, the sole occupier of the specials board, was homemade, it very clearly wasn’t, and it was inexplicably served on a piece of paper. It tasted fine, although nothing special, and was served with some nicely cooked, but rather unremarkable steamed/boiled vegetables. The beef chilli looked nice, but was bland, and I swear the guacamole was from a jar.
Written 9 April 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
rgrogers42
30 contributions
Dec 2021 • family
After looking at a few restaurants locally for NYE, we settled for the Bull Inn, as it ticked the boxes of being a nice menu, catered for a couple of vegans in our party, and local to some of us.
There’s not much right about our visit, it went wrong from the off. In spite of reserving a table for 6 adults, the staff initially placed us on a table for 4, the set up for the new table was improvised, and we were seated next to the toilet, which wasn’t brilliant. Fortunately for us, it wasn’t busy.
We were given three menus, two normal menus and one lunch menu, and ordered our drinks, which took ten minutes to arrive, with errors. Around ten mins later they took our order, however, it was the lunch menu only, which effectively reduced our vegans’ choices to one starter dish. It also messed up our other choices, but new choices were made and ordered.
The food took approximately 1hr10 mins to arrive, and it arrived in dribs and drabs over about five minutes. This surprised us, considering how quiet the pub was.
You could forgive this if the quality of the food matched the menu. The food itself was a complete let down. The burgers were a mushy, soggy mess and lacking in any type of flavour. The croquettes were cooked unevenly (some were good, others were barely done), the extra bowl of fries ordered were not cooked properly and tepid, and the side salads with the dishes were a bit 1980s (iceberg lettuce, chopped tomato and cucumber).
To top it all off, the toilet area was also an emergency exit/loading access point, meaning half of our party were treated to ten minutes of that nights’ band loading their gear through our meal.
The staff were a bit average, nice, but not really proactive, and not particularly organised. That said I think the real problem appears to be with what looked like the Head of House. This guy kind of just stood at the bar or had a smoke in the garden, or out the front all evening. Clearly his work shy and unprofessional attitude clearly rubs off on his staff and his pubs’ standards.
My recommendation; give this place a miss, go elsewhere.
Written 31 December 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The Management
Hello Mr Rogers,
First of all apologies for your NYE experience. It is true both our Kitchen and Front of House teams have been effected by covid and isolating etc, and we are cracking on as best we can, with a reduced team.
We were also effected by supply issues, and had been busy over the festive period, and run out of certain products, hence the reduced menu.
We are surprised by the burger comments as that is our best seller, and is extremely popular, but we will look into your comments.
The guy you are referring to is not “Head of House” and wasn’t working that evening. He bought the bill over to you as our female team felt a bit intimidated by you, but he wasn’t on duty. We would be grateful if you can delete those comments, as you have that wrong.
Hopefully in the new year, things will start to return to normal and you are welcome back to try again.
Written 8 January 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Stleonardsonsea2014
Hastings58 contributions
Feb 2022 • family
Food and service is a bit hit and miss, depending on front of house team and chef. On our recent visit the Sunday Roast was very poor. The portions were tiny, luke warm and not very tasty.
£16 seems very overpriced for the portion size and quality of food
Written 4 March 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Sarah W
Battle42 contributions
Oct 2021 • family
Me my partner and our 11 week old son went in on a wet and windy Monday afternoon. It was packed which was nice to see, seated within 10 minutes as they had to clear up from the previous rush. Waitresses were lovely so was the chef we spoke to. Food took a while to arrive but we didn't mind as we both work in the Industry and completely understand. When our food arrived it was amazing! The poutine especially was fantastic (would of preferred traditional cheese curds) after 2 mains 2 sides 1 soft drink and 1 alcoholic drink it came to less than £45 BARGAIN!! Our only complaint really is there is no changing station so we had to unfortunately change our son on the table. Apart from that wonderful atmosphere wonderful staff fantastic food. Will 100% be back. Keep it up
Written 25 October 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Tomoki D
6 contributions
Feb 2022 • none
I've visited the restaurant for lunch a few times now. The service is always very quick and staff always very friendly -compliments the relaxed ambience...not to forget the food is to die for carefully made and well thought through recipes!!
Written 9 February 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Mike S
Bexhill-on-Sea37 contributions
May 2022 • solo
I am a regular at this gastropub and today I noticed some pretty major changes. The beers on tap have changed, the menu has expanded and prices have climbed.
The food was good but not great. Mac & Cheese starter had little flavour and it was a tiny portion. The Sausage and Mash was good but veg flavourless. At £8 I passed on dessert, usually a highlight at this pub.
Staff remain excellent.
Not happy as I am running out of destination pubs. Now I can eat better at The Chequers and drink Aspalls over the road.
My previous review refers.
Written 14 May 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Lisa D
2 contributions
Sept 2022 • family
We booked Sunday Lunch, 8 of us including our 18 month granddaughter and 82 year old Mum. Food was absolutely delicious, plentiful and brilliantly cooked and seasoned. Excellent waiting staff who were very attentive. Great range of beers. Very family friendly and well behaved dogs welcome. Absolutely recommend!
Written 8 September 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The Management
Thank you so much for your kind review Lisa!
Written 11 September 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Diane H
11 contributions
Jun 2021 • friends
Went with my friend after visiting battle for the day, spotted this place and thought we would give it a go. The staff were all very friendly and helpful, we both had the same a pulled pork burger in bun with all the trimmings, thought the apple pieces was a nice touch, it was absolutely delicious, best burger I've had, coleslaw was homemade as was the skin on fries, generous portion too. The food was hot and served quickly, great value for money, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this place as I already have to several people, would go back here when I'm in the area again, wish we had it closer to home! Want to also mention this place had great character and atmosphere, my friend and I both said it finished off our day perfectly couldn't fault this place.
Written 13 June 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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