Bull - Babergh

Superb Sunday Roast Lunch today at The Bull Hotel. Very friendly staff, excellent service, spacious dining room, fabulous food! The 4 of us each had different starters and then 2 had the roast pork whilst 2 had the roast turkey. Plenty of food, all beautifully cooked and well presented without being pretentious. So looking forward to going back again soon. Thank you to everyone at The Bull.

I booked online for a family lunch, for eight of us, and made a special request (in one of their 'message us ' sections of the booking form, for the room where we could sit in private. Several of our party are hard of hearing which I explained. I heard nothing other than a confirmation of the booking. A week or so later, again on the booking form, using the "Manage my booking ' section, I emailed to confirm that we had a private room, but again heard nothing. Eventually we called in to make sure we had been given the room, only to be told that they had taken other bookings for the private room, but we were offered, and shown , a quiet corner of one of the dining rooms, on a round table which helps as we can lip read if we are facing each other. Turning up on the day we were casually directed to the bar where we ended up sitting on a long table, with other people around us and a fair amount of noise. Our quiet corner table was empty, but the room was cold and not prepared for us to use it. We wouldn 't have minded so much if I hadn 't sent two emails and actually gone in person to confirm a private area. The food was excellent as usual and we all enjoyed our meal, but communicating with each other was a big problem. The service was rather slow, but the food was definitely worth waiting for. Staff were apologetic, but unable to change the situation. This is the second time our booking has been mishandled, during December we also booked a table for a lunch for ten of us, only to be told on arrival that they were expecting us that evening, NOT at lunchtime. They did rise to the occasion though and supplied our lunches eventually. We did have to wait a while, but the food was very good when it came.

This pub is a perfect example of faded splendour. Magnificent building. Food absolutely ghastly, reheated Brake Bros or equivalent. The 'kitchen ' must consist solely of fridge freezers and microwaves. Place was full, so others must like it.

We often call into the Bull for a couple of drinks on our way home . Over time the place seems to have become more and more tired looking , smelling of an old people's home as you enter the place which is quite off putting. Our most recent and possibly final visit was as previous but this time the men's toilet floor was covered in water leaking from the pipework from the urinals , disgusting to say the least !!! I mentioned it to the guy behind reception and he said he knew about it and a plumber was coming out on Monday!!! This was Saturday teatime ... God only knows what state it will be like come Monday!! Come on Greene King start investing in your somewhat run down establishments..

Overall a disappointing lunch. We were not allowed in the restaurant with our dog, despite the website saying they are dog friendly. The lunch had all the hallmarks of being reheated, at least in part. The roast beef was supposed to be pink, according to the menu, but it was too thin to tell and there was too much gristly edging to it. We had looked forward to eating here, but we won’t be coming back.