Bell & Bear in Milton Keynes

Great community pub, I go to open mic nights. Very friendly and they have entertainment often. They don’t serve food but they do have pop up catering vans come along. It’s always a good night at the bell and bear.

Charming free house pub in the village if Emberton which, in a somewhat uncommon move, is owned by a large proportion of the villagers who bought it off the brewery! I did some live music for these guys last night, and the atmosphere was absolutely amazing. Let it be known that Emberton like their live music. 🎸 Pictured is the Brooklyn Pilsner lager on tap. Absolutely divine if you're a lager lout like I am! 🍻

Nice country pub,,, on the up !

Fantastic gem of a community pub hidden away in Emberton village.

Very nice village pub with a selection of ales from cask. Unfortunately some casks were empty at the moment I was here.

Was OK ish. Comittee meeting on the go when arrived, one persons reaction when needed behind bar shouldn't have been heard by member of public (non local) Ladies toilet floor soaking wet all evening. Thought I might have got shut in as door handle mechanism was coming off. After morris dancers came in i asked at bar if i could have coffee, told no don't do hot drinks, couple minutes later pots of coffee was given to dancers, assume free, but I couldn't buy one. Told I could have a cold drink, I'd already had one ! Seems to be a pub ok for the locals/owners !

Small English country pub. Lovely atmosphere, friendly banter with the locals and several differant foodtrucks serving patrons and others. Type of food truck varies daily.

Lovely little community ran pub :)

Only popped in for a drink. Was lovely and everyone was friendly, good pint too.

Awesome pub, just how they should be

Pizza's ,roast dinners, staff and beers are excellent 😊

Love the place. Friendly staff, great atmosphere and a great pint of Guinness!!

Lovely pub, warm and friendly with good selection of beers.🍻

Village owned, friendly and fun pub.Great selection of drinks, popular with locals and visiting food vans on Friday nights.

This quintessential English pub is actually in the village of Emberton about a mile or so West of Olney.

Took my Mum out for Birthday lunch and were treated to excellent, food, drinks and service. Table for 2 with Happy Birthday above it and cake with a candle at the of the meal. Will definitely be back for a dinner visit.

Great village local. Always a good range of real ales. Excellent food.

Excellent pint of Breakspats: super calamari starters as a light lunch. Luverly stuff!

Fantastic local pub, great food and super staff. Very lucky to have such a great local pub with such nice patrons as well. Very welcoming and friendly.

Very nice people and atmosphere!!

Amazing Sunday roast and the banana mouse with caramel ice cream is fantastic

Really friendly welcoming good old fashion English pub, felt at home from the minuet we entered. Only popped in for one drink as didn't realise they did food and had already booked up somewhere else, will defernatly give the food a go in the near future. Good range of beers, largers and gins...

Good service, good food for a good price. We will be back. Stilton and fig starter was delicious but the bhaji was sublime. Cod was succulent and the duck amazing. Well worth the visit.

I visited this country pub restaurant with a couple of friends last Thursday. There is plenty of parking in the rear yard, but you can park outside on the street. You are eating in very pleasant country pub surroundings and are served by attentive and friendly staff During the week they do a set menu and you pay according to the number of courses you consume. The are two choices for each course. Best to book, but we'll worth a visit for well cooked food. I shall be returning 😜

New Years Day Brunch, There's always a warm welcome in this delightful Pub/Restaurant. The food is always presented well, delicious and very Moorish ! It's a joy to take family and friends as there's something for everyone on the menu, today was no exception the full English looked amazing the plate was full, I opted for the Avocado as the healthy option and that too was just divine. Can't wait to return to this great little find !

Best for quality and value in the area.

A little gem hidden away. If you're nearby make sure to come along for amazing food and atmosphere. Place is small so book a table ahead.

Great pub with excellent beers and well cooked very tasty food

Meal for five this evening; absolutely superb. Excellent service throughout, great food and pairings and the coffee, wow! We'll definitely be back.

Thank you for a really lovely meal today.Such a nice welcome,beautiful settig/building and Excellent service.

I live alone so don't eat out much, but when guests visit this is where I take them. Unpretentious country pub with high qualiy food freshly made, where possible using locally sourced ingredients. Good choice of drinks too - wines, (they recommend a wine to accompany each menu item), beers, whiskies, ciders, perries, and gins. Very reasonable prices for what you get, and friendly helpful staff. Highly recommended.

Where can you get London cuisine tucked away in an Olney side street. Bonkers!

Absolutely exceptional food. Also easily catered for a coeliac and a vegan. Lovely staff and atmosphere

What can I say!! The best dinner in a small restaurant for miles!! Attention to detail and flavour, well presented and good surroundings. Loved it!! Thank you.

Would highly recommend to all family and friends. The food is beautifully served and always thoroughly enjoyed by myself, husband and 2 children. It’s clear that they take great pride in sourcing excellent quality of food.

My husband and I had Sunday lunch at the Bell and Bear yesterday with our 10 month old daughter. We honestly had the best roast beef we’ve ever had. I’ve eaten here numerous times and it never fails to disappoint! The staff are welcoming and attentive, the pub is lovely and cosy but best of all the food is one of a kind in our area. Nowhere beats it! I’d eat here every day if I could. To top off our experience yesterday the owner made our daughter her own blended roast dinner which was a huge hit. Always above and beyond. Can’t wait to come back.

Admittedly, it was only our starter on the slate, our main came on a plate. But I don't like this fashion and it is not even easy for staff to serve and pick up these slates. I also found the meal expensive for the environment it was served in, with small, bare wood pub tables. My relatively small piece of sea bass with samphire and new potatoes came on a bed of kale and when I asked for the samphire they said it was underneath. They did bring me some more to supplement the little I found. My partners guinea fowl came with a dish of veg which included romanesco cauli/broccoli and black carrot, but because the veg were all crammed into a small serving dish you could not even tell it was anything special.

If you like the great pub food vibe, this is a winner!

Fantastic food and service as always.

Very disappointed having looked forward to taking friends here. The welcome and food were good but the food was nearly cold when it arrived. No-one came over to check we were happy and when we gave feedback it was met with explanations about difficulties in keeping the food hot which were not relevant from a customer's perspective. We were offered a free round of drinks, which we didn't want. Rather an expensive experience for cold food. The lack of a carpet (which would help to absorb sound) makes the small room rather noisy.

Outstanding meal for 11 well dressed men. Superb food. Excellent wine. Wonderful service. Olney's best kept secret!

Fabulous food - we ate from the lunchtime tapas menu. Wonderful choices and flavours served by a lovely friendly lady.

Excellent food, unfortunately 13 people on next table made too much noise, for us to have a good conversation

Tiny little place, very welcoming service and good food.

First visit here and courgette starter was great. Traditional Sunday lunch was equally as good. Would go again

Years since, B&B; in Emberton was a final watering hole on way home to Olney, years on now living away in far flung Harrold, the B&B; came onto the radar recommended by friends but warned of a waiting list, so booked 3 weeks in advance (09/09)...4 of us sat down to lunch in a warm friendly atmosphere...all ordered the Beef...boss wanted hers well done, mine just slice of pieces as the cow was running past, I of course ordered extra beef, meals arrived in timely fashion, Extra spuds-extra Yorkshire’s....no extra costs...all bloody delicious!!

First visit here for Sunday lunch. Came with a friend who comes here a lot. Old worlde pub - still has the charm of a country pub without being bistrosized. Not many covers so would advise you need to book a table. We went straight for mains. I had the guinea fowl which was excellent, friend had the hake which was also excellent & wifey had a veggie main which was fondant squash with vegetables & roast potatoes which was also very good but only criticism was at £17 it just seemed expensive. We all had puds which were again all good as was the wine. Overall we had a nice Sunday lunch but only exception was we thought the veggie main seemed very pricey. A general criticism of pubs who do a veggie option is that many serve just a plate of vegetables - why not add a center piece such as a nut roast? Meat eaters can have a steak, chicken, guinea fowl etc to go with veggies & roast potatoes.

Found almost by accident, we enjoyed a fantastic meal at this tiny village pub restaurant. Although we had booked and it was busy, we were offered a choice of the remaining tables, which was nice, and menus and drinks arrived swiftly.

A pleasant country pub with a Good selection of Beers

Amazing food. I had the courgette Fritter. And hake with samphire my family had the pate followed by beef. It was absolutely delicious. We women had the chocolate with peanut parfait and my husband had the full cheese selection. Excellent service as always. The best place to eat for miles around.

The garden was underwhelming, the cider tasted like vinegar.

The Bell and Bear is a small, characterful pub in a small village a short drive from Milton Keynes. We had a most enjoyable lunch: very tasty food and (I am told) excellent beer.

Probably the best meal that we have ever had, quite expensive but everything is locally sourced and cooked fresh for you. All the local suppliers are listed on the menu and you can certainly taste the difference. Be warned, if you wish to visit Friday to Sunday then you need to book at least two weeks in advance but it is well worth it. The restaurant is separate from the pub with its own entrance and is quite small. On the night that we went Sophie, one half of the owners served us, and when we told her that we were about to move to Emberton she told us about good dog walks and the local area. Later we met Jon, Sophie's other half who is the chef but on this night was helping front of house too. He was incredibly friendly and passionate about his food and suppliers. The menu can change from day to day since everything is fresh and they may have run out of something. It is also a free house so great selection of spirits, beer and ciders. Truly wonderful, if only we could afford to eat there at least once a week!

Visited on a weekday evening and enjoyed a wonderful meal with lovely paired wines and enjoyed the company of the regulars in the bar before and after dinner. The menu is wonderful, I could have easily selected every dish, but settled for the Prawn starter, followed by the local lamb and the berry mess to finish......each dish beautifully presented and served by a knowledgable and friendly team.

My wife and I took two very good friends from Teddington (West London) to have an evening meal at this amazing pub. Simply put, we enjoyed the best food we have had in decades. The pub is small and tucked away in the pretty village of Emberton, just north of Olney. The chef, Jonathan, alongside his wife, has created a place that not only provides good quality craft beer in a convivial bar, but has a small dining room where Jonathan produces quality dishes that any top London restaurant diner would pay an arm and a leg to have on their plate. I am not sure if you can get a Michelin star for a pub, but if you can The Bell and Star would surely get one. Have a look at their online menu, then get your sat-nav out and make your way to Emberton. But please book first as the pub is tiny and the word is getting around about just how brilliant this place is to enjoy the superb food.

I returned to the Bell and Bear for Sunday lunch, with friends one of whom cannot eat dairy products. But this was no problem as delicious dishes were served to us all. The food was wonderful, the service friendly and efficient, and the ambience relaxed. My friend's lively four-year-old enjoyed his visit and showed it by cleaning his plate in (relative) silence; this place is definitely child-friendly. Fast-food it ain't, as everything is prepared to order using local produce wherever possible, so allow yourself plenty of time to enjoy a great leisurely dining experience. Very highly recommended.

Small, but perfectly formed! The Bell & Bear is a hidden gem. The bar is bustling and the small restaurant is blessed with great staff and a talented chef. The menu offers limited, but sufficient choice across each course and the food is matched to recommended wines by the chef patron. The food is outstanding as are the front of house staff, who are there when you need them but remain unobtrusively attentive. Deservedly busy.

Very welcoming, lovely meal. Small but friendly, love the local produce. Not likely to visit frequently as a bit pricey bit nice for a special meal.

Always promised I would visit this out of the way pub.

Lovely village location. A busy bar full of locals. The bar furniture does need a good clean though to make it more comfortable and relaxing. Great beer choice and some brewed especially for the pub. Restaurant lovely decor and very intimate. Small menu but that is a positive. The sea bass was out of this world! Cheese board generous and so tasty. Wine selection also very well thought out with food pairing recommendations which is a nice touch. Well worth a visit and the intricacies set this apart from other pub's in the area!

We went here while travelling through Milton Keynes for a midweek evening meal. We were seated at nice tables, good service and good food.

We decided to try and find somewhere new for my birthday meal and my partner suggested the Bell & Bear because of the tripadvisor reviews.

The Bell and Bear in Emberton is one of our favourite pub restaurants. We have eaten there a few times. The staff are very nice, nothing is too much trouble for them and the food is delicious. They are able to cater for special diets and allergies. There are always a range of real beers on tap and also a wide range of ciders.

Continually fantastic and the staff could not have been more helpful with our taxi home afterwards. Such a friendly place with delicious food.

Such a quaint, friendly little pub and the food is amazing. 5* service, great atmosphere and lots of space around tables.

Nice little village pub, with friendly staff. Big selection of quality Gin, Ales and Lager

I had a fantastic meal here last night. I had the beef & my friend had the guinea fowl both were faultless & absolutely delicious. The new potato chips that came with the beef were crisp but not greasy, compliments to the kitchen staff. The deserts were fantastic too. The young waitresses were well informed & could answer any questions we had. We thought the surroundings were basic but the food second to none. We will definitely return!

This old pub has fantastic food as you'd find in the finest London restaurants. Good beer and great service compliment this pub. Highly recommended.

Visited on a Thursday evening and enjoyed a wonderful meal with lovely paired wines and enjoyed the company of the regulars in the bar before and after dinner. The menu is wonderful, I could have easily selected every dish, but settled for the Stilton mouse starter, followed by the local sirloin of beef and the chocolate torte to finish......each dish beautifully presented and served by a knowledgable and friendly team.

Always amazing food with a great choice on the menu. Local produce used to it’s very best. I have no idea how Jon and the team deliver the flavours that they do but I guess that’s why he was MK Chef of the Year 2017. So lucky to have this in our village

We were staying on a hotel break nearby and found the Bell and Bear on TA.

Another fantastic roast sirloin. We had the pate and squid as starter and the lemon posset to finish. Excellent service as always. The best place to eat for miles around.

Came here with my mum and sister after a recommendation from a friend and we were not disappointed in the least!

Unique. Super people. Super food. Love it !

We went for lunch today with our friends, the pub were very accommodating with a time change on our booking. We were seated straight away, there was our table of 4 and another table of 15. Our drinks were delivered promptly and orders taken for our food. We received our lovely presented starters on slate, chicken liver pate was delicious. Followed by our main courses 3 had the chicken in bacon sauce and the other had battered hake all of us really enjoyed our meals almost 4 clean plates. The pub has a friendly family run feeling vibe, staff were pleasant and friendly. We didn’t have room for deserts on this visit maybe next time. Thank you for a lovely lunch we will visit again for an evening meal soon.

Just a fantastic place to eat and drink really. I’ve been here many times for a local beer, and for some incredible meals too. Jon and Sophie run the place really well, and the rest of the staff are excellent too. That being said there’s a far too friendly old man behind the bar, I think they let him work so he has something to do... ;)

Visited whilst on a weekend away it’s husband, setting was lovely traditional old building with lots of character

Just finished our first meal at the Bear and Ball. Simply excellent!

Slightly quirky small pub with a cracking restaurant attached. Service was excellent from booking to bill, friendly and efficient. A good range of foods on the menu, not too many, any of which you could choose and not be disappointed. Two of us first went for a quiet meal there two years ago and loved it. Have just been for a friends 50th birthday meal, loved it all over again. Care was taken with preparation and delivery of very plate and every drink. Easy to recommend

Stunning food. Been there twice and both times everything was cooked to perfection. Great staff and pricing is very reasonable.

Absolutely amazing pub. Very clean and tidy. Brilliant service and one of there staff let me use their own personal charger. Would highly recommend. Thanks so much from. Christian Dyson.

Unique village pub great selection of real ales. Dined there many times and the food is fantastic. On Fridays you can even buy real bread delivered around 6 o'clock and if you're lucky there are duck eggs goose eggs and chicken eggs being delivered around the same time.

Wow what a great pub with first class food and drink.

This village pub has a fantastic restaurant attached. The menu is inventive and uses fresh local food all at a reasonable price. The landlord/chef won chef of the year 2017.

A party of 5 of us enjoyed a special birthday dinner. The duck was superb and the wine a fair price. A small bottle of tonic water at only 20p less than a measure of Bombay Sapphire gin seems steep.

We had a late booking here and did not know what to expect. The restaurant is small although not cramped and the service is excellent. The food however was amazing. The beef was the best we could both remember in a very long time, perfectly cooked with lovely veg sides. We will definitely be bringing friends here to dine in the future.

We visited the Bell and Bear on Friday evening and were very lucky to get a table at short notice. The menu is small but perfectly formed, choosing to focus on quality local produce cooked with passion and skill rather than a generic overly long menu. We both had the courgette bhaji to start which despite being a generous portion, was delicious and light - The perfect start to our meal. I then opted for the beef in peppercorn sauce - as tender as you like and bags of flavour. My husband had the guinea fowl, something he’d never tasted before and absolutely loved. He was raving about the accompanying peas and pancetta for hours after. And the potatoes were delicious too - every detail was perfect.

It is many years ago that we ate at the Bell & Bear, and that experience clouded our judgement to go back. It's changed hands twice since then and the current team have certainly turned this place round. With tables full at other Olney restaurants, we thought we would give it a try, and delighted we did.

We had eaten at the Bell & Bear before, and so it was the obvious choice for a special lunch to treat our friends for their anniversary. The pub is tiny and so very friendly - they weren’t at all put out when heavy snow delayed our booked visit by a fortnight.

Fab pub always has been great punt of stout

This is a great restaurant. Visited twice and booked again. Food is local and high quality. The guinea fowl is great. Had it both times and would have it again!

Every one was very friendly and helpful

We have celebrated a number of birthdays at the Bell and Bear and Jon and Sophie never disappoint. Food is delicious and special touches make the evening memorable. Here's to the next time!

PERFECT. . PROPER PUB WITH CLASS THO! SUPERB CHEF AND WIFE .. PERSONABLE AND OOH IF YOU ARE A FOODIE.. THIS IS A MUST. . DESIGNER TASTE BUDS AND WHOLESOME FOOD.. THIS IS THE CHEF FOR YOU!! NOT RUN OF THE FOOD TOUCHED UP CHAIN PUB FOOD.. BE PREPARED TO BE WOWED AND SURPRISED 😀 BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DEMAND AND HAVING TO BE TURNED AWAY !! XX

Came for Valentines Day, staff were lovely and very helpful. Food was exceptional, the courgette bhaji's starter was to die for, main was fab too as was the dessert. Will definitely be back in the near future. Reasonably priced as well.

Google asks me to review. . Google constantly does this for many places I simply walk past. It continues to do this this despite the functionality being switched OFF! It becomes very annoying. I know it's Google NOT the establishment or location but others may not and blame those. Which is not "doing no evil" Google. Btw, the "bull & bear" is excellent as we have actually been in there a few times for a meal but. . not yesterday, or the day before, or the day before. ..... as Google suggests. .

This restaurant is my absolute favourite place to eat, so my other half booked a table for us and some friends as a surprise for my birthday. The food was, once again, absolutely impeccable. Such great choice for meaties and veggies, everyone left saying how amazing the food was. I had a lovely mozzarella starter, followed by a really interesting and tasty cauliflower main: this is why I love this place so much, they are creative with the vegetarian menu, never just standard risotto or tomato pasta! Service is always great, and prices are very reasonable considering the quality. Will definitely go back again and again!

There is a short but perfectly balanced menu, 2 starters, 3 mains and two desserts. The food is skillfully cooked and beautifully presented. At £18 for two courses they are stealing from themselves. High on our list of favourite lunch spots. Enjoy the crepe with peach cream.

Great food and service. Not ideal for small children but the support you with whatever you need

Have been visiting this pub since the late 1960s. Seen many changes but it is nice to return to a place that has changed little and still maintains its village pub feel.