Bull Inn in Rochford

Lovely rustic pub, fantastic bar service by Callum, great food and atmosphere. We Have been visiting for years and never disappointed. The Beer garden is fantastic and dog friendly .

very good service,very quick ally was incredible definitely should come down here to get some great service and some great food!

Very pleasant ambience & marvellous timely service with Ally looking after us. Particularly helpful was the calorific values for each choice noted on the menu (for those of us who just need to be a little mindful😅)

Great food. Our server Ally is incredible. She was willing to do anything for us without hesitation. Will be coming back for the food and hopefully will have Ally serving us again

Three of us went to the Bull for lunch today. We had two roast turkey lunches and one grilled seabass. The meals were lovely and hot. Calum our waiter was very polite and friendly and nothing was too much trouble. The Bull has vastly improved in both the quality of its meals and staff since this time last year. Will definitely go back.

My wife and I used to like The Bull but won't be returning anytime soon and would no longer recommend it. We arrived and stood for more than 5mins with two ladies behind neither acknowledged us or said just be a minute only one was serving another customer. We eventually got seen to and sat at a table. Not asked about or provided with usual allergy options (my wife is gluten intolerant). We then ordered two burgers that were both rare in the middle (if you are going to cook them like that you should ask how you want it), I got literally about 10 chips (to be far I the waitress did bring me some more when I mentioned it). I hope you agree though as per the picture that it does not look like £16 meal.

Ally our waitress was brilliant, the food was good nothing to write home about. The atmosphere and decoration was sumptuous. Overall a good night out.

Karen was a great server, kind.

I've been to the Bull several times and always had a great experience here. The atmosphere is always really nice and particularly in winter it feels really welcoming and cozy. We were served by Tracey, who checked in with us regularly and was a great host. The food was really lovely too as expected from previous times we have been!

Plenty of parking, good prices, food came out pretty quick - standard pub food, not great but not terrible.

Very relaxing environment for a lovely meal or just drinks. Callum is great behind the bar and can't do enough to make your visit enjoyable.

I had the seabass. It came up very small with a small mash portion. Was still hungry after so had dessert which was lovely. Daughter had the chicken burger which she said was really nice.

Allí was very helpful, attentive to our need-, a real pleasure . We shall be back again

Had the best roast dinner there today , the new management is spot on and the food is 5 star , will definitely be going back more often ! :)

Lovely place for a meal and drink.

Very noisy, but excellent food.

We had a lovely experience from the moment we were greeted by Ally. She was very pleasant, helpful & very informative about the different menus & dishes. We all enjoyed the food, drink, atmosphere & company. Will definitely visit again. We sat at table 9 ( in the window) at 6.15pm). Thanks Ally for making the evening great ! Jill, Ken,sue & pat xx

Stopped in for a meal and a pint of something cold while I was in the area. So glad I did. Served by Kayti. Great food and excellent service. I went in for a couple of hours at lunchtime. Highly recommended. Will be back.

Excellent pub steeped in history, 16 th century grade 2 listed building, relaxed atmosphere, great food , superb pub garden, dog friendly, what more could you want

Decent food, good atmosphere, and the best service ever from Leah!!! 👏👏👏

Really nice meal and Leah was lovely

Calum was very helpful at the bar. The maitre d' found us a table last minute despite it being busy. Food was good.

You will not be disappointed!!!!! Ally was excellent.

Yesterday table booked for 3.15, party of eight ,waited ages for a table,food arrived 5.15. Yes two hours, unreal eh ! Obviously tables overbooked ! Didn’t complain at the time for obvious reasons. Large car park has room to accommodate more than the two disabled parking bays. Staff were fine, but the volume of customers needs to be addressed with a time restriction imposed. My Toad in the Hole was burnt in the Skillet, staff offered to replace same but after waiting two hours I wasn’t prepared to accept a further delay. Will not be returning ❗️ ************ Thank you for requesting a phone conversation, but quite frankly it is history. Live and learn eh ! I’ve been reading some of your reviews, and I think you’ve been the victim of your own success, tables at busy times should be restricted to a time factor in my view. I can’t get over just two disabled bays when the size of the car park would facilitate many more, we had to park at the furthest distance almost in the trees, not good uphill for a new replacement knee. I noted when I read another party’s review you do not stock Worcester sauce for Bloody Mary’s, I’ve never heard anything like it, unreal ! Please consider the matter closed .

Despite having booked a table and arriving 5 minutes early, we were made to wait by the bar and order drinks. Two soft drinks costing nearly £10! After ten minutes waiting we were shown to a table in a completely empty area of the restaurant. Which despite the external temperature being in the mid 20’s the room was only about 12 Degrees C. When the waitress came to take our order we asked to be moved but were told there were no other tables! Outside on the Patio with the smokers would have been more pleasant. However, when we threatened to leave we were suddenly found another table in the main restaurant. We made our order and the food was brought in reasonable time. The dish was good, cooked well and enjoyable. Given the poor service and extortionate drinks price, we didn’t order dessert. Sadly despite this being a local establishment I don’t think we will return very soon!

Booked this for Sunday lunch with my mum. Sadly, the roast dinner were Neither inspired or more Importantly, warm. The potatoes were cold. The parsnips were completely undercooked. whilst the meat was tender and quite nice. The vegetables were cold except the cauliflower cheese, which was an extra. The desert was in a similar vein, both the sticky toffee pudding and the apples pie Were cold. The ice cream could have been served on the side. I think the biggest problem is they serve food on cold plates which from a safety point of view is good. sadly for the food is not good.

It's a great place to visit, bring your dogs, sit in the garden and enjoy the good array of beers.worth a visit.

Ally was a very nice individual very good service and very friendly

The Bull Inn in Hockley is a fantastic spot, especially after a long walk in Hockley Woods! It’s super family-friendly, with a welcoming atmosphere that makes you feel right at home. The staff are always so friendly and accommodating, and they go the extra mile to ensure everyone, including the little ones, has a great time. The food is delicious and exactly what you need after a walk through the woods – hearty, fresh, and full of flavor. Whether you’re after a classic pub meal or something a bit more special, they’ve got a great menu to choose from. It’s definitely a go-to spot for us when we’re in the area!

Made a reservation really easily via website. Table for four and time available for when we wanted to eat. Food arrived well presented and freshly cooked. Great service from Tracey and we had a great dinner! Totally recommend.

Leah was absolutely fantastic, a shining example of friendly service! Thank you

Only down side was not having the Supper Club, still shown as being available via a download on their website but apparently was withdrawn about a week ago.... disappointing 😕

Lovely old pub with a nice feeling. Served by Tracey who was efficient and friendly. Recommended.

Enjoyed our visit .Food tasty , nice atmosphere , very good efficient service .Easy parking - what more do you want ?

A very good breakfast with excellent service from Rebekah. Will be back.

Excellent Sunday Lunch. Good food, wide choice of drinks, good atmosphere and great service. Fair value for money.

Great pub, great service, Calum the bartender was excellent. Highly recommend placed to come after a nice dog walk in the woods

Good place as always for a pint after karting! Thanks to Calum for adding to the evening!

Really good experience , happy and welcoming service from Calum at the bar, very attentive and efficient

Ordered the duo of chicken. Dry chicken breast, chicken strips were more dried out chicken twiglets, salad was ok, rice was ok and can't remember what the other thing on the side was. I ordered a side of chips, that were blatantly oven chips. Spent over £20 on the meal alone and it was absolutely terrible value. If I go out to eat and spend that much on a meal out, I expect it to be good. It wasn't at all. I just don't know how they can justify the prices for below par food. Will not eat here again.

Disappointing Saturday night dinner with friends nearly a third of menu not available and what was served didn't match menu. Giving it a miss in future.

After a couple of poor experiences here we left returning and ate here this week after just over a year away. And are we glad we did! Whatever the problems previously they appear to have been resolved and once again an enjoyable evening was had. All meals in our party were excellent, served in good time, mains and desserts representing decent value. Our waitress Abbie looked after us well and the place enjoyed a nice, friendly buzz. Without wishing to focus on the negatives, I feel I must because the improvement and seeming return to former glory is great to see - The Bull is well and truly back!!

Food is excellent value, sea bass well cooked with crispy skin with fennel salad, superb.

Always an excellent time when we visit. Great food, atmosphere, and staff. Dalya made us feel so welcome. She's very pleasant, efficient, and serves with a smile. Love sitting outside looking into the woods with a pint too.

Fantastic food as always, my wife and I both had the trio of roasts. great service from Ally and Abbie.

This is a very pretty pub next to Hockley woods with a beer garden large enough for children to run around and some shaded areas for drinking and dining. We sat outside with our dog but inside we could see the pub was beautifully decorated. They have a good selection of beers and dairy milk alternatives for coffee. There was a vegan mushroom wellington option on the Sunday menu and a couple of other dishes that could be adapted to be vegan. The wellington was disappointing though as it had no flavour. The mushrooms were in a rich gravy within the pastry but when they hit the palate…nothing!! Very strange! I could taste everything else so I don’t think I have COVID! We look forward to returning though as it’s a great spot for refreshment after a walk in the woods 🌳

Had a lovely lunch for my birthday. Food was amazing (try the Pork Belly 😋) and our waitress, Leah, was attentive, friendly and on the ball. Thank you ☺️

Staying in Hockley for a few days and have visited the Bull for drinks and dinner and came again for breakfast, after a walk through the adjoining woods, this morning. Firstly, the pub is dog friendly inside and out, which was great for us. The service on both visits was really good, thanks to Rebecca and Adam, and the food was almost perfect. We will definitely be in again before we go home.

Very nice Sunday Lunch , both of us had food from the specials menu . Great service from Ally and Abbie .

Ally was our waiter, and went up and beyond! Made my day, thank you so much. Food and atmosphere was great, I would love to go again 👏🏼

Big shout out to Leah :-) who served us tonight. First class service thanks 🤩 We were very surprised to find out this was her 1st night working at the Bull very professional!!!! We will be back thanks again and we hope you enjoy working for this lovely pub 🤩

Stopped here for a business lunch, so three of us had the light lunch menu and mainly soft drinks. We were pleasantly served by Naomi. The lunch came quickly and was quite substantial for a "light" lunch. Everyone finished their plates and complimented the chef (via Naomi) on a delightful menu. Will definitely be going again.

Must have a different chef or sometg8ng as the food was so much better than when we last visited a while back

I chose the shepherds pie at a costly £23.99. I was disappointed when the meal turned up as it was a lamb shank on mashed potato. Not my idea of shepherds pie in the slightest. Please either update your menu to state lamb shank and mash or actually make it a proper shepherds pie. Also my daughter had the apple pie and the pastry was not cooked. I told the waitress and her excuse was that it was vegan and that’s how it was. Stop trying to be posh because it isn’t working. Very disappointed customer and not sure I will return.

Lovely Saturday lunch, good food and large portions. Ally was our server and she was very attentive especially with a gluten intolerance and peanut allergy.

Fantastic Sunday roast, I hadn't booked, but they were kind enough to accommodate 3 Adults.. Lovely Server , Ann was great

Super friendly staff, lovely food, brought my two doggies with me as we sat outside on the patio - very friendly atmosphere. Ash one of the waiters was lovely and very helpful :)

Lovely lunch sitting outside in the sun with a nice variety to choose from. Our waitress Naomi was great , very friendly and helpful.

Amazing dinner at The Bull. The pub is dog friendly & baby/buggy friendly- lucky for us. Great friendly service from Kayti & the team & cracking food. Would defo recommend

Was surposed to be a 80th birthday celebration but had to reduce number in party due to family illness they were very understanding and thoughtful of the situation and we enjoyed a lovely meal with Naomi as our waitress, was funny and polite and professional and made our stay a lovely experience not to mention the lovely and tasty food we most certainly will be back

Lovely place to eat , generous portions of food , hot and very tasty. Service was fab by Ally ⭐️ , polite with good humour and welcoming smile . Would recommend ⭐️

A nice pub which has a large garden and has a small outdoor bar . The food was nice and the pub has a good atmosphere .

Lovely venue. Greeted by a young lad who understood allergens. Took us to our table and the waitress didn't have an understanding of allergens. She was also walking around with a big fan stuffed in her top which looked totally unprofessional. Fish and chip meal can only be underrated, not a full plate of food, lacked in garnish and chips were tepid. This was mentioned and another portion arrived Overpriced for what was presented

Never got offed free starter or main meal or sweet as gesture to try to get custom back. Booked a table for three for 27th March 24. Baked British Cheese Starter arrived minus the herb butter, piccalilli and onion chutney. Managed to find a waitress and asked for the missing items. Ten minutes later, waitress returned and asked me what sauces did I want! After a 45 minute wait, the mains arrived. The glazed belly pork was just four slithers with mash, carrots and a quarter of cabbage, which were luke warm as were the vegetables with the pie. Carrots were advertised as herb-roasted which they were definitely not. Both meals returned to kitchen. Alternative food was offered which we declined as we knew we would be in for a long wait. The other meal, gammon steak had a side of onion rings which were also cold. All three meals taken off the bill. The two tables either side of us also complained and meals were returned. Been coming to The Bull for the last 20 years and this was the worse meal we've had. We won't be back. I will spend my money else where. where I'll get hot food better service value for money. The Bull did contact me after I email them just said they was sorting issues out what could they could do get my custom back well start with they want your custom back they don't even want to offer you some compliments or voucher to have your custom back well like I said I'll spend my money else where ill get hot food good service & value for money rather than guess whether the food is going to be any good or services going to be any good. By reading review which are only couple days ago the Bull does seem that bothered about get people back once word start get about people well stop go there.

First timer, came in after walking around hockley woods. Great service from Ash very friendly, lunch food is good value for money. Will come again

Had a fantastic meal and service from Leah 👍Will definitely return👏

Absolutely amazing staff especially Leah & Ally who went out of their way to make sure my husband’s allergies were cared for . A lovely calming atmosphere and food was really lovely. I will definitely be returning.

Just enjoyed a lovely early evening meal, to use up some expiring tesco vouchers. The food was delicious, served by the very helpful Ally, who advised which voucher combinations to use

Food nice, would have liked it hotter, waited quiet a while fir our sweet.

Nice little pub to relax after work with a few beers and sit in the beer garden. Keep up the good work across all staff.

Super service from Calum at the bar. Polite and efficient - will definitely come again

Calum served us lovely atmosphere, lovely food. Great Children's menu. Great space for running around and relaxing. Excellent service - lovely location.

Thank you to our wonderful server Ally, we had a superb meal with family.

Great service from Razana. Would highly recommend.

Was very nice, good food and selection of drinks would go back again. Had the special on the board chicken cheese and leek pie and Eaton mess. Lovely

We had a nice birthday celebration meal with the family. The food and service was good. No complaints at all from any of us.

Lovely meal as usual with friends. Great choice of gins.

The vibe in this place has definitely changed for the better. Popped in on 3 occasions in this past week ( more than in the last year ) ate once and food was lovely! Staff attentive and friendly, which makes a change from the previous grumpy bar manager who would huff and puff like it was busy if there were two people at the bar. Atmosphere was nice for daytime, cannot wait to see what nights have to offer.

Calum was lovely, interacted with the kids. Kind server. Thanks Calum.

Beware of the £16.50 2 course meal deal. You get what you pay for and you don’t get a lot. Also charged full price at the end and had to get bill altered. Been coming here for 18 years despite moving from Hockley to Rochford. Poor show

Lovely pub with good outdoors vibe

Dalya was amazing!!! Fun, friendly, quick fantastic service xxx

The location of this pub is perfect overlooking Hockley Woods. On this occasion we were served by Dalya who was very welcoming and helpful. Food was really good also.

We had a great afternoon and evening at the Bull, to celebrate our recent engagement. We first spoke to the manager Adam who was available at the entrance to greet us he has taken over the pub 2 months ago and already putting his stamp on it. He has assembled a fantastic team where the service is excellent and the food exquisite. We had the sharing platter to start where the calamari was excellent. I had the fish and chips they were superb and my Fiancée had the sirloin steak medium rare it was perfectly cooked to perfection the addition of the peppercorn sauce made it even nicer. For desert I had the mini brownie with A coffee and she had the chocolate fondant which was described as chocolate heaven and sublime. We will be going back in the near future.

£15 for sausage and mash, you think they would give you real spuds and not reconstituted for that price.

Stunning Sunday Roast, great choices, ample portions, polite service.

Lunch at the bull was amazing and service by Ally was fantastic. We were sat in a quieter area. Checked on regularly and food was delivered quickly and hot.

Fabulous Sunday roast. Staff very helpful and delightful. Will definitely recommend Raz is an absolute asset.

Had a lovely dinner with family here. We all chose the Smothered Chicken mains, very tasty, just wish portion size were bit bigger. Staff were great, very friendly and helpful. Will definitely go again.

Warm welcoming from Adam. He was really lovely and put the parasol up for us. Excellent service from Ash as well. I ordered the steak sandwich and unfortunately had to send it back as came out well done instead of medium rare. Not much flavours from the merlot and beef dripping sauce neither. Fries were nice. Plenty of drink options including blood orange gin! Dog friendly.

Nice staff and good food apart from dirty cooked tomato’s, I dont know if they weren’t washed or just covered in something. Nice to see the original bull serviced the fire and refit. Update July 2024 - food seems to be a bit better and staff are generally friendly

Great food and great service from Rebecca

Extremely disappointing dinner the other night. I went for the gnocchi on the chef’s specials and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn if the gnocchi and peppers ever touched the bottom of a frying pan. Pale gnocchi, uncooked veg and bland tomato sauce…all for about £14! Feeling quite ripped off considering I could have made the same dish at home for a just a few pounds. Despite this, excellent service (couldn’t fault the bar staff) and a pretty decent dessert.

Midweek meal for four adults. Good food and plenty of it.

Adam and the team were amazing - great food and friendly warming service. The refurbishment looks stunning - keeping all the character and charm from before, but seemingly making the place bigger.

Had an excellent afternoon out at The Bull, Calum was working the outside bar. Fantastic friendly service, excellent experience!

Was served by Calum, was super friendly and professional. Made the night extra special.

Great place amazing service especially Calum

Quality of the food was disappointing from the last time we were there, my mixed grill steak which I ordered as medium rare which was at best medium and very dry, they did offer to cook another, but this meant having to wait and the other 5 people all had their meals in front of them, so I declined the kind offer, the beef dripping sauce tasted like the peppercorn sauce but without the pepper corns. My wife's belly of pork, was just fat, no real meat on them. Their Ruby Eton Mess was just two nests of meringue with raspberry ice cream, no fruit nor cream, we had to send this back as it was not tasty nor visually appealing, certainly not an Eton Mess, we didn't get charged for this which was a kind offer. They were also out of one of their specials and one type of ice cream. I am sure this is just one of them days and we were unlucky with the food, so we will give them the benefit of the doubt.

Popped in for a quick drink, stayed for amazing atmosphere! Dalya and Raz are an absolute delight to be served by, such good energy! Will definitely be back very soon!