The Black Bull in Epping Forest

Went to the Black Bull yesterday lunchtime with 3 friends. Good selection of beer and wine. The grilled Plaice was superb, served with prawns and lemon butter. My friends all had the Skate wing as a main course. We all thoroughly enjoyed our meals and will definitely be returning. Update November 2024. The skate has now been removed from the menu. However all of the meals myself and my 5 other friends ordered were excellent.

Location is lovely, staff were helpful and polite, food was average for a pub. 12 of us, most had the roast, I had the fish. I won there, the roasts looks ok and good enough but the fish was good. didn't stay in a room

We holidayed in a Fyfield AirBNB, a last minute decision after the booked residence at Bishops Stortford cancelled our booking only three weeks before our trip from Australia. The icing on the cake was this pub about 200m from the front door. A Free House pub, it has a good selection of ales and other beers and pub food of excellent quantity and quality. The staff are very friendly and the landlord and landlady, despite being Arsenal fans 😏, accepted this Tottenham fan at their bar with the minimum of ridicule 😁. The landlord even accepted my gift of a Queensland Police Service shoulder patch for the pub’s “Bullshit Corner” (a very appropriate place for it). With family in the local area, we’ll be sure to visit when we return to the UK.

There is no storage in any room, no wardrobe or chest of drawers, no shelf or cabinet in the bathroom, only place to put anything is on the floor, think they have a cheek calling this a hotel. It’s more like a prison cell. Do not stay here

Excellent place to stay, or just pop in for a drink and food

Have stayed here previously on the eve of my wedding and also come back many times for sunday lunch. Absolutely love the black bull and i can honestly say you won't experience a better traditional pub setting than this place. Look forward to seeing you again soon

It was all we wanted for an overnight stay on the Essex Way hike: friendly welcome and service, a clean & comfortable room(albeit small), cold beers and a big dinner! ( 1/2 roast chicken with salad and the gammon with pineapple.) The outside wooden tables on the grass overlooking the sheep pen is lovely for sundowners. The included "continental" breakfast was adequate, but cooked options are available at extra charge.

Really nice local pub. Staff are friendly and welcoming. It's got a nice warm atmosphere. Prices are reasonable. I stayed there, the rooms are spacious, beds are comfortable and the prices are affordable. It's in a rural area and has some nice walks close by.

Had a drive out with my mini club today. Ended up at the pub we all had a fantastic roast! Fantastic service even though there was 15 of us. Fantastic food and fantastic service.

Friendly, catering staff. Good food, good portions. Rooms have quite small TV's and might not be to everybody's taste but clean and no real issues.

We stayed overnight as we were attending a wedding nearby.

I’ve stayed at the black bull before the staff are great the rooms are basic but comfortable, breakfast was good, also went back a week later to try the food was really nice and the portions were massive haha thank you

Fantastic service, very friendly and great value for money!

Small and basic room, with a shower that had awful pressure

The Black Bull had been recommended to us years ago and we finally popped in. A proper pub serving proper pub grub at competitive prices. Great service and value. Very pleased we dropped in.

We were a party of four, two of us had the chicken and two had the plaice. Food was beautiful, plenty of vegetables, superb roast potatoes and chunky chips were really lovely. The young lady that looked after us was very friendly and nothing was too much trouble.

There was a pipe issue that caused a great deal of noise, and we were unable to sleep

Standards had fallen from previous visits

If your eating your experience may be different, but be prepared if your not eating to be shunted into a corner on tiny bar stools next to the door opening outside for smokers. Apparently in a pub containing 10 people at the time every table is reserved for eating and drinkers are second rate in this public house and by the way DOGS ARE NOT WELCOME!!!

No faults. Nice pub friendly staff. Food aint bad.

The Black Bull was recommended to me by my guvnor and he wasn't wrong. The pub is proper old school just like they used to be before all the Hoi polloi moved to countryside and kicked out all the real people, pub has 2 open fires, dark wood paneling and still has horse brasses. People still come here to drink beer. 2 ales on tap. Now for the food, prices are average but the portions are huge and of a very good quality, nothing fancy pantsy, just good hearty food. And just like after eating a Christmas dinner, I'm now absolutely stuffed

Lovely hidden little gem, I recommend you go for the Sunday lunch/ Dinner, absolutely sensational. Make sure you have a good appetite!

Nice 15th century pub with an open fire. The food was good and reasonably priced .

Truly awful. Room’s depressing and no natural light. Shower leaked into hallway. Pushed for times by landlord about when precisely I’d be ready for breakfast and when I did go for breakfast everything was packed away so ended up with none. Never again.

Great food super friendly service and it won't break the bank

Just got their take out Sunday Roast...OMG, amazing. Fantastic meat, proper roast potatoes, stuffing, yorkies and more veg than you can eat. Brilliant!!

Very welcoming and helpful landlady.

Rally nice hotel and staff, but we got a cab back there from a wedding venue and left some expensive stuff in the cab, which they denied. Won't use that thieving cab company again. Please pass this onto them as they are the cab firm that seems to do a lot of work from your hotel.

Attended wedding locally. Found all staff very welcoming and friendly. Even more than happy to accommodate us with a later checking so we could arrive at the church on time, even called a taxi service on our behalf. Room very clean with tea/coffee making facilities, TV and a fan. Shower room clean with fresh towels. Breakfast was continental with a choice of a cooked breakfast, that we opted for. Plenty on offer and the cooked breakfast was lovely. Staff even asked us if we enjoyed the wedding. Would definitely stay again and we plan to go back and have lunch/dinner soon.

Was not impressed but I’m a snob and very hard to please. The wife adores this establishment and always speaks very highly of it. I found it a little claustrophobic to be honest; eating my meal I felt very uncomfortable being so close to other diners.

Had a really lovely meal with the missus. Good atmosphere polite staff

Lovely meal, huge portions! Nothing vegan on the menu so I asked and the chef did a mezze plate which was huge, great selection and delicious

Great historic pub. Went on a Sunday for Sunday lunch and was amazing!! And massive!! Would highly recommend 👌

Working away from home, great place to relax food was amazing and plenty staff amazing. It make my easier. So thankyou

Chicken and leek pie really good

Fathers Day treat...and the food was incredible and the service was brilliant. Such a lovely, clean and obviously well looked after pub. Would recommend this pub as a must try experience.

Dreadful experience. Called day before to confirm booking at the ‘hotel’ and advised time we would be arriving. Get to the hotel and call the telephone number provided, no answer. We were left calling and banging on the door for 45mins. This was at 5pm so not like early in the morning! Finally a extremely rude gentleman turned up and then acted like we were putting him out for wanting to check in! Reason we needed to get into the room was we were going to a wedding reception and needed to ready. As for the room, it is one of the worst hotel rooms i have stayed in. Tiny room and filthy bathroom. Only good thing was the breakfast in the morning which was really nice and the service was friendly.

Room was a little bit small but was clean and tidy and that's all we needed, people were very nice and the meals in the pub were huge and really good

The restaurant isnt great for vegetarians. Last time I went for Sunday lunch there was no veggie option other than leaving off the meat and they only had beef or chicken gravy. This was a while ago hopefully they've changed, but it doesn't seem so looking at the menus on here.

Service is great and the food is lovely