The Black Bull Inn in Northumberland

Excellent Sunday lunch. Friendly service and, in our opinion and despite a modernist decor for what looks from outside to be an Olde-Worlde Pub, a really nice feel to the place. Good pint of Black Sheep too! We'll be going back regularly.

Lovely food and really friendly, polite staff.

Was underwhelmed by the food - lacked finesse although the cooking of the game meats was great. Restaurant lacked atmosphere.

Excellent food ( v good menu) and very good service. Will call again when back up. Please visit you won't be disappointed...

Had a lovely time at that this wonderful, traditional pub. Staff were very friendly and helpful. We took the in-laws dog with us and it all worked out brilliantly. The breakfast was superb, so well organised and a wide selection of food to cater for all. Opposite the Black Bull is a super little business called The Chocolate Box, super friendly and an Aladdins cave for those with a sweet tooth. Back to the Black Bull, thank you for looking after us so, well, we will definitely be returning!!

Lovely place. Nice food. Friendly and helpful staff. Highly recommended

We had a dog-friendly table in the bar. Fabulous in every way. Friendly efficient staff, varied menu and top quality food.

Great service, food came hot and within 10 minutes of ordering. I would recommend the venison pie, meat is sourced locally and is delicious. Fish and chips are also huge and with chunky homecooked chips. Very cosy atmosphere inside and you can even bring your dogs in as long as you eat in the bar area. Will be returning to try the burger.

Beautiful pub in a picturesque location. Room are decorated to a very high standard, are clean and well equipped with tea making facilities, TV, shower, iron etc. The food is unbelievable. Every dish on the menu looks delicious, and over our two nights there, we got to enjoy four of the dishes and four breakfasts. Hand on heart, each and every meal was above expectation (and we have high expectations). Best part of our entire experience were the lovely staff. Nothings better than to hear happy staff. Loved to hear the chuckles from the kitchen in a morning. Keep doing what you're doing guys n gals, because it's working.... with bells on. 👌

Absolutely disgusting the serves was awful I would avoid this place at all costs !

Most unexpected find only 5 mikes away from us. Nice atmosphere, willing, smiley staff, delicious food. That only criticism is that the tables for two were too close to each other. Yummy cheese soufflé.

We had the venison pie, fantastic choice. Tons of succulent meat, super tender. My wife had some lush white wine. Booking is a must, it does get very busy.

We visited the Black Bull on Sunday and had the Sunday lunch. It was delicious, a good portion of meat which was so tender, and a good selection of veg. We booked again for yesterday, it didn't disappoint. I had the venison dish and my husband had the pork loin dish, both of which were beautifully presented and tasted divine. Very high end and excellent chefs. All the staff were very accommodating, nothing was too much trouble. They even brought our dog a bowl of water (dogs are allowed in the bar area). We shall definitely eat there again if we're in the area.👍

Very nice welcome from the staff at this picturesque village inn. We found the menu really interesting. The lamb loin was beautifully presented, tasted superb and the 10 oz ribeye steak was cooked exactly as requested. We’d love to return and have an overnight stay. It’s such a pretty location.

Poor service and poor food. Very disappointed.

Always lovely food and good service. Generous portions and home cooked in a lovely atmosphere. Highly recommend.

We were very happy with our stay at this friendly and welcoming inn. The room was tastefully decorated and very comfortable. Dinner was excellent - especially the venison carpaccio . There was an excellent selection at breakfast and the hot dishes were freshly cooked. We hope to return.

A bit disorganised and pretentious menu. This is a nice setting but the main member of staff was overstretched and a bit flustered. The others were very young and inexperienced. The menu was overly pretentious for the type of place it was. I had the pie, which was meant to be steak and Guiness, there may have been Guiness in the building but not in the pie, and I had to chase the steak around the gravy until I found it! The veg was good though, and it was at least proper mash! As the place quietened down it was notable the service improved.

This place is unbelievable, what a find in this lovely little village. The food is out of this world. I had the lamb, which I didn't want to end!!! The flavours on the plate were so good. My wife had the venison and described it as the best venison dish she had ever had. The place is lovely and plenty of outsid3 space too. Staff are all fantastic, so friendly, can't wait to come back and try something else of their menu. We both agreed, if we had this quality of food back home, it would be twice the price!!!

Wow! The menu is top class. Excellent food, service and atmosphere. Very reasonably priced. An extensive choice of drinks.

Had an evening meal here. The venison dish was beautiful and the kids meals were decent. A bit pricey, especially the desserts, but the food is high quality

Excellent food, beautiful rooms, lovely staff... definitely recommend this place.

We called in for a meal , the food was amazing and the service was excellent. Will definitely call again .

We stayed the night and had evening meal/breakfast during our stay while walking St Cuthbert's Way. Service, comfort and food were wonderful - thoroughly recommended!

Rural location, large car park, easy access, very friendly helpful staff who were nice to chat to and were knowledgable about their food, comfortable seating, menu that was so interesting that we wanted it all. We returned two days later it was so good! The food and drinks were reasonably priced, we did not have to wait for service, they had some nice beers and wines, we were not rushed. All in all, a great place. We sat inside the first night and outside the second. Outside there was a heater on a timer so you could press for a quick blast of heat if you needed it. Highly recommended.

We stayed at the Black Bull July 2024 as a base for exploring the Northumberland Coast before heading to Scotland. This hotel is such a hidden gem - the rooms are immaculate, beautifully decorated to a really high standard. We booked for dinner as well which was incredible I highly recommend booking! The staff were brilliant and extremely attentive. We will 100% be back 😊

Lovely old pub, serving good food, we had not made a booking and were placed in a separate room, which lovely and quiet, staff attentive.

Overnight stay. The staff were welcoming and attentive. The room was comfortable and very clean. Food was good. Only let down was the amount of noise around the room overnight and early morning, from the car park and other guests in the adjacent rooms.

Been twice. Horrible unwelcoming place, tasteless food, interfering staff, jamming everyone together like fish in an empty room, horrible place right next to a busy road, unpleasant all round.

Really good food, but they started to clear the table when people were still eating. rude!

A really high-end gastro Pub experience. I had the venison and my wife had the partridge. Both were excellent as were the desserts. Range of beers was also good. Lovely little village location recommended to us by our host at the nearby B&B broomhouse Farmhouse

Great service, very nice food and dog friendly.

What a great shame, superb rooms and good food completely ruined by excessive music and bar noise during after hours drinking despite 2 requests to cease. Final plea at 1.30 am eventually worked. Never stay here again.

Following a delightful dinner we booked again 2 days later and they were equally excellent. Lovely old country pub which is dog friendly in the bar area. Highly recommended

Great place for a get together, rooms and food

Stayed here three nights, the room was lovely and comfortable. Breakfast was excellent and great choice. Only had one evening meal, it was disappointing so ate elsewhere for the rest of our stay. Sadly the pub itself has been renovated to the "copy and paste" style, which is so popular everywhere, therefore the pub has no character of its own.

The food is excellent. The service was very good too.

We had an excellent meal on the 17th of May, so good we went back for Sunday lunch,good location, great staff,superb food.

We visited The Black Bull on Friday night 17th May, meet by very friendly staff, the food , steak and ale pie, slow roasted Belly pork, which was nice and crispy, and a lovely fish dish, was superb, the desserts were out of this world. So much so we all went back for Sunday lunch, staff and service, food excellent, well worth the visit, we will be putting this pub on our favourite list, definitely be back, and you are not rushed. The idea of the loyalty card for diners is a brilliant idea Well worth the visit Jayne,Peter mckeegan and Rosie Carney All from cheshire

Recommended by friends who have stayed here. Weekday dinner.... burger and specials venison pie very nice. Good service Only negative was the duck breast wasn't available after ordering. Unfortunately the bill charged us for four meals instead of three as they hadn't removed the duck breast!!

Great place, high quality food 👌

Had Sunday lunch it was delicious. Excellent service and value for money.

Not fine dining, but certainly refined. Lovely atmosphere, lovely food, great service Thanks so much for a lovely meal!

Lovely meal, great gluten free options. Friendly service. The use of local ingredients was brilliant. Will be back when next in the area

The food, the service were all fantastic. In terms of local food, it doesn't get much better. Our experience from start to finish was fantastic. From the presentation of the plates both starter and main course couldn't have got any better. Me and my partner will be booking for food here for many occasions to come. Thanks Black Bull staff great experience!!

The Black Bull Inn - absolutely lovely! The room - clean, tidy, well decorated. Upkeep is really good. Facilities and amenities excellent. Super kind bed in Room 5. Breakfast menu excellent (and not too big), quality is great too. The bar and pub areas also look very well done and inviting, we shall be making use of them. The staff have been very inviting and pleasant when interacting with them. No reason so far to not say this is one of the nicest places I've stayed in while travelling around.

Very friendly. Lovely food, would highly recommend the steak & ale pie.

If you are in the area HIGHLY recommend this restaurant. Food is AMAZING, service was amazing. They accommodated out part of 8 which included two children kindly, and graciously. We stayed in the area for 3 weeks and went there three times.

Great meal once again , not the cheapest but great quality. Went for shredded duck starter which came with asparagus voloute which i hate so asked without, the chef offered a red wine sauce instead which was fantastic. Game goujons for main , hubby had pork belly both excellent. Wine wax £29, cheapest was about £20 .. again on the high side but we come here as a treat so didnt mind. Serving staff attentive and friendly. Full deserves its good reputation.

Have driven by hundreds of times and decided we should try the food as a lot of restaurants in the area have lowered their standards i think because of the deluge of tourists in recent times. All i can say is wow the food was delicious and service excellent. We started with a shared plate of game gourjons and my entre was venison liver plus and my wife had venison carpaccio. They don't skimp on the portions and excellent quality.

Visited on a Tuesday night, my wife had the Stone Bass which she enjoyed. I went for the fish and chips. The chips were rock hard and inedible. No one came to check on us so I had to go looking for a member of staff who just said “I’ll do you some more” . After a few minutes passed a more acceptable plate of chips arrived on to which I had to transfer my half eaten fish. By this time my wife had almost finished her meal. No discount offered when the bill came. Poor, would not return.

Lovely lunch, good value, friendly staff, Beef and chicken were perfect and Sunday lunch had all the trimmings 😊

Gorgeous food. Thoroughly enjoyed our meal couldn't fault it. Made our 50th wedding anniversary special

Lovely little pub, excellent food, excellent beer. Will be back!! I had the venison and red wine pie, my partner had the steak and ale pie, shared a sticky toffee pudding for dessert! Staff are friendly, polite and welcomming!

Abysmal if you're vegetarian. You're either reduced to ordering a few starters or accepting the vegan burger. No other mains are veggie despite a kitchen stuffed with veg. Had sea bass and it was very tasty. Arancini good but prob only needs tomato sauce. Pesto sauce is too rich for an already rich dish. Friendly, warm and welcoming and comfy. Dogs are thankfully confined to the bar. My seven year old son says he wished the music was more relaxing than upbeat dance tunes 😄

This place looks lovely from the outside and upon entering are greeted enthusiastically by the lovely staff . Menu is rather limited and doesn’t serve pasta on a Sunday , it’s also not on the kids menu which was a bit unfortunate for the young person with us as they only really like pasta ! However Sunday lunch had the potential to be great but sadly the beef was just a portion of fatty gristle with hardly any beef to be seen , the veg was perfect and perfectly edible as was the huge Yorkshire pudding . Complaining didn’t get me anywhere either the waitress just said that she wouldn’t have eaten it either ! Hence there probably won’t be a return trip .

Our 'welcome' was not overly friendly but the property has been modernised with newly refurbished and tasteful rooms. Also very clean. Lots of accessible power points in room and generous tea & coffee supplies plus free bottles of water. Room would benefit from coat hooks behind door, and somewhere to put toiletries in bathroom. Also a proper chair would be more useful than a stool. Cooked breakfasts are ordered off a menu with decent choices made to order. Pastries and fruit to have with yoghurt would improve the offering. Very comfortable stay.

Absolutely excellent meal - in fact the best of our stay in the Lowick area! I particularly enjoyed the game goujons starter and both of us liked the belly pork main course. The cheese board comes in one size....huge ...with an excellent range of local cheeses. We needed to take the remains of the cheese home - enough for lunch for two!

This is probably the best pub meal I’ve ever had. We visited twice and ate different things and enjoyed everything. We had the pie which was delicious and the vegetables were so fresh and a great variety, roasted cauliflower and broccoli in particular. It might seem odd to rave about such things, but normally the vegetables are just mush or nonexistent and these were so good. Staff members were really friendly and obliging, everything clean and tidy, what a find this was. I highly recommend you try this place out.

Booked Sunday lunch for 3 people. Food mass produced, beef like shoe leather did not eat it. Mentioned to the waiter who said it must have been a bad batch! No recompense whatsoever. I Had also booked for the following evening at the same time but cancelled in view of the terrible food. Would never return.

Came upon this place at 15:30 on a Sunday afternoon. My son and I had a roast beef with all the trimmings, his was dairy free so no yorkshire pudding for him) and my wife had fish and chips. All the meals were delicious and no complaints about the variation and quantity of the vegetables. Highly recommended.

Family get away for a few days, we had lunch there in 2019 and remembered the food was great. Stayed in the Till and parents in Alnwick rooms. Great breakfast and evening meals. We left a kindle there, the staff duly contacted us and packaged...

Excellent Sunday lunch, best place I have been to for a long while. Roast dinner was great, lots of food and lovely. Desert was superb as well. People were so friendly and service top quality. Cannot wait to go back!

Had a lovely birthday meal. I am coeliac and there were plenty of gluten free options. The waiting staff had a good knowledge of gluten free food and were really friendly. The food was lovely. Both myself and the birthday boy really enjoyed our food.......

Excellent food, we had venison pie which was really good followed by chocolate millionaire tart, very good food and service

Apart from a mix up with our table when we walked in (which was my fault) the food and service were first class. Best fish and chips l've ever had! My partner had the burger -which he loved. After a mix up with sitting inside/outside...

Spent three nights here whilst travelling around Northumberland. Room was very clean and spacious. Breakfast was very good with plenty of choice.

Great Sunday roast, and very comfortable good friendly atmosphere . The lighter portions were more than enough, no waste.

Absolutely 100% brilliant experience at this hotel. Staff excellent, great range of beers and well kept, decor very very good and our bedroom, Alnwick, was first class. Very glean and tidy , great bed and bathroom, with a lovely shower. However even better than all...

Down in the area on holiday and was recommended it through a friend. Delighted we visited. Very welcoming, clean and well laid out. Had the pie of the week which was venison pie. Absolute dynamite, great portion sizes, and very reasonably priced. Would recommend this...

Beautiful bar restaurant. Spotless clean. Amazing food and excellent service. Staff could not be more welcoming and friendly. Thank you to all staff kitchen, waiting and bar staff you are all fabulous 👌

Food was amazing. Top quality. Best meal we’ve had for months! We had meat sharing platter followed by veg curry and pie of the day. Absolutely gorgeous food and great portions. House red was also fab. Highly recommended so make sure you book!

Just visited whilst staying in the local area. I had seabass with a chickpea and chorizo stew, parminter potatoes and pea puree. Was fabulous. Partner had the burger with fries....lovely! Recommend a visit if you are nearby!

First night of a holiday in the local area, and positive Trip Advisor recommendations pointed us in the direction of the Black Bull Inn. On a very busy and hot Friday evening we wondered if it would be OK, but an inside table had been...

The food, service and vibe of this place was great and all at a great price for the meal would visit here again given the chance

Mixed in every way. Service from the young blond lady was very good and highly efficient. What spoilt things to a degree was other staff running very fast by our table! The venison burger was tasty, although a little dry. Chips were lovely. Really tasty....

We’ve been to the restaurant a few times now and the food is always consistently very good. There is also a very good kids menu. Definitely worth a visit.

Beautiful, spotless and recently refurbished room. The food was excellent. I recommend the crab crumpet starter! A great base for exploring this beautiful part of the world.

We were allocated a small double room but it certainly didn’t feel small. The room was well equipped and spotlessly clean. The bar was lively and welcoming and the food was excellent. The only disappointment was that we only stayed one night.

This is a popular pub with some outdoor seating. We had a drink outside and then went in as we had booked a table. We shared our starters, which were the game goujons and venison mince tacos. It was hard to tell what the meat...

Dog friendly pub, lovely setting, nice friendly staff who made us feel very welcome. The pub decor was immaculate and facilities were spotless. My husband had a Sunday dinner which he really enjoyed and I had the best fish I have ever tasted, would definitely...

Great evening meal. Welcoming service from the start. Great menu. Expertly presented. Thoroughly enjoyed this meal. We had three courses, venison tacos, chilli halloumi, roasted hare loin, burger, lemon meringue, rhubarb and fruits fool. No complaints. Would love to revisit.

Fabulous stay, all staff very friendly. A very comfortable and spotless bedroom. Breakfast and evening meal was excellent. Would definitely come again.

We were stopping at a wonderful little cottage in the village of Lowick and had seen that this was one of the two local hostelries in the village. The pub, which has a restaurant as well as accommodation is situated at the far end of...

Excellent food and great staff , excellent value for money . The food was delicious snd good choice

Good value, excellent value. Spotless rooms And Great staff would stay again. Everything looked brand new

The pub looks very nice from the outside and will look even better once the new paving is complete. Inside is nicely presented and warm and welcoming. The food was ok but for some reason I was expecting better. £10 for a crab butter crumpet...

Had an evening meal here on arriving for a weeks holiday. Nice warm welcome in modernised pub with accommodation. We were staying the other end of the village. Can recommend the seared pigeon breast with red cabbage and mash! Dogs allowed in bar area. So...

Food was really nice. Staff were really friendly and helpful with allergies. Would definitely return.

What a fantastic stay I had at the Black Bull Inn . My room was lovely and to a very high standard . The staff were very friendly helpful and very attentive the food was lovely and as I wasn’t staying for breakfast the made...

I booked this place at the last minute and was not disappointed. Our room was comfortable and decorated to a high standard. The Inn itself looked as though it had recently been refurbished. It has a cosy ambience with several rooms and a log burner....

My husband and I have just returned from a relaxing weekend at the Black Bull. Our room was spotlessly clean and very comfortable, food was perfect and service was brilliant! We will definitely be back.

We booked for three nights over New Year. Unfortunately we had to terminate our stay after one night due to a family bereavement. To my surprise and without being asked for, we received a full refund for the two nights we did not stay. This...

Just eaten an excellent dinner. Our main courses were beautifully cooked venison and extremely well executed fish and chips, followed by a very fine white chocolate and raspberry tart which somehow escaped over- sweetness. Friendly staff and comfortable dining area. We live locally and this...

Stayed for one night after seeing it on a previous visit nearby. Absolutely fantastic. Rooms really nice, spotless, comfortable and well appointed. Bar/restaurant areas really clean and comfortable. Breakfast was freshly cooked and really tasty. Staff were fab. Thank you. We will definitely be back

What a fantastic place! Lovely pub with rooms. Really warm welcome from all of the staff. Very smart rooms with lovely furnishings. Very clean. Excellent food with an amazing cheeseboard! We stayed here as a stopover before heading on up to Edinburgh. Will definitely stay...

We had a wonderful family dinner here in August while on holiday nearby, so when I needed somewhere to break my drive from Edinburgh to Leeds it was the perfect place. My meal in August was delicious venison and mash. The hotel rooms were just...

A perfect country inn in the north in a perfect setting (Lowick). Excellent service delivered in a very tastefully decorated accommodation. Sue and her team run a very tight ship. Lots of locals in the pub. Not much else to say; fabulous.

Can’t fault this place , definitely be back, staff are friendly , rooms are clean , Great breakfast selection , Adding few pictures , while there got to visit twizle castle / twizle bridge & a boat tour got to see dolphins :) So lot...

The Black Bull ticked lots of boxes and should have been a 4 or 5 star overnight stay for our group of 4. The food was excellent and the rooms were very comfortable. However, it was disappointing that the wood burner could not be lit...