The Bull Barkham — Restaurant in England

Such a disappointing first (out of lockdown) experience.

We had to wait 10 mins to be seated when we had a reservation for 14:30! Didn't see a waiter until 15:00pm (after asking three in that 20 mins if we could order drinks and being flat out ignored) drinks arrived, tried to order food at the same time and the waiter replied "I'll be back in 5" (turned out to be another 15mins) eventually managed to ordered food. My partner's arrived with only a knife for cutlery, and missing her chips, we waited a further 5/10mins before a waiter appeared, we asked for a fork and explained were still waiting on the chips! My food was stone cold and had zero cutlery so I sent it back....10 mins later my food arrived and had clearly been reheated, my partner ate with her hands as she still had no cutlery, then we had a beautifully presented plate of sachet sauces handed to us and a fork half way through our meal.

I think we must have had 7 maybe 8 apologies all of which were half hearted throughout the whole experience.

When I mentioned to who I can only assume to be the head waiter we'd been here 30mins and had no one ask us for drinks he replied with "I've been here 5hrs"....We should have just got up and left then.

Such a shame as we were both looking forward to our first dinning/pub experience after the pubs reopened and this pub being just down the road from us has been on our list of places to support locally.

Safe to say we won't be...

As it was a Monday evening in late September, I was the only customer in The Bull in Barkham at 7:10pm. It was my first visit and it would be nice to try the place on a busier night. For a deceptively large pub the comfort and ambiance needs some attention and the lighting is far too bright in the cramped and uncomfortable window bays. Weirdly 3 random tables had knives and forks laid on them with no reserved signage. The pint of Rebellion beer was perfectly served and the packet of crisps were very good quality. Its a good job I like cheese 🧀 as this was the only flavour on offer. It was quite expensive at £6.10 for the lot (maybe I'm out of touch on beer prices?). My server had a distant, unapproachable and cold demeanour. Seemed more interested in his phone than engaging me, may have been due to language issues as I picked up an accent. The menu here is a hodge podge of cuisines with English classic pub grub, Greek and Thai influences mixed in. The entrees are quite expensive too, I'd say inflation has definitely been felt in this pub. I hope the quality lives up to the price to be paid, maybe the situation of the pub vs affluent customers may be a factor. Though the temporary closure of the Bull at Arborfield could be a reason with the nearest competition from the Lether Bottle pub being a decent drive away. Will be back to try...

Overall a nice friendly pub with lots of outdoor space. The food menu is quite substantial covering typical bar food, Thai as well as Greek which makes it quite difficult to pick what to eat. The food in general was just about okay, I think the Thai is probably is your best bet. The fish and chips and the burgers were quite average so I'd recommend to give them a miss. The fried squid is very disappointing to look at but tasted better than it looked. The kids fish fingers looked like out of a frozen birds eye box which is a bit disappointing as you're paying £9 for a kids meal. The pricing is a lot higher than similar central London Thai pubs which to me is a bit shocking tbh. I don't think I see myself going back...