Black Bull Inn at Brookhouse — Restaurant in Lancaster

We had booked to meet a friend who lives down the road from the pub for Sunday lunch.

Upon entering I noticed that the towels were on all three beer pumps, upon asking if there was any beer, the young man behind the bar informed me that there was not.

The second young man obviously had a streaming cold, continually wiping his running nose with either the back of his hand or in the collar of his T-shirt.

My wife wanted to leave immediately (she is a nurse and hygiene comes first) But we stayed after informing the young man with the cold (politely) to wash his hands and that we didn’t want him to serve our drinks.

No beer so I opted for tap Guinness, my wife asked for a glass of Shiraz, it was obvious the young man had no idea what that was, I said ‘it’s red wine’ he said. ‘We only have these’ and one by one pulled out just three options, none of which he could either read of pronounce. We opted for the Cabernet Sauvignon, which he completely gave up on trying to say, and was the only one of the three bottles with more than a glass left in!

All this time his nose was running and he was serving drinks, I did say to him, you shouldn’t be here, you should go home to bed, ‘I know he replied’

We ordered dinner, all three Sunday beef roast, two well done and one rare. When they arrived I was sort of taken aback. Mine looked rare and okay, the other two well done. But the Yorkshire puddings were flat, mine was even floppy, not even risen. The beef (although looking nice) was tough, and it might of helped if the knives had been sharp. It was a very amateurish attempt at cooking Sunday dinner.

One young lad came over and asked is there anything you would like, I asked for another pint of Guinness, oh sorry, the barrel is off now, he replied.

I have to be totally honest, it is the worst Sunday roast I have ever had in a pub, and no beer, a young chap with his nose dripping…

Not a...

One completely ruined 81st birthday celebration.

My youngest son and I decided to take my wife out on her birthday for a nice surprise celebratory meal and we decided on the Black Bull because I had taken her there for lunch previously and they had a good vegetarian menu - my son is vegetarian.

On the last occasion we visited I booked a 12:30 lunch time slot via the on-line portal so did the same this time but for three people. We received a confirmation email confirming the booking and on th13th a further email saying how much they were looking forward to seeing us the next day. On the morning my son contacted me to say his two children had not been able to go to school so he would be bringing them - making the party five - which would be an even bigger surprise.

My wife and I arrived at 12:20 to find the premises in darkness and closed. I rang them and asked if they were open when a lady informed me that they did not open until 3;30 pm. i explained that we had booked lunch on-line, received confirmation and a reminder to which I was informed that the page should have updated itself. I explained again that my son was in transit with his two children and this was for my wife's 81st birthday to which I had repeated to me the mantra that we don't open until 3:30.

We were left to stand in the street trying to sort out a venue for a birthday lunch at 12:45 after being completely left in the lurch and receiving over the telephone a response which can best be summed up by the pseudo Latin phrase 'Nonnus Tossus'.

Will we be returning? The second word to this...

Firstly I was driving so wanted a fresh orange juice no this pub has no orange juice, anyway settled for an apple juice and ordered two meals. The lady came across with the cutlery and just about threw it onto the table in our direction. The two meals came they were not served to us more like thrown onto the table. The hunters chicken was in a ramekin and the sauce looked like it had just been chucked in and the side salad looked like it had been sat in a hot room for a day it was that limp and uninviting. I ordered the sirloin steak medium cooked but on cutting into it I've seen a better colour and consistency on a pork chop. After this I really didn't want to eat the rest of the meal so just payed and left. Maybe if the host was as interested in customer service and less of believing us a hinderence to her time the meal might have been a bit more bearable, personally I would...