The White Bull — Restaurant in Ribble Valley

My wife, son and I had a meal here which was frankly appaling. First of all it was midweek and the two girls behind the bar spent more time away from it than behind it. No hint of table service so I had to hang around at the bar waiting for someone to take my food order. As for the food, when it finally arrived after a long wait (they weren't exactly rushed off their feet), my black pudding Scotch Egg was barely cooked with hardly any black pudding encasing the egg, instead it was wrapped in a sort of grey tasteless 'sausage' meat. At least I think it was sausage meat. The white of the egg was undercooked as well, however miraculously the 'chef' had domehow managed to leave a snotty white with a bullet hard yolk. Quite a culinary feat. As it was barely cooked I nervously picked at it for a few minutes before giving up. My wife and son both had Gambas Pil Pil which, if authentically Spanish, would come to the table sizzling. They didn't, the prawns just sat in a pool of, well, some sort of congealed oil and looked alarmingly anemic for seafood. If a cooked prawn could look depressed with its lot in life, this was it. The mains were even more astoundingly bad. My son had prawn and chorizo linguine which had basically been drowned in that cheap sweet chilli sauce you get in a bottle, note to the 'chef' - its a dipping sauce not a pasta sauce. It was frankly too spicy and sickly sweet and he left most of it. My wife had Tacos which whilst bland, were edible. I, on the other hand, had what was laughingly referred to as a rib eye steak. What they had done to it is beyond me. It was on the menu as 40 day dry aged in Himalayan sea salt, no doubt in their own front and centre dry ageing fridge which 'greets' you as you walk into the pub. What turned up at the table was anything but, because I know aged beef when I see it. Grey, tasteless, with a big chunk of unrendered fat in the middle, it looked and tasted like it had been boiled rather than pan fried or grilled. In fact it reminded me of a particularly traumatic episode from my childhood with some boiled rashers of bacon I once had in a backstreet greasy spoon in Blackpool about 40 years ago. Any half decent chef would have been ashamed to let it leave the kitchen, I would have been ashamed to serve it to my guests at home and I'm certainly no chef, although I know how to cook a steak. Accompanying this sad excuse for a £25 steak, were oven chips more akin to cardboard than potato, a barely cooked tomato and a mushroom. Needless to say none of us finished our mains, and decided against ordering desert. To the credit of the young girl behind the bar, when I went to pay she asked if the food was ok. I think she could tell by my demeanor it hadnt been. When I gave her a long list of faults with the food she apologised and knocked the steak off the bill as well as a couple of drinks. Not enough under the circumstances, but by this point my wife and son had left to bring the car round and I really just wanted to get out of there. I tried to be nice and acknowledged it wasn't her doing the cooking, as she kept apologising and looked horrified. This didn't make up for the disappointment of the whole experience though, particularly my son who was still hungry and as brassed off as his parents. The whole experience was shockingly bad. Looking at other reviews, which seem generally mixed, I would only hope our visit was an off night for the kitchen staff, or perhaps they are in-between chefs, because I cannot believe they can be consistently that bad. Even Wetherspoons food is more appetising to be honest. Maybe the Chef trained as 'Spoons ? Who know where he or she trained, maybe that traumatic Blackpool café from my childhood. What I can say is that I'm fairly well travelled and enjoy eating out. I'm not a fussy eater, but I expect a certain standard when paying for a meal and I'm afraid this fell far, far short. We live in a village close by and I can guarantee there are much better dining establishments in the local area, and we will not be returning to...

We didn't book this place! It was a desperate jump.

We'd decided on a quick getaway and booked a static on Park Dean Todber Caravan Park. Without going in to detail, it wasn't compatible with us but the customer services have so far been very good.

Quickly looking for somewhere else to stay, drove the 2 miles to The White Bull.

A very pleasant young man called Miles showed us the available rooms, explaining they were due to be renovated in the ensuing weeks. (Miles explained that they had only recently taken over The White Bull this last 3 or 4 months.) We agreed a room rate and an hour later agreed a 2nd night.

The room is accessed from the car park but there are rooms inside the pub. Our room was a twin, set up for disabled clients.

Let me start with the quirks that need addressing on renovation: The pendant drop lamp is my shoulder height! There is no curtain over the little window which is seen from the car park/beer garden. The bathroom door scrapes badly on the floor. (If that's all you can complain about, life's not that bad!) The beds are comfortable. Complimentary bottled water as well as tea/coffee etc. The shower is open (for disabled clients) so plenty of room for me. The shower itself is electric but it's powerful enough.

Breakfast, Friday morning, we were directed across the road to "Delicious Deli & Café" and very good it was too! My wife had a cheesy omlette and I had smoked salmon and scrambled eggs and a pot of tea for two finish the order.

We decided to eat at The White Bull in the evening. Good decision. We ordered a Malbec from the limited but more than adequate wine list. To start, my darlin' had the "Chicken Roulade" and I had the "Bang Bang Prawns" The prawns were cooked well but we both preferred the chicken dish. To mains and I chose the "Lamb Shank" and my darlin' the "Ox Cheek Pie" The lamb was served on mash and pickled red cabbage with carrots decorating the plate. It was delicious. The pie was nice (elongated vowel) and my darlin' says one of the best pies she's ever had!! Apparently, each pie is made and baked upon ordering at the table! They don't come any fresher than that! Finished off with a couple of digestivos.

Saturday morning breakfast, we sat at the same table as the previous evening. I kept mine simple with a bacon & egg butty and my darlin' had eggs Florentine which she enjoyed.

All in all, our desperate leap turned out to be an inspired choice. It'll be interesting to return in a few months to see the renovations.

In summary, great staff, a well kept bar, very enjoyable food and comfortable beds. We'll...

When booking advised I would be arriving at around 5pm and was told last orders at the restaurant was at 8pm, so booked a table for 7:30pm. Room was not in the main building but in the car park and was very cold upon arrival. Just on the room front, its not the best...think of stables and you get the idea. Asked if there was a heating issue only to be told that they will switch it on. Waited. Radiator still cold to the touch. Went to see them again. Asked to wait longer. Waited. I then told them at 6:45 that they have until 7pm or I was going elsewhere. As it happens the radiator started to heat at around 7pm but would take some time to heat the room. The boiler needed topping up. On a cold day, this should have been checked where the room would be warm upon arrival. I had no choice but to shower and get ready in the cold room as I was due for dinner. To be fair, the owner did arrive knock on my door at 7:20pm to say they had upgraded me to a room in the main buidling but I was in the middle of getting ready. I wasn't to pleased as it wasn't the most enjoyable 2hrs sat in the room with my jacket on but decided to give it a go. Made it for dinner which was ok and the staff were great. No issues there. Woke up the next morning for breakfast only to find the main building completely closed. I tried to call, no answer. Messaged the owner on facebook, no answer. Then the chef turned up at 8:20 and he could not get in. He was a tad surprised also but had no answers. Gave it until just before 9am and then grabbed a sandwich from a shop across the road. Even if someone did turn up at 9am, by the time the order would be taken and cooked, it would be much later. Totally unacceptable in my opinion when you have plans for the day. I went about my day and tried several times to reach the owner, who eventually got back to me. The seem to have just shrugged everything off as acceptable which I find incredulous. After pushing -hard- for a partial refund, I was offered £6.95 for the breakfast. Seriously! Told them to keep it and buy an alarm. I definitely would not recommend this place to stay over at. Maybe for a meal but thats about it. Thing is, I tried to help them out by booking directly rather than a cheaper offer for the same place elsehwere on the internet. Big mistake as they could not care less. Given the covid impact on the hospitality industry, we should help where we can. If this place goes down the pan, its not because of covid. It's because of the current owners inablity to run a proper B&B and take care of their...