The Bull Inn, Olney

From the outside this looks to be a fairly run of the mill boozer, located in the centre of Olney opposite the Market Square. Once inside though, although it retains a pubby ambience, it was somewhat smarter than I had expected presumably having had a sympathetic refurbishment at some point and some thought and consideration has been put in to the food offering, although this is by no means a gastro-pub and still appears to focus on the drinkers at least as much as the diners. Service at the bar was a little haphazard with only one person serving most of the time and some punters paying for food with a card and such like. The pub consists of there parallel rooms all running back from the street towards the rear or the pub as well as a courtyard garden at the rear. Décor is similar throughout with a mixture of whitewashed stone walls and khaki green paintwork. Some of this looks as though it may have been painted over previous timber walling which would be a shame. A wood strip floor leads to the bar counter which runs along the back wall and there were some attractive mottled tiles on the floor in front of this as well as a few old beams on the ceilings. The central room could be considered the main drinking area and this consisted of pale cream tiles on the floor and a (khaki green) fire-place to one side. At this time of the year this contained just a couple of candles, but I assume it may be used in the colder weather. There wasn’t a massive amount of seating here though, with some high tables and chairs at the rear and a few comfy seats and a leather sofa in the bay window as well as a few decorative scatter cushions. The room to the right was more geared up for dining with all the tables being laid up for food and there was also a large stone fire-place in here with a wood burning stove. The room to the left was quite narrow and perhaps more of a snug with (khaki green again) bench seating all along one wall with plenty more scatter cushions. Food wise, the menu was perhaps a step or two up from your usual “pub grub” but certainly nothing too out of the way. The menu was divided in to sections such as From the Stove, From the Grill and Pizzas. It included a number of traditional pub dishes such as half a roast chicken, pie of the day, Thai green curry, fish & chips, etc., and these were mostly priced in the £10 - £12 range. My Smoked Haddock & Salmon Fishcakes with wilted greens, runny free-range egg and wholegrain mustard cream was a decent and tasty dish, a generous portion and nicely presented. Beers on tap were Eagle IPA, Bombardier Burning Gold and Directors. A fourth pump appeared unused and the solitary cider was Aspall’s Suffolk.