The Black Bull Inn

Although the food was mediocre, the service we experienced was far from satisfactory. We waited just over 2 hours for our main course to be served and 30 minutes for our drinks. Overpriced food and unfortunately we don’t be returning. When paying £160+ we did expect more from this restaurant.

An amazing stay over three nights in beautiful rooms with delicious, exciting food and friendly, enthusiastic staff. We loved the Father John Misty heavy playlist in the restaurant and the superb tasting menu. The wines were all awesome and the lakes gin and tonics set the evenings off beautifully. We had a refreshing, bracing trot up Winder Fell in the tail end of Storm Kathleen. Would definitely recommend this wonderful spot and will definitely be back 😊

For the last few years, the Black Bull at Sedbergh has been our go-to place for special meal, and we have been delighted to take friends there.. But has it changed hands??? Sadly, tonight’s visit was very disappointing indeed. We invited family members, expecting to treat them to a special night out, and I ended up mortified and apologising profusely to them. I booked well in advance, and it was not busy, but when we arrived the head waiter did not even offer a greeting, let alone a warm welcome - a brusque “Follow me” to our table was all. The service overall was very poor from start to finish, we had to ask for cutlery and salt and pepper, the wrong drink was brought. The food we had - I have to say for the chef’s sake - was delicious. Then we were looking forward to dessert, having only ordered small plates to leave room for it - but first it took about 15-20 minutes for the dessert menu even to be brought to us after we hadasked for it. We ordered, and 20 minutes later, it still hadn’t arrived. When we asked what was happening, we were told it would be another 9 minutes as it took 25 minutes to cook. We weren’t sure if the order had actually been put through to the kitchen when we first made it, as the waitress had forgotten to bring the menu in the first place. (A) Why was the length of cooking time not mentioned on the menu? (B) Why wasn’t it mentioned by the waitress when we were ordering (especially after she’d forgotten to bring us the menu)? We decided to skip it and leave. The sour head waiter had the grace to take the service charge off our bill, but it ruined our evening. I notice other recent reviews are also far worse than I’ve come to expect from the Black Bull. I won’t be coming back in a hurry.

The service in the restaurant was sub-standard and when we did get served, we had two pies (£19 each) that had so much salt, you were unable to taste the pie itself. My wife had the only vegetarian option, consisting of a small piece of cabbage (heavily seasoned with chili) and two small pieces of potato (cubed) for that to say the least we're horrid. On a positive front, the local beer was good

Stopped her for one night on the Dinner B and B deal. Service was exemplary, they let us check in early to a lovely room and we had a tasty snack lunch. Dinner was excellent. We had the 7 course tasting menu and a bottle of wine. The two young waitresses couldn't do enough to help. This is why I have to comment on the 1 star review by Helen C . We had the misfortune to sit next to this elderly foursome at dinner. They moaned from the start and sent the waitress away the first time she came to take the order. It took them ages to decide and one of them said 'I'm not sharing anything - what I order I want for myself' In her review she compliments the delicious food, and if a couple of minor services issues and a delayed dessert justify a one star review after the highly professional head waiter knocked off their service charge, then God help them when they encounter a genuinely poor establishment. This is a fabulous little hotel and restaurant. We will be back.

Very disappointing, we had lunch 2x of the beef brisket burger and it was truly awful. The beef taste as if it was dry-aged meaning the meat was beyond its use by date (it was no advertised as dry-aged on the menu). I took one bite and was almost sick in the restaurant due to the taste and strong smell, I then ordered the soup which taste shop bought (it wasn’t advertised as homemade) but I presumed it would be homemade as soup isn’t too difficult to make fresh. Please don’t waste your money, our lunch was £60 and we will not be returning. Only positive is that staff did were friendly and polite. The restroom area was also very clean and tidy.

Dreadful establishment Over priced, unfriendly, Time consuming, Deco, mediocre. all the worst features of something that’s just POOR. Please be open minded, but I find it hard to say anything positive about the place. Admittedly we just went for drinks, but, personally, I would not eat or stay overnight. Not a chance, plenty of superior venues out there.

Second visit and not anything as good as first visit . Very poor welcome front of house.Very expensive . Lamb and beef excellent but very little gravy but veg poor and three roast potatoes for £3.50. Glass of champagne flat and sent back. We hoped on first visit we had found somewhere for regular visits but maybe not.

Don't expect basic/a little better food and service - you are paying slightly more than that and it's worth every penny. Front of house staff are pleasant and attentive without being intrusive and they are happy to go off and find the answer to any food and wine query you may have. As it should be but so often isn't. The maitre d ' has a very dry sense of humour and is an avid forager , so you may find unusual fungi and herbs in the menu descriptions. If a dish includes wild garlic , go for it! I'm not going to review the entire menu , but after five visits we have had some wonderful food and we have found that it pays to be adventurous. Chef isn't one for pub grub and it's all the better for it, but fear not if a trad Sunday lunch is your thing- you can have this too and it's just as good. There's a very comprehensive wine and cocktail list and you could go budget to stratospheric but even our forays into the lower end of the list have provided some surprisingly tasty examples.The MD is your friend here too. I hope this doesn't come across as too gushing a review. It is honest ,and we've waited a year to post it. Grand place.