The Bull Highgate
There's not much to do in Highgate on the best of days, but at least when the sun shines on a Saturday you can lounge in the park, or sit outside a pub in the sun. When it pours with rain and grey skies loom large you can either stay in, go somewhere else in London where there's more to do, or simply sit inside a pub all afternoon. Being hungry and wanting booze, but also lazy and a bit end-of-the-month skint we went for option three, and chose The Bull just because we'd had an amazing roast dinner there one Sunday many moons ago.
Things have changed since we were last here, or maybe pubs like this are only magical on frosty Highgate Sundays when the fire is on and you are having a roast. The place was empty, but that didn't stop the staff completely ignoring us and making us work to get their attention every bloody time we wanted something. A delicious glass of prosecco cheered me up though, and my chums went for red wine and Camden Pale Ale.
The Saturday lunch menu appealed to the meat eaters in the crew, whereas I sulked at the two measley vegetarian options, one of which was polenta cake. This menu was obviously devised by an unsympathetic meat eater, laughing cruely at vegetarians. I ordered a cheese board for a starter because the only veggie starter was soup, and no one wants soup on a muggy day in late May. I was helped out by a friend who hadn't ordered a starter, and she ate the gross mouldy cheese, and the stinky manure one (Stinking Bishop?). The goats cheese and cheddar were scrummy.
I totally forgot to take a photo of our mains until it was too late and our plates were mere mangled leftovers. So, you'll have to believe me when I say my friend got given the tiniest, gristley bit of rump steak ever, and my other lunch companion had a very bloody burger (which she was happy about. Weirdo). I had chips, we all did in fact, and agreed they were actually really nice for pub chips. Then we had warm banana bread with salted caramel ice cream. The cake was delicious, the ice cream just tasted of vanilla, and probably was. I think chocolate would have been a much better pairing with this cake. We enjoyed watching the rain and the people go by, which is just as well, as the service is so slow we weren't going anywhere in a hurry. If you don't mind bad service and average food, this is quite a nice pub. It's not the best for vegetarians, but on Sundays they do a nut roast - well, they used to. Maybe now they just do bad attitude and polenta cake and tumbleweeds blowing by.