It is always a busy time here at the Bulls Head, so please do look through the archives to see what has happened month by month since we acquired the Bulls Head back in November 2009

Click here to view the archives

Our menu has a ‘Spring’ in its step…..pardon the Pun!!

The Bulls Head menu changes on 24th March 2011 for the Spring with our famous Game dishes disappearing ‘til the Autumn. We have some interesting replacements with a Free range Packington 12 oz Pork Chop arriving which is grilled and finished with melted mature cheddar and an apple and cider sauce. We also have a new Vegetarian dish of homemade Cauliflower cheese but with a smoked cheese sauce and then broad beans and cherry tomatoes with the local cauliflower. A Lloyd speciality!!

We then have a warm flaked poached salmon salad with a red wine vinegar dressing and finally a real special of slow cooked ‘Ox casserole’ in a rich caramelised port wine sauce with celery, carrot, celeriac and shallots over creamy mash.

Regulars will be pleased to see the return of the pints of prawns as well as half pints too. We also have ‘potted shrimp’ with nutty bread both these are in the ‘nibble and natter’ section of the menu, and in the starters we are making a coarse chicken liver pate, we are cooking portobello mushrooms with cheese and a herb crumb, the pan fried chicken livers are taking on a spring like finish of brandy, cream and leeks. While the ‘hash’ becomes a bubble and squeak hash with hens egg, bacon and a light mustard sauce.

On desserts we have moved the bread and butter to spring with it becoming an orange and white chocolate bread and butter pudding and we are doing a ‘not so traditional’ banana banoffi.

I have also taken £3 off the 1961 vintage port which now sells at £9 a glass to celebrate the year of my birth!! It really is a treat with the cheese board to share!!

At lunch time we have some lighter lunches which is in response to some of our customers with smaller appetites and we have some Cheshire smokehouse baps and some new traditional toasted sandwiches for you to enjoy also for a full look at everything click on ‘food’ and then the relevant menus. Even better pop in and try the new dishes too. As always we look forward to seeing you!!

A Rosado agreed for this summer!!!!

As many visitors to the Bulls Head know, the team are fans of Mallorcan wine and one wine ‘Macia Batle Anada’ has featured as a ‘ship in’ wine for some time by popular demand.

For new readers the Bulls Head features different wines that do not feature on our list and these we call our ‘shipped in’ wines. Do ask what we have available when you next visit.

Tim travelled once again to Mallorca to try wines at several Mallorcan Bodegas, that, if good enough, could feature on our list or as a ‘shipped in’ wine for the summer or the Autumn.

I have to say the trip to Macia Batle was fantastic. We arrived completely unannounced and the service was excellent. The export assistant Olga Smertina was passionate about the wines and took us through the Macia Batle Blanc de Blanc, a fantastic Rosado and then the reds from the Anada to the Crianza to the Reserva. We enjoyed the wines very much and I have to say this is a trip anyone visiting Mallorca, who loves wine, must do!!

We did a tour of the Bodega which is open to anyone from 4.30pm when the Bodega re-opens. All the details are on their website www.maciabatle.com

We have spoken to our wine importer Boutinot and have already agreed to bring the Rosado in for this spring and summer!! A full flavoured deep pink rose that lends itself to both fish, white meat or even red meat because of its full flavour. We hope to ‘ship’ in for the early part of April. We also intend to bring in some of their other wines from time to time as the Crianza and Reserva really were great.

Please enjoy the photos from the Bodega and come and enjoy a Rosado in the sunshine here at the Bulls Head.

 

 

 




National Pie week is here!!!

Here at the Bulls Head we are celebrating ‘National Pie Week’  so please read the details here and come along and enjoy our homemade, handcrafted pies.

Try them with a glass of cask ale as we are featuring new beers from Wincle Brewery, Weetwood Brewery, Woodlands Brewery and Spitting feathers Brewery as well as our now legendary ‘house’ ales, Bulls Head Bitter, Mobberley Wobbly Ale and 1812 Overture Ale.

 

We look forward to seeing you all.

Lloyds Italian week goes down well!!

The smell of spring was in the air as Lloyd and the kitchen team delivered the goods once more with over 150 Italian dishes served through the week with wonderful Italian wines ‘shipped in ‘  by our award winning wine supplier Boutinot!!

The ‘winning’ dishes during the week were the fillet of beef Carpaccio and Franko’s (Smokehouse Franks) cured Proscuitto with mozzarella and honeyed figs and the Lamb Rump with Rosemary and the Veal Cutlets were the top main courses as the tiramisu and the Italian Cheeseboard were the favourite ‘afters’.

Customers did comment that they felt strange eating Italian food in the Bulls Head as we are now famous for our flavoursome, home cooked English favourites but like our ‘Robbie Burns night’ we like to branch out occasionally and celebrate food from further afield. So look out for our ‘Celebrate the bloody French week’ later in the year!!

A big thank you to Lloyd and the rest of the kitchen team for all their hard work during the week.

Blonde Moment is set!!!

Shane and I have now shortlisted the three ‘Blonde’ Ales that will be featured to decide which one has the honour of becoming ‘The Blonde Bull bitter’ for this summer!!

Local micro- breweries were tested and challenged and we believe we have picked the best three for you, our customers, to decide the ‘champion’ blonde ale for the Bulls Head.

The Breweries represented remain secret until the final winner is chosen!!

The three ‘blondes’  will be ordered secretly during March and settled ready for the competition to start with vigour on MONDAY 28TH MARCH 2011 AT MIDDAYand the competition will last until the first ‘blonde’ sells out.

Customers can try all three beers via our miniature ‘sampling beer mugs’ and then choose their favourite and the votes will be added up and the winner declared via our website and publicly in the pub.

So if you fancy having a ‘Blonde moment’ come to the Bulls Head and give us your thoughts and ultimately your vote!! Here’s to the summer!!

Ma Mclaughlin bakes the fruit cake for our cheeseboards!!!

We are delighted to announce that ‘Ma Mclaughlin’ an exceptional baker and frequent visitor to the Bulls Head has taken over the baking of the famous fruit cake that sits on our legendary cheeseboard!!

It is, apparently, a Yorkshire tradition to have a small piece of fruit cake with your choice of cheese (particularly a mature cheddar or of course a lovely slice of Wensleydale).

The two complement each other wonderfully. So a big thank you to Mary ‘senior’ for baking our fruit cake which was driven all the way from Donegal in Ireland just last week. We hope you enjoy it.

Our cheese boards are usually put together by David or James our chefs with great care and attention and have become a favourite with a glass of one of our fantastic ports.

Click here to discover the choices available. Remember that dessert wines are wonderful with cheese too particularly our Spanish Antique PX which we are happy to let you try before you definitely order one!!!

See you soon!!!

A special Blonde will be here for this Spring!!!

Here at the Bulls Head we will be saying farewell to our autumn and winter brew ‘1812 Overture’ and you our loyal customers will be given the chance to choose from three ‘blonde’ Ales brewed specially by local micro-breweries to become what I am sure will be another favourite ale for all our customers.

We will go live with the competition sometime in March so please keep an eye on the news page for confirmed dates for the ‘Bulls Head Summer Ale Competition’

Robbie Burns would have been proud!!!!

On Tuesday 25th January Robbie Burns was celebrated here at the Bulls Head!!! Lloyd our chef produced a wonderful Venison Hotpot and the traditional Haggis with roasted tatties and neeps served with a smoked bacon and whisky sauce, as well as a Cock ‘a’ leekie soup and of course Cranachan with raspberries and oats…….. a sort of Scottish Mobberley Mess which was simply divine.

Nick our bartender and resident Scotsman turned up in his kilt and set about serving Haggis to the guests who joined us for the evening and was on hand to serve with, our compliments, a fine ‘wee dram’ of Glen Elgin 12 Year old Malt to those guests who wished to partake.

A great night was had by all and Nick even typed up the poem from Robbie Burns and delivered it personally to one or two of our regulars. Nick was rewarded with a wee dram himself and a slap up meal of haggis to remind him of home!!! So next year do join us for a wee dram and wonderful home cooked food.

Thanks Lloyd and Nick for helping to deliver a great night.

 

Nick serves the 12 year old Malt with our compliments

Nick delivers Robbie Burns famous poem personally
Nick is rewarded with his own dish of haggis and a wee dram

 

Famous sketch from the bar…..

At the Bulls Head we are running a competition to find the funniest bar sketch from yester-year!! Here is the link to a sketch featuring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry sent in by one of our customers….hilarious!! There is a meal for two on us to the value of £50 for the best bar sketch sent in to our website info@thebullsheadpub.co.uk over the next three months. I will screen the sketch and then it will be put on the news page. Then at the end of March 2011 we will choose the winner. If only we did this many bar snacks!!!! To view some other entrants click on our bar sketches page.

Winter wine update

In the month of December over 1000 Mulled wines were sold as our ‘winter drinks’ were launched!! All the hot drinks have been well received but the classics are the most popular such as the Hot Toddy, Irish coffee and the Winter Pimms. The newly invented ‘Woolly Bully’ is proving a winner too. So if you are feeling cold you know where to come!! (Please click on drink then winter drinks for the list)

Talking of wine, we have introduced the very popular Spanish Sauvignon Blanc from the Rueda region to our wine list in January. Vina Mocen has been one of our most popular ‘shipped in’ wines and offers an alternative to the Chilean and New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs already on the list.

I have noticed that not many of our customers are going French with our Muscadet and I do believe maybe we got the pricing wrong!! So I have dropped the price from £18.50 to a more sensible £15.95 which is an excellent deal for lovers of this classic delicate French dry white which is made from the grape called ‘melon de Bourgogne’. This Burgundy grape was brought to the Loire Valley in the 17th Century. The grape is known for its robustness in the winter and especially against frosts. The grape nowadays is called Muscadet in the area and the wine is perfect with our homemade fish pie.

We have sold all our stock of Sancerre so while the coolness of winter is still in the air I have chosen not to replace it. We will next be focussing on our white and pink selection ready for spring/April.

The reds are having their moment as you would expect at this time of the year and I am delighted to see, at the top end of the list, the fantastic Valenciso Rioja doing so well. The red list has not changed for the winter as we firmly believe all tastes and price budgets are catered for. The Macia Batle Mallorcan wine which has been a regular ‘ship in’ over the last couple of months has been a very popular ‘not on the list’ wine and is a favourite to be included on the spring list as it suits the summer as well as the winter.

VAT changes have NOT been passed on to our customers I am pleased to say. Price points are sensitive and we do not want to breach these barriers. Please click on drink then wine to review the list and please advise us of any wines you feel we should be doing.