Dog Bull - Croydon

I always enjoy spending evenings in the garden at The Big Bull. I have been coming here since before the pandemic, and it is always a pleasure to sit in their beautiful outdoor space. There is always a lively post-work crowd and a great atmosphere.

The Dog and Bull is our favorite pub in Croydon. It's great to have this place so close to home, especially during the summer when we can enjoy their fantastic beer garden. The pub is located on Surrey Street, overlooking the historic market and has a rich history dating back to the 1600s. The food is excellent and the staff are always welcoming and friendly. Thank you to the team at The Dog and Bull for always making us feel at home.

This pub is a great spot for drinks, but the food is nothing to write home about. The service can be inconsistent, with good bar service but tables being cleaned begrudgingly. I sat at a table with the previous customers' dirty dishes for two hours before the staff reluctantly cleared them away. I would recommend eating elsewhere.

We were revisiting our old home which was 66yrars ago. It was so nice to see the bar was the same. Beer and wine was excellent. The service was great very friendly and went out of the way to make us feel welcome. Five of us had a evening meal which of course in our day was non existent we all enjoyed our main courses the apple crumble was to die for. It was nice to see the snug was still there and the extension into the Cheese House. Also the outside with heated Boothe's and fleeces provided. The garden area we enjoyed in the afternoon with a vodka tonic, cider and chilled larger top. The toilet facilities was very modern that was part of our bathroom!! In our time the kitchen was down below the bar, which now was a good size up stairs. We were all so pleased to see the Old Dog and Bull flourishing may it continue for many years. Well worth a visit in the old town. Thank you to the staff for making our return so memorable.

The Dog Bull has seen several styles of cuisine come and go over the last five or six years- burgers, steaks, pizza, Caribbean, and others. They have a new chef at the stoves now, who started last week, and I popped in with a couple of friends to try the new fare. The menu is far more interesting than it had previously been and it appears obvious that the pub is stepping up to compete with local rivals in the culinary stakes. This can only be a good thing, as central Croydon certainly needs more places where you can sit down for a good quality meal; the town centre establishments, with one or two notable exceptions, tend to offer either standard pub grub or takeaways only. Standard pub grub this most certainly isn’t. Amongst our starters, the lamb belly “chips” (essentially, lamb fish fingers) and clam chowder certainly hit the right notes but it was the potted shrimps that really stood out; I’ve had vastly inferior versions in expensive restaurants up in central London and these shrimps were so good that I could have had a second serving there and then. The mains were all delicious too; two of us chose the confit duck leg, which was beautifully succulent, and another had the chicken and tarragon pie, which he declared a resounding success. My goat curry (from the daily specials) was exemplary- in fact, almost as good as my own! There’s a decent selection of wines, both by the glass and by the bottle, and the pub’s selection of beers is both extensive and very well kept. Service was friendly and swift and the bill very good value given the quality of the meal. My next visit will be to try the Sunday lunch, which I’m certainly anticipating with relish. While it’s never going to be a “gastropub”, having been around for several hundred years and established as a true market street local, the Dog Bull has certainly elevated its cuisine by several notches now and it’s easily up with the best in the area. As I mentioned earlier, there’s been a high turnover of chefs here recently; let’s hope that this one stays for a very long time.