Steak Night at The Bull (Debate)

Sun 31 Mar, 14:32 (last edited on Sun 31 Mar, 15:33)

Thank you Rod. First off, I was only trying to make the point about parking centrally, for example, when one doesn’t have a bit of hard surface alongside one’s house, or a front garden to tarmac over. Secondly, I was acknowledging the damage being done to locals’ vehicles….. hence my ref to Tim, who is not the only one to have had major expenses due to that. (I’ve only just read your comment here…)

Wed 13 Mar, 21:24

A belated response to Rosemary, following on from the post I've just put on the main section on the TC parking survey.  I hear what you say, to coin a phrase - and don't doubt it. My main point here was that I don't think any one business (of which Tim's is one of course) can be held responsible for the 'collapse of civilisation as we know it' which is how some people seem to think of the Bull just now.  And of course our own cars are part of the problem.  Equally I quite understand the sight of several tanks badly parked around the place is both irritating at best and potentially dangerous.  I hope my other post looks more widely...

Mon 26 Feb, 10:13

In Thames Street we are constantly loosing the limited parking spaces available to train commuters, in some incidents cars are left for several weeks to avoid paying parking charges at the station. Residents parking scheme would help, ideally the town needs to develop additional parking facilities on the outskirt of the town.

Sat 24 Feb, 21:53 (last edited on Sun 25 Feb, 09:03)

Rod. I think the parking in the centre is a real problem now. When one has their own dedicated space(s) at home, it must be difficult to imagine not having it, and easy to treat it as a tired (oh no, not that again) joke. Some of us have to vye for a space, morning,  noon and night, every day of the week. Just imagine for a moment that that was your situation. There is also the damage being done to locals’ vehicles. Ask Tim about that, or me.

Mon 19 Feb, 19:55 (last edited on Mon 19 Feb, 21:27)

Hope they do a fish night soon !  With 86% of the population eating meat and less than 5 % who follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, the options of steak appeals to the majority 

Thu 15 Feb, 10:45

..a menu order response could be worse Rod, I've had 'cool' or 'awesome' elsewhere, and Liz and I are usually referred to as 'you guys'...

Wed 14 Feb, 22:47 (last edited on Wed 14 Feb, 23:04)

Well of course the new people at The Bull are responsible for climate change, biodiversity loss, ever increasing inequalities, the housing shortage, the collapse of our public services and system of justice – not to mention how dreadful the parking is in Charlbury now (or was that last year?).   

 Actually most of those problems could be more usefully laid on the doorsteps of some of their more high profile recent customers, especially a resident of Dean (and Holland Park) and the unfortunately initialled BJ.  As for The Bull – I’m hardly a regular but whenever I’ve gone in lately I’ve seen several familiar Charlbury faces.  Sure, it ain’t cheap – doesn't mean we can't acknowledge and help those in need of Cornerstone - but the grub’s pretty good (mostly), they employ several people and their guests probably spend money elsewhere.  Not saying I’d necessarily want to break bread with them, more likely to run a mile but hey, no-one’s perfect.

 Maybe they could be a bit more engaged with their neighbours and the planning officers – I can’t say.  But which would you prefer – their investment and enterprise or the deadbeat on-its-last-legs pub it was just a few years ago?? 

 Just wish they’d put some sound insulation on the walls and wouldn’t inanely say ‘perfect’ to every order – that’s for you and me to decide.

Mon 12 Feb, 18:36

Sadly brilliant, John Lanyon, re the 2 worlds of Charlbury. Hope you're a member of the Labour party...

Fri 9 Feb, 19:11 (last edited on Fri 9 Feb, 19:16)

Very amusing.  I'm not sure that lauding the Charlbury parking facilities is appropriate, and neither are the whimsical comparisons.

Fri 9 Feb, 14:44

If you can't park your car in the Bull car park, drive it up the Spendlove Centre,   its not difficult. After all that's what you do in Oxford,  Woodstock   London.......

Fri 9 Feb, 12:32

Regarding parking at The Bull, I estimate there are currently six spaces, two of which are permanently occupied by refrigerated trailers. Further, the Bull's vintage Landrover is permanently parked at the front, so is presumeably part of their branding rather than doing anything useful.

Thu 8 Feb, 18:06

... or to (maybe!) create a new term, "Cuisine de DILLIGAF"?!

Thu 8 Feb, 18:06

Like a good steak night, but until they are more neighbourly and reinstate their 12 car parking spaces we are boycotting the Bull for food. Twelve spaces is as required under their current planning permission and Charlbury’s Neighbourhood plan. 

Thu 8 Feb, 15:54

..or to slightly mangle Marie Antoinette "let them eat steak"

Thu 8 Feb, 10:52

On one side of Brown's Lane people are tucking into steak chateaubriand and on the other side people are picking up windfall apples, aging brussel sprouts and food past its best-before date from The Cornerstone.

Wed 7 Feb, 20:38 (last edited on Thu 8 Feb, 06:24)

For those who were asking about the prices on Steak night at The Bull.
Individual portion

Flat Iron    £22

Rump.       £26

Fillet          £39

For 2 or 3 sharing

Wing rib.          £65

Chateaubriand  £76

T-Bone.   £85

Rib.         £95

These prices are for the steak only, so allow extra for veg side dishes,

Tue 6 Feb, 13:23 (last edited on Tue 6 Feb, 13:23)

(Previous post moved from the main board because the last thing anyone wants is to derail the thread with the same old argument again – Richard)

Tue 6 Feb, 13:06

Great stuff, Chloe! There's a world of difference between small, local businesses using the Forum  and corporate ones using it for advertising.

Mon 5 Feb, 15:53

A pebble in the pool.  Is it possible names I see lauding the 'exotic' eateries I have also seen lamenting the fact that they can't afford accommodation in Charlbury. I wonder if the 'exotic' eateries are part of what encourages the prices of accommodation to go up.  "Just sayin'"

Sun 4 Feb, 22:56

We went and enjoyed the beejeebers out of Friday night's 'arcane' menu at Chloe's. Can't wait for this week's announcement!

Fri 2 Feb, 18:58

Personally I quite like the approach of restaurants in rural France, where there's one or possibly two options on the lunch menu, like it or lump it, you are more a guest than a customer, and make sure you arrive at the right time or they'll be ferme. 

Fri 2 Feb, 10:56

Is this because the issue is steak 🥩  that is the problem, or a dislike of the Bull ?

A varied menu and the ability to have a place to eat when it suits the ‘ customer’ is the most important factor , in my opinion . 

Thu 1 Feb, 22:27

If eating out in Charlbury is to be a choice of arcane or overpriced, I'll take the arcane, if it's all the same to you. 

Thu 1 Feb, 19:22

“Arcane menus”? Ouch!

Thu 1 Feb, 19:10

Statement of fact not criticism 

Thu 1 Feb, 18:34

Shocked that Rachel thinks that it is ok to criticise a wonderful Charlbury eating venue for only being open two days a week. For some people cooking is a passion and they are brilliant at it, but equally important is having time for the family and other important stuff in life. 

Thu 1 Feb, 16:40

I rather think that the continued presence of The Bull, or The Bell, will depend more on their profitability than what is said on the Forum.

Thu 1 Feb, 14:25

The Bull’s post isn’t really any different to another Charlbury establishment posting arcane weekly menus for the two days a week they’re actually open - so not sure why the Bull would be criticised and not them 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

Thu 1 Feb, 14:22

Hannen, one check of The Bell’s website and I can see that its registered office is not Charlbury.  

I really cannot understand why it matters whether somebody posts about an event here or in What’s On. Some posters (like me) don’t check the What’s On section. Regardless of whether they post on the forum or on the What’s On section, I am grateful that we have The Bell and The Bull, as well as all the other businesses in Charlbury, bringing us such a wide variety of great events. It would be very disappointing if the tone of some of the posts on this forum led to them reconsidering their offering. 

Thu 1 Feb, 13:51

I couldn’t see a price for the steak night. Maybe some people don’t need to know the price before they book, but I do! 

Thu 1 Feb, 11:29

So it would be alright for the Sushi pop up and Crag tea concerts to post on The Forum?

It's hardly onerous to check the Events section from time to time.

As for "Charlbury Businesses", neither The Bull or The Bell are.  They are the presence in our town of bigger businesses, as a cursory check of Companies House reveals.

Little wonder that both are in breach of the Companies Act 2006, which states that it is a legal requirement to display your registered office address on your company's website. Although I anticipate that they would both argue that the Pub websites are not company websites.

Thu 1 Feb, 10:01

Very pragmatic Richard. I appreciate the notice and personally only really check the Forum so would not know about it otherwise.

Luckily for those who are bothered by these posts there are only a very small handful of Charlbury businesses so their occassional posts of events are unlikley to become a torrent anytime soon and, if it ever did, I am sure the rules could be revised then - perhaps one post allowed per new car park space created by that business, the critics would be ecstatic. 

Thu 1 Feb, 09:16

Also, the steak sounds amazing. 🥩

Thu 1 Feb, 09:15

It’s Complicated™

Essentially events listings have to do two things – serve as a calendar of current/future events, but also tell people about what’s just been announced, when it’s announced. The current way we present events does well at the former, but not so well at the latter.

Plus people are increasingly accustomed to viewing sites as a feed (the Facebook/Instagram/whatever model) rather than as an organised directory of information, so expectations and user behaviour are different from what they used to be.

There are things I could (and would love to) do to ease this but they require hours in the day and right now I don’t really have those.

(If it’s any consolation the big guys haven’t really figured this out either – I lose track of the number of times Facebook has told me about an event happening “later today!”, three days late…)

So I do appreciate people’s concern that things should be submitted to the right place, and I’d generally ask for self-restraint in not posting everything here as well as the events section, but – for now – I’m not going to get too fundamentalist about it. And, after all, I’d far rather people and Charlbury businesses engaged with the site than didn’t.

Thu 1 Feb, 07:54

To have a place to eat , and actually open midweek , something to share ? 

Thu 1 Feb, 07:07 (last edited on Thu 1 Feb, 07:08)

Surely you can't be saying the Bull doesn't have planning permission to put something up in this part of the Charlbury website? [Ducks.]

Wed 31 Jan, 21:52

John, while some users have rightly expressed excitement for local events like these, you raise a valid point about maintaining the integrity of the platform. However, there does seem to be an inconsistent approach in criticising posts such as these, and I'm interested in understanding why this particular one has stirred emotions. Personally, I feel that the direct link to booking a table, while convenient, might be considered an overstep. Should we not consider a consistent approach in scrutinising all event announcements, or is there room for occasional sharing of noteworthy happenings?

Wed 31 Jan, 17:39

Surely this belongs in the "What's On" section?

Wed 31 Jan, 17:37

Excellent and is the menu and price on your website ? 

Wed 31 Jan, 17:32

Thanks to everyone at The Bull for letting us all know, looking forward to it. 

Wed 31 Jan, 16:58

Please do not use the discussion forum for advertising.

Wed 31 Jan, 14:10

Starting this evening, we're excited to kick off our weekly Steak Night featuring premium cuts, all sourced from our friends at Paddock Farm. Choose from Flat Iron, Rump, or Fillet, or opt for larger cuts to share like Chateaubriand, T-Bone, or a 1kg Rib of Beef.

Each steak can be paired with our selection of single-bottle wines, available by the glass.

Book a table