At Burts Catering Butchers, we work with many successful and vibrant pubs. Some have really turned themselves around, understanding the need to offer top class food. Some have just always been fabulous. They offer everything a guest could want. From excellent food, a great menu, with lots of drink choices; local and craft brands. As well as wonderful accommodation, where you can go for a few nights, enjoying the area as well as enjoying some wonderful food. And we are extremely proud that we work with one such pub – The Bull at Ditchling.

About The Bull

Having relaunched the pub just over a year ago, with a huge refurbishment as well as extension, the owners of The Bull at Ditchling, in East Sussex, Dominic and Vanessa, having bought the pub in 2003, realised the importance of going that extra mile for all customers. Along with Molly, the General Manager and partner in the business, they have all worked extremely hard to make this happen.  They all wanted to keep the traditional pub feel, but also understood that eating out is the way forward. A fantastic menu, great chefs and really top class food.

Their Menus

Their menus are very seasonal so change in full every 10-12 weeks. Everything on the menu is prepared on site by their team of 8 full time chefs. All of the ingredients where possible are supplied by local and artisan producers and they also grow their own vegetables and herbs in the Bull’s onsite kitchen garden. They are very lucky to have a resident gardener who tends to the kitchen garden and picks and delivers the produce to their kitchen.  The most popular dish on their new menu is ‘duck leg with shitake mushroom stuffing, fondant potato, bok choi and sweetcorn granola. A firm favourite throughout autumn/winter are their proper homemade shortcrust pastry pies with steak and ale and customers also love a roast sirloin of beef with all the trimmings on Sundays! And Burts Catering Butchers supply them with all the meat for this fabulous and successful menu.

Great British Pub Awards

The Bull at Ditchling were honoured to have been crowned Best Free House and overall Best Pub in the UK at the Great British Pub Awards in 2016. Post renovation they then won this prestigious award again in 2018 being named Best Free House in the UK for the second time. These awards are very highly regarded and are known as the Oscars of the pub industry. For the Great British Pub Awards, The Bull had to get through two rounds of written entries and then had a day of judges interviews. Followed by a skype panel interview and various mystery visits to site over the summer. They are also five star rated by the AA for their premises and bedrooms.  Their food is rosette accredited. All a massive achievement!

Renovations to the Pub

At the end of 2017 they completed a major renovation and invested nearly £1m into the Bull. Building a brand new state of the art trade kitchen, a brand new dining room, built an outside bar and kitchen, converting two more guest bedrooms and landscaping all aspects of the site. They went from 70 covers indoors to 120, plus the outside terrace and garden has the capacity for another 180 guests. Feedback has been amazing and they are very proud to be constantly welcoming new customers as well as retaining lots of supportive regulars and locals too.

Burts Catering Butchers

“We have been working with Burts for the last 6 years and we love working with an old school traditional butchers. The service is personal, helpful and nothing is too much trouble. We find the team very knowledgeable and supportive when it comes to recommendations on produce for new dishes. The quality of the produce that they supply is always of a very high standard. It is very important to us a company to source all of our ingredients responsibly and where possible from within Sussex. Burts have always been fantastic with the standard of local meat they supply as well as providing full traceability for all produce too. We have a great working relationship and they have always been very supportive of our ongoing charity work, they kindly make donations on a regular basis to help. We are very proud that Burts supply the Bull and look forward to many more years working together.”
Molly Raftery
General Manager & Partner
The Bull at Ditchling