The story
The Bull & Last sits on Highgate Road, a stone’s throw from the green expanse of Hampstead Heath. It combines the conviviality of a local pub with the precision of a kitchen that has earned a Michelin recommendation. The atmosphere is one of relaxed warmth—a place where a pint of their house pale ale from Five Points Brewery sits as comfortably on the table as a carefully composed plate of food.
The kitchen’s philosophy is straightforward: menus change daily, shaped by what is available and at its peak. The team uses the highest quality produce and cooks it with care, resulting in British contemporary cuisine that feels both grounded and inventive. A recent set lunch offered Porcini Mushroom Arancini, Black Garlic Aioli & Parmesan to start, followed by Suffolk Flat Iron Chicken Leg with grilled lettuce, Caesar, smoked bacon and anchovy. The food is confident, unfussy, and built on flavour.
Above the pub, seven guest rooms take design cues from nearby Kenwood House and the heath itself. Each room is individually named—Keats, Faraday, Mansfield—and decorated with a thoughtful eye. En suite bathrooms, bespoke copper baths, and the pub’s own Woodsome skincare products make for an indulgent stay. Whether you are here for lunch, dinner, or a night’s rest, the Bull & Last offers a genuine slice of North London life.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
Just steps away from Hampstead Heath and originally built as a coaching inn in 1721, the recently restored Bull & Last still knows how to feed its customers well. It’s pitched just right. While the studied neutrality of the decor is gloriously juxtaposed with a plethora of taxidermy, its broad roster of menus – curated to evoke pubby nostalgia, yet pitched a good few notches higher – elevates the most familiar dishes. From lunchtime Scotch eggs, 'sandos' and fish and chips to Sunday roasts, everything is built around top-drawer ingredients, assured cooking and creative tweaks. Buttermilk fried chicken with aïoli is a popular opener, ahead of pan-fried king scallops with a silky, tangy apple purée – deftly cooked and lightly burnished, with a verdant Catalan-style picada. Onglet (skirt steak) can be notoriously hard to cook, but here it is rare and as tender as can be, with ample char and a textbook béarnaise sauce on the side. Although the kitchen excels at meat and game cookery and often champions less obvious cuts, there are always plenty of veggie alternatives: tenderstem broccoli and wild nettle risotto with sheep’s ricotta and hazelnuts for dinner, perhaps, or wild herb gnudi for lunch.. To conclude, there’s almost always a baked or steamed pudding, a panna cotta, and a generous cheeseboard. And we thought the two-course set lunch menu was a steal at £20. The Europe-centric wine list homes in on producers with a minimal intervention ethos; otherwise, check out the roster of British craft ales (especially from the booming London scene).
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