The story
Bull & Last sits at 168 Highgate Road, Dartmouth Park, London NW5 1QS, where the kitchen cooks modern British food and earned a Michelin Recommended listing for 2026. The building began as a coaching inn in 1721, and its recent restoration keeps the easy rhythm of a pub while the menus aim a few notches higher.
Lunch brings Scotch eggs, sandos, and fish and chips, and Sunday roasts follow the same logic of familiar food with good ingredients. Buttermilk fried chicken with aioli is a common opener. Pan-fried king scallops arrive with a tangy apple purée and a green Catalan-style picada. The onglet comes rare, with a béarnaise on the side. Vegetarian options such as wild nettle risotto with sheep's ricotta and hazelnuts appear at dinner, and the Good Food Guide called the two-course set lunch at £20 a steal. The wine list leans toward European producers who make wine with minimal intervention, and the beer list favours London brewers.
The guest rooms take their names and décor from Kenwood House and the surrounding Heath, and each has an en suite bathroom. Dido keeps an original fireplace, while Faraday has a freestanding copper bath. Gotto is the smallest room, named for Henry Gotto, the proprietor who rebuilt the building. Ellis is snug, painted in Hague blue, and shows work by local artist Dacre Punt.
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).
Location
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