EBG Rating: 7.9/10

Choice/Quality of Drinks:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
A big surprise is their offering of Czech lagers from Pivovar klášter Želiv of all places, with 6 taps on offer including seasonal specials. I’m not sure I’ve yet picked my jaw up off the floor. It is the only pub outside Czechia that features these beers on tap. A decent array of alternatives, and good back bar.

Style/Décor:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Traditional pub restaurant with retro-signage, heavy pattern wallpaper, chandeliers, framed diplomas and dark wood fittings. Bar to the left as you enter. Fairly compact rooms but rendered spacious feeling by a high ceiling and large tables. The steel bar tap at the bar itself is a relic.

Atmosphere/Character:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Palpable sense of fixture and institution, welcoming old-school hospitality, lively but bourgeoise middle class atmosphere. Slightly too food focused during the day, but becomes more relaxed later on.

Amenities/Events:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
Food, snacks, limited outdoor seating, tastings.

Value For Money:
❤️❤️❤️
In line with the quality of food and drink.

Description:
Malmö’s institution pub, The Bull has operated in some shape or form at the site since 1897. In the 1900s the pub shot to prominence under owner Oscar Wernersson who ran it as a billiards pub while upstairs operated a dovecote for pigeon racing. The certificates recognising his success in the field can still be seen in the bar today. The pub has even hosted the Swedish championships in Russian skittles.

The next major period of change came at the end of the 1960s. as the bar was redesigned in English style and Bullen acquired the position of a kind of cultural attaché of Malmö, attracting the city’s most important denizens. It has been the case, to some extent or other, ever since.

Run today by an experienced team, the task is to keep the show on the road, but also give Bullen a reason for being, a vibrancy and relevance that ensures its handover to the next generation.

During the day, the pub-restaurant format veers a little towards restaurant, therefore be prepared to sit and the bar if you simply want a drink. There are also some high tables to its left.

It’s a grand old bar with signs of its history attached, around which you’ll find a pub room with heavy patterned wall-paper in a non theme style – no Guinness or British or Irish flags here.

A big surprise is their offering of Czech lagers from Pivovar klášter Želiv of all places, with 6 taps on offer including seasonal specials. I’m not sure I’ve yet picked my jaw up off the floor. It is the only pub outside Czechia that features these beers on tap.

Later on in the day as the kitchen closes the food focus recedes and the pub feels like it is audibly exhaling and becoming more casual, which is all for the better.

Staff are attentive and engaging, clearly welcoming to newcomers and acknowledging of regulars, which makes a nice difference. The sense of hospitality here is a standout.

I’ll leave others to judge their food, but by all accounts it is a good standard.

So, Bullen has the history, it has the interior and even surprising interesting beers. A central location wraps that up tidily. An institution pub you can’t look past visiting.

(Added April 2026)