Excellent food and drink. Friendly staff. Great atmosphere. Very popular place so book early!

Just terrific. Located in an almost 300 year old building, rooms have been lovingly restored with great care. Staff was very friendly and helpful. The restaurant was wonderful--clearly the chef takes pride in his work! read more

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Great location near the Cathedral for this affordable and charming inn. The rooms were comfortable and had most modern amenities except AC--a frequent issue throughout the UK. WIFI was fast and free. Exceptionally friendly staff was helpful with everything from food, to luggage, to arranging transportation from Heathrow and to the Southampton Cruise Port. Fuller's restaurant had a nice selection of foods and the included sit-down breakfast was particularly generous. The Wykeham Arms is a winner! read more

If you are looking for a cozy place close to the Cathedral Christmas Market to have something to drink this is a great place to visit and check out the different areas around. The smell from the wood fire place is just perfect! Staff is super friendly and delivers great costumer service. read more

I have long thought The Wykeham the archetypal city pub, and it has a very good reputation. The decor will transport you to Dickensian times and the warm and cosy atmosphere is such that you want to stay all day. Friends have happily worked there and when I was at school nearby, the dons used to drink there, and I have had some very good, mainly meat-based meals there. However, it's not perfect, as last night's experience showed. Despite booking, we were shown to the smallest table in a noisy room where we would have hardly been able to converse, but on request, they did move us to a much nicer table in a quieter room. Why wasn't this offered immediately? Worse was to come. We prefer fish and were happy to find skate wing and lemon sole on the menu. However, when they arrived, both were so undersized that we were amazed. A skate wing is one of the few things that can reliably cover a large plate, and one looks forward to pulling the flesh through those long translucent bones, but this one sat ridiculously small in the middle of the plate and looked most unappetising. No clue as to its tiny size had been given by the price, which was £20. Furthermore the lemon sole (£18) was so small as to almost resemble a dab. I queried both fish with the maitre 'd but got the extraordinary excuse that I had confused the lemon sole with a Dover sole. Having eaten wonderful full-sized lemon sole a few miles aways at the Bush in Ovington many times, I was not amused at the suggestion that I didn't know what i was talking about. We did eat a pudding which was excellent, as was the wine. The bill was somewhat reduced as a result of our dissatisfaction, but that hardly makes up for a most disappointing experience. read more

The Wykeham Arms - The front door of the Wykeham Arms - Pubs Near Me - Winchester, HAM

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I was going to write a big long sob story about my lack of service here, right after I got back to my hotel room, but instead I wisely consulted an English friend first. I seem to remember that when I visited the UK a few years ago, he kept getting up to order beer at the beer window, which I thought odd at the time, but didn't remark on it or remember. So I get to the bar here, sit down, and say I would like some lunch. He said I have to sit down at a table for it, but here's a menu. He said I could order beer at the bar however. So I did. It was quite good. To make a long story short, it seems that in most (or all?) pubs in the UK, you order your beer and food at the bar but eat sitting at a table. You keep getting up to order more beer. They bring you your food at the table. Not like a restaurant, that's for sure. So after sitting at the table and watching the waitstaff go by several times, I flagged one of them down and said I would like to order. She said that I must go to the bar. Ooooooohhhhhhhhhhh, so THAT'S how it's done. As soon as I followed the rules, my experience improved dramatically! Anyways, the fish and chips are possibly the best ever, and the mushy peas were quite fresh and green, not gray and old. The beers I chose were fantastic. After the Wykeham Arms, I ate fish and chips two more times elsewhere, and the other places just didn't measure up. Also, the Wykeham Arms is decorated all over the interior. Every square inch of wall is covered with something really neat. You get a sense of the history here. Great pub! read more

I had a Sunday roast lunch here and it was divine. Even the English mustard and horseradish that I had with my beef was delicious. The pub had a unique feel and the service was excellent. I felt like it was my own little local for the afternoon and will be sure to visit again when I'm in Winchester. Everything about this place screamed authenticity. read more

The place to go in Winchester. Traditional and historic. Food was fabulous with extensive wine list. Yes it was expensive for a pub but worth it as it's so much more personal than a hotel. If Carlsberg made pubs this would be it! read more

The Wykeham Arms - Pubs Near Me - Winchester, HAM

Damn good. Very damn good indeed. The pub part is really charming with great beer and wine. There is a small beer garden for catching the afternoon rays and a really homely feel to the whole place. I stayed in a single room which was situated across the street. Very comfy and quiet. There were a bunch of us and, after hours, we were let into a lounge over the road to finish the few bottles of wine that we had left. Breakfast was very good. The chef probably trying a bit hard to be artistic with the fry-up. I mean, there's only so much you can do with a full English without looking like a div. Price was very reasonable for the location and overall quality and I would definitely recommend. read more

Great pub. From the outside you would never be able to tell what the pub is actually like. Inside however is great. There are several rooms both for dining and drinking. In the two main pub rooms, there are schoolhouse desks for tables, mostly for two people with a few for larger groups. There is one private dining room and two more dining rooms that were close to packed on a Tuesday night. There is also outside dining and and drinking in the back. This pub is old school, with decorations from Winston Churchill pictures to many, many pewter mugs hanging on the walls and ceiling. The lighting is just right with friendly bartenders and a classic "John Crapper" wooden toilet, at least in the Men's Room. We had to wait to get a seat for dinner until 9:00 PM but it was worth it. The food was not cheap, but it was very good. read more

I have had a very poor experience recently and wanted to share. In October we booked a table for New Year's Eve. We booked early because last year all the good venues sold out early. I asked about the menu options and explained that I was a vegetarian but with a few foods I couldn't eat (that I listed) and that my daughter also had allergies (taht I listed) and therefore it was important to know the menu before we confirmed our booking. I had already checked the menus on their website and the food looked good and there were several options that we both could eat. I was told that the New Year's Eve menu had not yet been decided but that they would discuss my dietary requirements with the chef and and that there would be a several options. Reassured by this I waited patiently. Three weeks later I had heard nothing so wrote to ask if they had had any news. One week later a reply came back saying there was no news on the menu options. Two weeks later I'd still heard nothing and was slightly concerned that the other restaurants would now be nearly fully booked so I wrote to ask what the menu options were. I got no reply. 10 days later I wrote another email asking if they'd had any news (by now it was the first week in December, nearly 2 months after our original enquiry) and still I had no reply. So I got on the phone and called them and within 3 hours had been sent the menu. None of my dietary concerns had been acknowledged and there were no foods I could actually choose. This is my main complaint. If the restaurant had not made reference to the fact they'd discuss what I could eat, then I wouldn't have waited and we would have had a restaurant to eat at to see the New Year in. Now, whilst I was not going to ruin New Year's Eve for the rest of my family and was quite prepared to ask the restaurant to leave off certain items so I could eat the food, the rest of the menu was so odd, that none of my family could see anything on it they liked. We eat out frequently and eat a relatively wide range of foods. However, the menu options seemed to have been created by a chef who wanted to cram in as many and as random ingredients as possible into each meal. For example one main meal was a fish steak, served with pasta, cauliflower and raisins. They had another steak main meal that looked (to the meat eaters in my family) quite delicious apart from the sauce which was spinach and bone marrow. One of the main meals was cheese soufflé served with a cheese mornay sauce which to me is like serving blancmange with custard. The vegetarian starter was mushrooms served with mushroom puree and pickled green beans, which was obviously created by a meat eating chef who has no clue what vegetarians like to eat. While I accept that some people may like these weird or bland flavour combinations I prefer food that is complementary. However not all restaurants can please all people so although we know that we won't be eating at the Wykeham Arms anytime soon and my comments should not put people off who like many ingredients in one dish or ingredients that would not normally be put together. My main issue is that they took so long to let me know about the menu options that everywhere else was fully booked (2nd week in December) and so our New Year's Eve will not be as special as we'd hoped. I suspect that if I'd not picked up the phone to question them about the late arrival of the menu that I'd still be waiting to hear from them now. So 2 stars for the menu as there were 2 options my family thought were OK. I give 1 star for the fact that they said they'd discuss my dietary requirements and yet didn't incorporate any of them into the menu options; the restaurant needs to manage customer expectations better since it was for exactly this reason that I waited too long for the arrival of the menu as I had assumed there would be at least one option for me to choose from. Lastly, I give 1 star for terrible slow service; the restaurant needs a better way of tracking unanswered emails. Now there is a lot of criticism in my comment but I like to finish on a positive note: the lady who helped me was friendly and polite. read more

Stopped in for a late lunch, the food was tasty and nicely presented. The outdoor seating was pleasant, an enjoyable way to spend a lazy English summer's afternoon. This establishment has a good reputation locally and I see no reason to disagree. read more

Having grown up in Winchester I can honestly say this is the go to place for taking friends, dates and in-laws who need impressing. Utterly timeless with polite, knowledgeable staff, a classy but simple menu and a great range of beers you really will not find a better place. Clientele range from the odd tourist to Winchester College staff and in-the-know locals. Quintessentially English in the greatest possible way. read more

Very disappointing. It did not live up to the hype. Cottage pie was v old fashioned and stodhey. . Staff unfriendly and unaccommodating. Avoid unless absolutely nowhere else to.go! read more

Simple menu, farm to table type, excellent pints of Fuller's, lively and romantic atmosphere, exceptional service and demeanor

If you are anywhere near Winchester you must make a trip to the Wykeham Arms! It is a wonderful 18th century coaching inn that can be found along a cobbled road, just through a brick arch that forms part of the perimeter of Winchester Cathederal. It is opposite Winchester College, and many an Old Wykehamist can be found supping a pint in this ancient pub. It gives you a really homely feel, comforting and solid. At it's very best on a crisp, cold and misty evening, the sort that Winchester seems to do so uniquely and mysteriously well. The glazed, double front door is curved, which warms my cockles (I have a thing for good windows/doors!). Inside the roaring open fires are almost always well-stoked. The furniture is composed of a cacophony of old school desks complete with ink wells and names scratched by pupils past and church pews with well worn surfaces. There is a notice near the front door 'politely' asking patrons to refrain from using their mobile phones inside, and rightly so, anything remotely modern jars and grates against the atmosphere, traditional and clingingly unchanged over the decades. There are tables in the bar area, which are usually full, with numerous people standing at the bar too. Chose either direction immediately on entry and you will wind your way through the bar to the tables of the restaurant. You need to plan your visit tho, not a place to pop in, hoping for a table, Saturday evenings in December will be getting booked up soon and this is no joke! The food here is wonderful, the menu is a delight of English cuisine, try to come hungry, it would be a true shame to make a trip here without sampling all three courses. The waiting staff will happily suggest wine from their exhaustive wine list to compliment your meal. Expect to get little change from £100 for 3 courses and wine for two. You can stay here, they have 14 rooms and what a wonderful plan! This is not a place to drive home from :) And now onto the important stuff. their crowning glory - Sausages! At 6pm, and this is something locals set their watches by and no mistake, a huge cauldron emerges from the kitchen, accompanied with napkins and a variety of sauces. They sell sausages at the bar, 60p each if my memory serves me correctly, hot, steaming, tasty and glorious. My goodness, this is how all pubs should be! Dogs welcome in the bar, yeah!!! Just watch your snags :) read more

Extremely friendly staff, great selection of beers and whiskeys (they have a separate menu for the latter). Stayed a couple of nights in a supreme double room. The 'Hamilton' room. Beautifully decorated building throughout. Wonderful restaurant and great breakfasts. Lots of traditional food here - but caters to those with a diverse palette. For smokers, there's a great heated area out the back. Close to town, and a short walk from the Cathedral and numerous other pubs and restaurants. read more

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Lovely old pub. School desks as some of the pub tables, complete with inkwells. Food seems good, although only eaten here twice.

This place is a MUST visit if you are in Winchester! If you are in town nearing the shop's closing times, make the short and pleasant walk through the cathedral and make a stop in the Wykeham Arms. Instantly warm when you go in (from the fire) and always busy, at 6pm out come the sausages! Simply buy them at the bar with your drink (I think a £1 a sausage?) make sure yoou get some mustard and enjoy! Really eclectic pub, with trinkets everywhere, covering the ceiling -its a must visit. They also do a great a la carte menu with some seating in a small restaurant section adjoined to the main bar. All in all very Winchester! read more

Love this place! It has character to spare. The service was great, the food was fantastic and the selection of beer was really good. Easy walking distance from the the cathedral and tonw center area. Would definitely recommend. read more

HOO RA Henry. Seriously, though I like this place - it has a quaint charm of its own. Take a walk down the cobbled streets of Winchester and soak up the eccentricity of this sweet little pub. Only problem is the wine is served in little glasses too - big mistake that!!!! read more