WINCHESTER.

A traditional corner pub in a residential area of Winchester that serves good beer in a friendly atmosphere, well worth a stop if in the area. Food is served here (Mon-Sat 12-2 & 5-7:30) and is traditional and to the point, e.g. sandwiches: cheese £1.50, ham £1.75, etc. ploughman's for around £2. Every Wednesday at 8:30pm there is a quiz night with teams of up to 4 people playing for drinks prizes. The last Sunday of the month is live music.

This year, the Saint George, a 16th-c annexe directly across the street (and overlooking Winchester College Chapel) has been added to this tremendously popular and very well run civilised place. There are 6 bedrooms, a sitting room with open fire, a post office/general stores, and a Burgundian wine store; you can enjoy the good breakfasts either in your room or here at the Wykeham Arms. There's always a warm welcome and a feeling that they are glad you came, and a series of busy and stylish rooms radiating from the central bar that are furnished with 19th-century oak desks retired from nearby Winchester College (the inkwells imaginatively filled with fresh flowers), a redundant pew from the same source, kitchen chairs and candlelit deal tables and big windows with swagged paisley curtains; all sorts of interesting collections are dotted around. A snug room at the back, known as the Watchmakers, is decorated with a set of Ronald Searle 'Winespeak' prints, a second one is panelled, and all of them have a log fire; several areas are no-smoking. Particularly good food includes good lunchtime sandwiches such as blue cheese, grape and walnut or rare roast beef with horseradish cream (£2.55; toasties £2.95), delicious soups like chunky parsnip and bacon (£2.55), coarse country pork pate with cumberland sauce (£4.50), continental mixed cheese platter with home-made pickle, ciabatta and multigrain bread (£4.95), daily specials like caramelised onion, red pepper and aubergine tart tain, smoked haddock and chorizo dauphinoise or warm barbecue chicken salad (£5.25), steak and kidney pie (£5.95), beef in red wine casserole, and puddings such as white chocolate and kumquat bavarois or banana, rum and raisin bread and butter pudding (from £3.95), with evening dishes like steaks (from £10.75), noisettes of monkfish wrapped in bacon and filo pastry, served on a dijon mustard sauce (£11.75), and roast rack of Hampshire Down lamb with an aubergine, onion and sesame tart tatin with rosemary glaze (£12.30); courteous service. There's an excellent seasonally-changing list of wines including around 20 by the glass and quite a few half-bottles, and helpful tasting notes. Also well kept Bass and Eldridge Pope Bitter, Gales, Hardy and Royal Oak on handpump, and a number of cognacs and liqueurs. There are tables on a covered back terrace, with more on a small but sheltered lawn. The lovely bedrooms (from £69.50-£79.50) are thoughtfully equipped, and residents have the use of a sauna. No children.

Also try:

The Black Boy in Winchester where you can sample ales from local micro-breweries such as Triple-FFF, Hampshire, Itchen Valley and Cheriton.