The Winton in East Lothian

I recently visited The Winton in Pencaitland and was thoroughly impressed. The warm welcome and charming setting made an immediate impact. The food was exceptional, both in taste and presentation, and the staff were attentive, knowledgeable, and clearly passionate, which really elevated the whole experience. I can’t wait to return soon – highly recommended!

Not a great experience. The fish and chips were OK (what can go wrong with fish and chips?) My chicken burger was OK, but the bacon was fried to a crisp and inedible, and there were no crispy onions. My friend had something from the 'specials' board (risotto or tagliatelli?) which she said was tasty but not hot enough. For the prices charged, we expected something better. We don't plan to come back.

Very expensive for a poor culinary experience . Onion baji was burnt. I was told, “that’s how they are served “! Steak pie resembled a dog’s dinner. The wrong pastry was used which made it flat. The meat did not taste of quality and I could taste sour wine in the gravy. Sticky toffee pudding was like a bowl of soup. Please be mindful that 10% Service charge is added to the bill. Staff were very friendly and efficient. This is the first time I have ever had a bad meal in the Winton and tbh it’s put me off.

All 4 of us had Sunday Roast, and was very, very nice. Will definitely be back.

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL DIG I ordered fish and chips and my wife the roasted aubergine and courgette panini. Both arrived 30 minutes after the order was placed. The fish and chips meal was the large version. However the only item large was the batter which dwarved the small fish inside. Getting to the fish was like an archeological dig and really not worth the effort. The chips were burnt and tasteless as was my wife's panini. Both of us felt like vomiting on the way home and today my wife still has stomach cramps.

1st timers, Great food and service. Burger was up there with the best. Will be back.

We've been there twice, the food was delicious in both occasions and this time our waiter Dan, was lovely, charming and funny, best service ever. We strongly recommend it!!

Popped in today for lunch after taking the dog round one of the winton walks. Food was great, well priced and good portion sizes. Service was amazing. Couldn't fault anything

Great meal with great service - steak had great crust and meat was tender - steak pie was flavoursome and kids loved there fish and chips and haggis bonbons Desserts were excellent especially the pavlova special

We celebrated an 80th birthday with family in a private room. It was excellent. The buffet was amazing, so much food of the best quality. The staff were attentive without being intrusive. Thank you for making our day so special.

Visited a few times for lunch. Standart is consistent and we have always enjoyed our lunch. The daily soup is delicious whatever it happens to be on a given day. Hope to return again soon.

Really nice pub restaurant. Good menu, great service.

Incredible sunny roast, beef was sublime. Querried a couple of items on the bill and they immediately took them off without quibbling. Lovely cocktails. Would definitely go again if ever I was nearby again

Slightly slow service but the food was excellent, staff were lovely and restaurant had a great atmosphere. Will definitely return.

Great food and lovely environment with nice staff

Our first time visiting The Winton. Super, attentive service. Food was delicious and decor lovely.

The service was great and the staff were very attentive when asking if we needed extra drinks. However, either the pricing or the food portions need to be adjusted! My meal was £23 for literally a small chicken breast on top of a dollop of mash potato, with a haggis ball and a drizzle of thin gravy/sauce - no vegetables or some sort of greenery added at all. My partner had the steak and guinness pie which was bigger in comparison, but the mash he was served was probably a tablespoons worth. Both meals tasted lovely, but definitely not worth the price charged.

Smart pub atmosphere. Good service, food well presented and tasty.

Gorgeous little pub/restaurant. Food was lovely, great menu choice. Friendly staff. Warm and welcoming atmosphere. We will be back. Came across it by chance, glad we found it.

Gorgeous place. Lovely, helpful staff, dog friendly, chilled atmosphere and amazing food! Very wholesome.

Thanks again Winton. Yet again you did not disappoint. Wonderful Christmas menu thoroughly enjoyed by all. From salmon starters to turkey dinner and venison option all were tremendous. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and all the best for 2025. Robert Denholm and party

What a terrible disappointment! We are local to the pub, and have been a number of times. However, tonight we were so disappointed at the food!! Burnt chips (that we are guessing were held hot in an alto sham, totally stale too), split bernaise sauce x 2, tough steak (at £27 for a picanha), onion rings dripping in oil, a burnt steak pie that someone had obviously tried to scrape the burnt bits off with a knife, and an argument from the kitchen that we could hear when we sent the pie and the sauces back. Let’s just say they were not happy!! My ‘fermented tomato salsa’ was the roughly chopped baby tomatoes in the pic…. Wow! As locals, we would support this pub at least once a week (and have been regularly) if the food was decent. When they opened the food was super, and we really enjoyed visiting, but I don’t think we will be back. The only saving grace was the absolutely charming service from the young service team…. They should get a bonus just for being so lovely!

We had a family dinner on Friday 6 Dec ‘24 - the staff and team was amazing and very attentive. The service was excellent and the meals were excellent. Thank you for looking after our little South African family so well.

Gluten free sticky toffee pudding 👍

Been here a few times but the service today was terrible.waited 20 minutes after finishing our main course and still they never came to take away our plates in the end my husband had to go up and asked for bill and no it was not busy

Very pleasant experience, served by 2 delightful young waiters. Food was top notch, recommend the new festive menu and homemade sorbet.

Beautiful pub in a beautiful village. Good food and service.

Great food, although the portions are quite small. Also, we went on a Sunday in December, despite being advertised on the website they weren’t offering the 2 courses for £27, when I asked why, I was told that it was due to the time of the year and there was a Festive menu, which in all honesty was pretty much the same as the standard Sunday menu but double the price. Seems like they just want to up sell because of the time of year. The other thing that annoyed me was the member of waiting staff who thought it was appropriate to make a joke about myself and my girlfriend ordering sparkling water, he made a rather unfunny quip about ‘this end of the table being boring’. Casting aspersions on whether someone chooses to drink alcohol or not is not really what I expect when I’m out for Sunday lunch with my family.

We went to the Winton for Mum's Birthday lunch on Sunday. BRILLIANT! The best Roast Beef I've ever had. All of us were delighted by every dish we had. As a bonus, the service was perfect too....lovely people who you can tell are passionate about making your visit a pleasure. Thank you.

We were warmly greeted & served in good time & with excellent staff. It was my Mum’s birthday & they treated her so kindly. Would highly recommend

Lovely meal out for my birthday and second time I have been. Very professional friendly staff members & attentive to detail. Food was incredible and one of the best steaks I have ever had!! Previous time I had the steak pie which was also fantastic - highly recommend . Oh and they have incredible hand soap in the bathrooms!

Such a great restaurant in Pencaitland East Lothian

First visit here.. very impressed will defo be back. Beautiful food, gr8 friendly service and a beautiful place.. immaculate.

My wife and I went early Saturday evening for an anniversary dinner. The starters were excellent, but then the main courses arrived. My wife had the Sea Bass, expecting a reasonable sized piece of fish, she received a few thin pieces of tail end the skin was very rubbery. The accompanying, what she thought was something aubergine based vegetables,didn't look appetising at all, in fact it had a resemblance to something a dog had regurgitated. I had the Beef and Bone Marrow burger. This at the start was a very tasty burger albeit, with the dressings rather oily, until I got to the last mouth full, which appeared to be more marrow than beef, which I had to remove from my mouth rather quickly. At this point I decided against a dessert, I had one from our freezer when I got home. We had passed The Winton many times and had said we must try it. We had returned from an Holiday the day before and with it being our anniversary I thought we would go rather than cook at home. I am sorry I did now. To be honest I found The Winton to be slightly overpriced but under average food quality when compared to other restaurants in the surrounding area. Very unlikely we would return.

Out for a late lunch with my Dad. He had the soup and I had a fig and feta salad. Both starters were divine. My Dad had the macaroni and I had a small fish and chips. They were both wonderful

Dinner First time visiting and definitely be back the food was excellent also the service again excellent 5 stars from us 16th October Date of visit: October 2024

First time visiting and definitely be back the food was excellent also the service again excellent 5 stars from us 16th October

Lovely food and welcoming staff.

Lovely place, staff very friendly but never in my life have I had chicken stroganoff on mashed potato very disappointed. Also £34 for a bottle of wine is ridiculous, a lesson learned to always ask the price before drinking.

Fabulous food in a wonderful environment. The staff were friendly and attentive. Highly recommended.

Very quiet place, very good service, good food

For our first meal in Scotland we dined at "The Winton" and what a great discovery in this pretty village! A very warm welcome, we felt immediately at ease, a very pretty place and the meal was delicious!! I recommend +++

The old Winton Arms is now a contemporary and excellent pub / restaurant! We had a great lunch yesterday, brilliant food served by the friendly and efficient team. Great VFM. Looking forward to a return visit two weeks tomorrow for my big birthday!

⭐ Absolutely fantastic! ⭐ Popped in for an impromptu lunch which didn't disappoint. The food was excellent and the service was perfect, the staff were so personable and relaxed, we absolutely loved the 'non-stuffy' vibe of the place. I hope the management and owners know how lucky they are to have such excellent staff. Thank you for having us and we can't wait to come back.

Not been here for several months as I felt that the menu was very poor for vegetarian/coeliac and had provided this feedback direct to the restaurant. I noted on their website that the menu had been changed a bit recently, so as a local resident, I decided to give it another go. It was hugely disappointing to note that there was still no GF/vegetarian main course. Even for a vegetarian the only choice is Mac’n cheese which is hardly an inspiring offer for a restaurant of this calibre. I had a shared starter of veg pakora with my wife. I then had another starter dish of beetroot salad with a portion of chips as a’main course’. All in all a very poor dining experience.

Second time experiencing and lovely as always 🙏🏻

The service at The Winton was incredible. We had a young guy and a woman who served us (sorry, I don’t know the names). I called initially to change our booking time to an hour later, and then to say we were going to be late. The staff were so accommodating and nothing was any trouble for them. I had the chicken wings and some truffle fries. The chicken wings were delicious with a great flavour, plus they gave me a bowl of water to clean my hands in. The truffle fries were ok, not the best I’ve had. My husband had the pie, which he said is the best pie he has ever had. It’s a great compliment as we travel a lot/eat out a lot. It wasn’t a cheap meal but completely worth it. Would recommend to anyone!

It gets busy - so book. You won’t regret it. Whether for an intimate small table or a table for 20 - they can accommodate and make it all run so smoothly (well organised and attentive staff). In our large group - all were happy: the kids, the veggies, the meat eaters and especially those ordering the sticky toffee for dessert…what a treat with the glazed banana. Enjoy!

Outstanding! In every way, food was phenomenal, lovely service, and beautiful surroundings, really impressed would definitely recommend and we will go back.

Great pub doing modern country pub meals. The mac and cheese was incredible! There is an outside seating area and multiple rooms in the main dining area. Well worth a visit!

Great food. Dog friendly. Could do with more parking space.

Always a lovely atmosphere and great food. Made for a lovely birthday dinner

Nice place but food very poor. Club sandwich was only 2 slices of bread instead of usual 3 for a club sandwich and only toasted on outside so was very wet and soggy inside. Bacon was 2 strips of fatty streaky bacon which had to remove as inedible. Steak pie poor, soggy pastry and brick hard vegetables. Expensive for very poor sub standard food. We won’t be back.

Ordered the small fish and chips (£14) - the fish was about 2mm thick and no bigger than a small envelope. Surprisingly, the triple cooked chips were both black/burnt and also soggy - quite the achievement and totally inedible. Apart from that the pea puree & tarter sauce were nice.

We ate at lunchtime on a Sunday as a group of six. Surroundings were exceptional. Service was very good. All food was superb. Some of our group had the Sunday roast beef dinner saying it was the best they had had eating out. All food was fresh, perfectly presented and served perfectly not. Very highly recommended.

We ate at lunchtime on a Sunday as a group of six. Surroundings were exceptional. Service was very good. All food was superb. Some of our group had the Sunday roast beef dinner saying it was the best they had had eating out. All food was fresh, perfectly presented and served perfectly not. Very highly recommended.

Lovely evening, excellent service, fabulous food though the special starter of a scallop with other little tasty bits was rather expensive for what it was. All in all a great meal and we'll be back - thank you

We had a great lunch at Winton. The steak pie and steak sandwich was very good and we also ordered triple cook chips … they tasted amazing.. Will definitely go back to sample other foods on the menu also have to mention the service the guy serving was friendly and very attentive. Than you

So nice to dine locally and have decent unhurried service and lovely food We will certainly be back.

Went for Sunday lunch with family. We all had roast beef with all the trimmings which was delicious. The sticky toffee pudding and cheesecake also were very acceptable. Hope to return.

The winton is a lovely place to eat,meet friends .We were there on Sunday and it was busy and the staff looked and sounded stressed. The food is good, then only criticism I have is the roast potatoes were burnt and there was only 2 per person.I might go back and give it a other good just to see if there is a difference. Also not the cheapest place to eat

Great food, lovely staff. Trish was very helpful.

My “go to” local place for dinner or lunch out. Food and service always excellent. Light and airy. Tables not too close together so you can have a private conversation. Just love it!

We visited the Winton last Thursday for the first time and it was excellent! My husband had the Cullen Skink soup to start with, which was divine. I had the Chicken main and he had the Mussels. We finished with Chocolate Fondant. Every course was fantastic. Staff were very accomodating. Trish showed us where the toilets etc were, after warmly greeting us. Dan was informative on all the food & managed to secure us a table, despite the restaurant being busy when we hadn't pre booked. Every staff member was polite and helpful. Lovely ambience to this place. Dog friendly and our large breed dog was also made very welcome, with treats and a bowl of water. We would definitely visit again when in East Lothian. Thoroughly recommend the Winton!

Love the Winton probs as it was my childhood home from 1965 till my dad retired 1984

Thought we'd try The Winton for lunch as have driven past a number of times. Very pleasantly surprised, lovely main dining room, service was excellent and friendly. Had our dog and they couldn't have been more accommodating. Food was lovely and tasty. I think we've just found a new lunch favourite!

We had a lovely night, very much enjoyed the food, appreciated the excellent service and will definitely be returning soon. Many thanks to the staff.

Great place and will definitely be back , the food and cocktails were first class 👌🏽

Pretty uninspiring venue, bland decor and old fashioned vibe. Food was nice, fairly cheap but nothing special. Wouldn't rush back.

Had a family Birthday meal here this evening for a group of 20. Absolutely stunning from start to finish! Food fresh, localy sourced and easily one of the nicest dining experiences I have had in a very long time (Easily 2 years!) Cullen skink was divine. Steak pie melted in your mouth with the most amazing buttery pastry. Lastly service by our waiter Dan was nothing short of exceptional. Amazing Interaction with all the guests and nothing was too much trouble. He went above and beyond and is an absolute credit to the restaurant!! It was my first time here and it certainly won't be my last!!!

Amazing vegan food and fantastic staff, especially Dan.

Absolutely loved our first visit to the Winton last weekend, so much so we're going again tomorrow. What really made our experience amazing was our waiter, Dan. What an incredible guy! So helpful, kind and polite - we had an issue in the car park and Dan handled the situation amicably & professionally. He went above and beyond and he's an absolute asset to the team!

Went to the Winton for the first time on Mother’s day with the family. Food and service were both fantastic and overall atmosphere of the restaurant. Will definitely be back!

So 12 of my family went there for Mothers Day,food was fantastic,so was the service!! The other thing which made our day was Daniel(i think thats his name) long curly hair with glasses,such a funny guy,he even managed to get in a few family pics😂😂we will defo be back xx

Amazing place for a meal , brilliant staff, great food but have to just state the high chairs are terrible , to low for tables, no trays, really dangerous our granddaughter ended up hurting herself as did the table beside us little boy. Not well thought through

Wonderful food. Great menu choices. Friendly and attentive staff. We had a very enjoyable evening and can't wait for our next visit.

Excellent food and service. Lovely place. We will definitely return.

Beautiful food and great service. Would definitely recommend

We had an amazing evening celebrating my parents 60th wedding anniversary with a party of 9. The staff were lovely and very attentive and the food was delicious.I couldn’t recommend the Winton enough.

Attractive interior. Friendly staff. Excellent pub food.

We had a lovely experience at The Winton. Trish warmly greeted us at the door (and showed us where the bathrooms are, I wish everywhere did this!) and continued to provide an exceptional level of service throughout our meal. The food was amazing and the portion sizes were large; we were stuffed! The drinks were also tasty and served with great enthusiasm from the sommelier. The atmosphere was warm and cosy but still lively. I had such a good time that I had booked to return the following week, before we even left. Highly recommend.

Thoroughly enjoyed the steak pie served by friendly, attentive staff.

Food and service is the best about

Lovely meal in stylish atmosphere

Food was lovely, attentive waiter service and a good ambience. Highly recommend a visit

Great food at a fair price and wonderful staff

I cannot overstate how exciting it was for my gluten free wife to be able to choose from so many dishes. This is the gold standard as far as she's concerned. The execution of the dishes did justice to the produce, much of which was locally and ethically sourced. Our server, Trish, was welcoming, knowledgeable, going above and beyond on account of my wife's dietary requirements. The dining areas on offer vary from open and bright to snug and intimate, which provides options to suit every occasion. Can't wait to be back, a real Sunday afternoon treat.

Great service (and banter) from Dan and the food was freshly cooked & super tasty!

Never had a bad experience at Winton. We were having a family get together and you looked after us so well .All the staff are excellent and the young lady serving our table was so pleasant. The food was excellent as usual and thank you for making it a special day

Great service, food, drink and atmosphere.

Lovely place...foods nice, bit pricey.

Very good food and service. The venison was excellent! Nice babble when full but could easily chat to my wife. The setting/main room isn't particularly special but did note two smaller rooms that looked to be for groups or private hire. Decent bar. Great to have places like this nearby so don't always have to trek into the city for a special occasion.

We popped in for drinks and nibbles with our dog. Great festive atmosphere, relaxing background music and soft lighting made our experience really enjoyable. Service was excellent too. We felt very welcome with our dog and look forward to being back soon!

Lovely place and great food. Only reason it's not a solid 5 stars is the chips weren't that good. The steak pie, battered fish and the sticky toffee pudding were all to die for. Would definitely go back.

Great food lovely place great service lots of parking

Lovely food and the service was excellent. Friendly staff that truly cared that we enjoyed our food. Thoroughly enjoyed our visit

Soggy cold chips, fish was nearly all batter. I have had a good meal here but this did not meet that standard.

Friendly and considerate service, together with good food!

Had our 50th anniversary meal here it wasn't the cheapest but staff and food excellent

We had a cocktail to take a break before our tour at the Glenkinchie distillery. The pub is really pretty, in a chic, very warm Scottish countryside atmosphere. The staff is efficient and smiling, the cocktails were delicious.