Wenzels in Winchester

We always like this pub for food and that the costs are kept at a decent price. Always give you good size portions too. We have found staff always busy, the thing is you can’t tell if it’s a pub or a restaurant. Which is quite confusing, trying to do both and when you’re queuing you don’t know if it’s for food or just drinks. There is one lady there that is quite rude to people but we didn’t see her this time. But this lady will ruin this pub if she isn’t careful. But we do like the food here!

I have no idea why this is ranked so low down in the list of places to eat in Winchester. It is quite simply the best food with great service. The fish is always fresh and the burgers delicious. Our go to pub and we will be back very soon.

£26.50 for a day pass, although asked for £30 which includes donation. Our party was made up of 5 adults - we didn’t donate. To put into context, my husband and I have been members of Marwell in our days before our children. It holds a special place in our hearts. We moved away but always managed to make at least 2 visits a year as the children grew up & still do - the kids are now into their 20’s and often visit with us. Sadly the experience over the last 10 -15 years has progressively gotten worse. Every time we go we hope it will be better. Marwell was always at the forefront of conservation and education & had an extremely successful breeding program for the rhinos and giraffes. Much money has been spent on enclosures that didn’t work, the snow leopards, the cheeta, the walkway over the persian leopard, now cloud leopard, the new tropical house, the gibbon enclosure, kids play areas. Now it is a shell. Few animals, lots of paddocks full of weeds, & plastic bottles & little or no information. The annual membership is a steal but place feels more of a kiddies play area than a serious home for conservation and education. It’s expensive and disappointing. Bit on context - The Cotswold Wildlife Park is £19 for an adult. A much smaller facility but full of animals and information & staff happy to help and answer questions.

This pub proclaim on their very own website to be a ‘friendly local pub’, ‘families welcome’, ‘friendly publicans’, ‘where community comes together’, ‘you’ll feel part of the family’…which is quite frankly outrageous given our two experiences here. On the first occasion my little boy became upset in the pub (over something i cant remember- but hes 4, so standard 4yo behaviour which lasted only a minute or two). And when i came back in from the garden, I heard them laughing and one member of staff said ‘hes a brat, and his mother just cant control him which isnt my problem’. Then (heaven knows why we went back) - my friends little boy cut his cheek on the side of a bench in the beer garden - they refused to give us any first aid or call a taxi for A&E, let alone any empathy or basic duty of care. When my husband challenged the manager (Ade) and he said to us ‘if i had my way id make this an adults only pub so we dont have to deal with these nightmare kids’. I could not believe how cruel and uncaring the people working here could be. A little boy had hurt himself and they couldn’t have cared less- but more than that- they were hostile, unhelpful and offensive about the whole thing. Despite it being our local, we have not returned- and we will not be.

lovely pub but my only complaint is that legaly when a drink has been served that drink must be supplied to the recipient no matter what the time is and in the case of my visit i bought a drink near closing time and as soon as I bought that drink it was taken of me which is not just illegal but also unfair so for this reason I can not recommend this establishment at all