Cabinet Rooms — Restaurant in Winchester

Off the High street but eminently accessible, this brilliant cocktail lounge is one of Winchester’s most accomplished artisan establishments.

Located on Jewry St in Winchester, Cabinet Rooms lives a dual life as both cafe and cocktail bar. This charming, cosy and intimate venue offers a wide selection of aperitifs and cocktails complimented with a considered choice of wines and spirits.

The right ingredients for a cocktail lounge are well established - service, knowledge and decor lie at the heart of any successful outfit. Cabinet Rooms has all three in abundance and offers the discerning consumer a variety of experiences from quick pre-dinner cocktail through to a longer, leisurely journey through its carefully constructed drinks list.

Gary and Nick are consummate mixologists capable of accommodating off-menu requests as easily as they can turn out time-worn and reliable favourites. The wine list has an excellent representation of diverse wines that will please both local and visitors alike, including some rare Hampshire sparkling that is a must-try. Nibbles are available but weren’t sampled.

It’s decor is a pleasant and cosy mix that walks a well balanced line between Nouveau and Deco with a twist reflecting the owners own imprimatur. The intimate space is perfectly suited for its purpose, allowing for private conversation as well as mixing.

Our cocktails (one on menu and one off) were both carefully prepared, well presented and thoroughly delightful. The staff and owners are more than happy to discuss options and alternatives with you - their expansive and refined knowledge ensuring that no taste goes unfulfilled. Pricing is inline with industry standards.

Cabinet Rooms has the hallmarks of a well-planned, positioned and operated venue - making it a rare and welcome find in a sector not known for its success outside the M25.

Highly...

Visited on a saturday night for some cocktails. Very nicely decorated and themed and our group of 5 were given a private room. Service was slow to start but we forgave that as its was a Saturday night. Unfortunately, it became clearly apparent that service was slow due to poor managment rather then a busy saturday night. We had a lovely waiter who was obviously new and inexperienced but was very kind and learning the trade. Poor lad spilt three cocktails over me and my partner. Not an issue he apologised and cleaned it up. However the way the managment dealt with this was poor. They didnt help the boy clean up, no apology from the managment and no offer of a drink on the house or a discount for being soaked. When we asked that we should receive some sort of discount we were met with some hostility from managment. In the 1.5 hours we were there we only managed 1 drink each as the first were mostly served in my lap. The replacement came maybe 45 mins into service. We ordered more drinks an hour in and 15 mins later the waiter returned to advise they had cancelled our order and they wanted the table back in 15 mins. All in all nice setting, slow service, bad hospitality. Expect more for 10-12...

Please be wary, if you like a change of scenery to get on with a bit of work with your laptop, have a drink and some food, in what you hope is a welcoming atmosphere, the Cabinet Rooms is not the place for you.

I got asked to leave after having bought some lunch and a couple of hot drinks - the manager had seen on his CCTV from his office that I had stayed for what he deemed was too long. This was when the place was only about 20% full so they'd rather blindly adhere to a policy and the place continue to look fairly empty (which you would assume would be bad for business) and were happy to lose out on any further food and drink I would have bought in the afternoon.

I won't be going back and I imagine other customers who might like to purchase food and drink and do a little work in the process, will feel the same. All in all, a very...