The Bishop on the Bridge, Winchester — Restaurant in Winchester

We would give 0 stars if possible. We pre-booked a table. Under no circumstances did it state were would be asked to disclose medical conditions before ordering a meal. (This isn't something that is legal anyway.) The waitress taking our food order got quite funny about us asking to order a smaller portion of food for one person out of our party of 4, and the manager who we requested to see made my relative feel very uncomfortable also. He made her disclose her medical condition in order to be able to order a smaller portion of food, (this is something we have been able to order in the past at this establishment and it was never an issue) not everyone can eat a huge meal for various reasons. The staff were quite rude and judgemental, subtly rolling their eyes, so she ended up not ordering or eating anything because of how awkward the staff and manager made her feel - not everyone is out for a meal for a celebration, it was a meeting between family members as her dad has just been diagnosed with cancer. Obviously the staff didn't know or need to know that, but did that have to be disclosed too??? We ordered a lot of drinks and 3 mains so were were not shy of spending money here. Our bill came to over £150. I don't see why requesting a smaller meal for an adult was an issue. Very strange for the staff to make it so. The food that other members of the party ordered either came out wrong or cold. We ordered some more drinks to our table and they were left for ages on the side of the bar for us to collect ourselves. Excellent table service, right? We also booked a table next to a window or a wall, but were seated on a table between 2 very busy tables, despite stating on the booking we would have 2 dogs with us. To be fair, the blonde waitress was very accommodating and let us move to a better table, however it was the rest of the staff serving us that made it a very disappointing and uncomfortable experience. Obviously we won't be returning here for food. Maybe in the future, please consider that people have medical conditions, and not humiliate them in front of everyone at the table and the staff. This bar has a lot to learn in customer service. I get that customer service is hard. I've done it myself for many years. It's hard working long hours in a busy bar, especially in the heat, and this is one of the reasons why we didn't make a fuss. That, and the fact we were getting ignored by the staff whilst they were continuously getting things wrong with our orders. It seemed very pointless and petty. Management should know and be trained, and also train their staff just how certain unnecessary attitudes can ruin a dining experience. Don't get into customer service if you aren't prepared to give good customer service. Can I add, there was no apology either, or discount offered. An apology would have gone a long way. The location of this bar and the lovely garden overlooking the river must be the only reason people come here, not for the customer service. It used to be a brilliant bar when owned by Owen in 2004, it's a shame he left as the pub has gone...

Looking forward to a nice bank holiday lunch with my son, daughter and son in law. This is what we got. We waited over an hour for our order to arrive (when we queried the wait we were offered free drinks), noticing the anxious looks of diners who had been there longer than us. Eventually the food arrived. I had ordered (quotes from menu) 'Norfolk chicken breast, sauteed potatoes, Mrs Owton's bacon, Savoy cabbage, tarragon sauce'. What I got was the worst meal I've ever been served outside of a hospital. Take a look at the photo; do you see any sauteed potatoes (those are boiled baby potatoes), or bacon; the few green specks must be the cabbage, and that looks suspiciously like a chicken thigh; the whole concoction drowning in a puddle of white stuff, presumably the tarragon sauce. Not the sort of thing you'd want to pay £14 for. I sent it back. The manager arrived. I pointed out that it was disgusting and those were boiled potatoes not sauteed. He tried telling me that the sauteed potatoes were mashed up with the cabbage and bacon in the slop in the bottom of the bowl. No, I didn't understand this either. The others had ordered dishes with 'triple-cooked chips'. See the other photo; they weren't even cooked once. You can get crispier chips at a roadside burger van. Perhaps the worst thing is that the management must have known they weren't able to cope with the number of customers they kept welcoming. OK, it was bank holiday, but they should have been prepared for that. The excuse offered by one of the waiting staff was that the kitchen was 'overwhelmed'. Meaning what? They didn't have enough cooks for what they should have known would be a busy day? And if they knew they couldn't provide a professional standard of cooking and service they should have been honest enough to have admitted it and stopped serving any more customers. What they did, effectively, was deceive us so that we wouldn't go somewhere else. Why didn't they realise that being dishonest with customers doesn't work in the long run? From what we could hear from other customers around us we weren't the only disgruntled diners. How many others won't return and will spread the word? Winchester is a major tourist city and whatever experience visitors from overseas have in The Bishop on the Bridge will be taken back to their own country as a representative impression of the standards of hospitality people can expect in England. So, despite the staff apologies and reduced bill I can't accept that this was a one-off or a situation that couldn't have been avoided. Someone at this placed screwed up and tried to muddle through instead of being honest and admitting that the best course would have been not to serve food rather than make customers wait over an hour for really bad food. As you've probably guessed I won't be returning to this, or any other Fullers establishment, there are plenty of better places to eat. And if I ever find Mr's Owton's bacon on a menu I'm going to remember this experience, so not a good outcome, by association,...

Disappointing and expected better. Food was o.k., nothing spectacular for the prices they charge but biggest let down was the disorganised and totally unco-ordinated table service system. Staff doing the waiting were trying to do everything for everyone present, sometimes tripping over each other but forgetting key stuff in the process. Taking orders from memory as seemed to be going on is an open invitation for hitches ensuing. I ordered the Sirloin of Beef Ciabatta and specifically asked for no Horseradish sauce which I despise. After a lengthy wait, the Ciabatta arrived with Horseradish sauce intact. The Triple Cooked chips on the plate were lukewarm which I didn't mention but I sure did the oversight with the Horseradish. The young man apologised and took the plate away to be replaced with how I wanted my order in the first place. 15 minutes or so later, this arrived and by this time my dining companion had finished their meal. At least the Triple Cooked chips were suitably hot second time around. Whenever you managed to get the attention of staff, they had an annoying knack of saying they'll be with you in 30 seconds, 2 minutes etc but of course by the time they eventually got round to you, it was way much longer than what they pledged. This was the case with paying the bill and having sat for around 15 minutes by which time my companion and I had put our jackets and Covid masks back on, the staff member I initially asked walked by carrying plates and realised his omission. Called for a colleague to take the plates off him while he finally went and got the card teller. I won't be in a hurry to go back. Management there really need to sort out their table service. In their efforts to comply with Covid reduction measures, they simply can't balance this with efficient and sufficient attention to customers. As we enter another lockdown and indoor provision for food and drinks is temporarily suspended, they should use the time...