The Dog & Crook Brambridge — Restaurant in Winchester

Popped in after a walk on Saturday around 7.45pm. pub was reasonably quiet and quite a few young staff around. Ordered a New Zealand S blanc and a Merlot, wines were lovely and the service was very polite and speedy. We ordered food. One sweet potato and ginger soup, one calamari and a vegetable Dahl with Naan. TBh the food was really poor, my partner couldn't eat the curry as it was basically a tin of tomatoes with roughly chopped veg, lentils and too much curry powder, no flavour, no depth, just watery heat. She had half a fork and left the rest. The soup was similar, so lacking in substance and flavour and just basically tomato passata no hint of anything else. The calamari has a decent little side salad and came with garlic mayo, Calamari was ok , just deep fried , no lemon and jo dressing on the side salad. We did say the curry was really poor and not edible. "Sorry" was the comment. £40 lesson learned. - sadly won't be visiting again. So disappointing as we are local. & Don't even get me started on the coffee, smallest coffee ever & just about warm, cups from the 80's. Come on guys you can do...

We gave this place a go for a Sunday lunch, After the relaunch we had high hopes. We had a roast dinner sharing platter and 2 sirloin steaks ( not on the menu but the chef agreed to cook it as we had 2 picky kids with us) The beef was slightly undercooked for our liking and only 2 thinly sliced rather fatty pieces at that, The roast potatoes were crispy on the outside but unfortunately were not fluffy on the inside and were borderline undercooked and there was only 3 potatoes each. The veg and the yorkshires were top draw though. The steaks were well cooked and the chips very good. Our total bill including drinks for 4 people came to £116. £50 for a sharing roast platter with 3 potatoes and 2 slices of beef seems a little bit excessive to me and the Steak was £26 which again is a little bit steep but it was good quality. The lad serving us was extremely friendly and helpful but the lady behind the bar could have popped a smile on her face a little bit more! Overall a nice meal but overpriced and the final execution just left a little bit...

Sadly, we had a disappointing few visits here recently. Sad, because we were here in September and the food was really good, and we had lovely service.

A week ago, we walked in and tried to book for a meal on a Friday night, and were told that the kitchen closed at 8.30pm, it was about 8.31 at the time! We were a little surprised that it should be closed so early on a busy Friday night but were given no explanation.

Tonight, another Friday, we decided we’d try for just a drink instead. The locals seemed really cheerful and created a friendly atmosphere. The staff however looked mostly pretty unhappy, not at all smiley or friendly, and were not welcoming at all. It also took 15-mins to get our drinks and the pub was not busy. It felt like there was no one in charge and the staff seemed bored and miserable.

It is unlikely we will visit again… a shame as very local to us. The staff clearly need some customer service training, and the poor lad who was clearly new...