The Square Cow — Restaurant in Winchester

We had a spontaneous visit to this lovely quirky pub on a Sunday. I rang to see if I needed to book and got in 20 minutes later. It was myself, my husband and my little dog. (Dogs are very much welcome)

The place itself is a bit different! But in a good way. Very oldy woldy with charm. Cosy but spread out over 2 floors. The stairs are quite steep, so if anyone comes here with limited mobility then I would suggest asking to be sat downstairs. This wasn't a problem for me.

We were greeted by the lovely lady who took my phone reservation. She remembered my name and took us straight to our table. Drink orders taken fairly swiftly followed by our food orders. I was excited to try the roast dinners as they are my most favourite meal!

I ordered beef roast and my husband ordered pork.

Wow! We were not disappointed!! They were amazing. My beef was thick and tender, as well as my husbands pork. It came with 4 roast potatoes, 1 big strip of parsnip, cauliflower cheese, carrots and tenderstem brocoli. Along with a fluffy perfect Yorkshire pudding and a tasty stuffing ball. With a great amount of gravy. I could not fault this.. it was the most perfect amount of everything.

All at a great price too! It was £13.95 for 1 meat or £15.95 for 2 I believe.

1st time here and we will definitely be back! The normal menu and the starters for the Sunday menu looked amazing too.

Thank you for a...

Booked a table 3 weeks in advance and we were put in a side room near the gents toilets. When I booked I’d been told there was going to be a new menu, but that didn’t happen. We had no idea whether it was table service or order at the bar. I keep seeing on Facebook that there’s a specials board but this wasn’t pointed out or explained. We ordered. I specified I required Gluten Free. Few minutes later, we were served bread and oil. Bread was not gluten free. Glad I checked! Only one gluten free starter on offer which was okay, but nothing I’d ever order again. It was covered in croutons so I asked if it was GF. I was told they must be. I decided not to risk it. I didn’t want to be ill for a week and they didn’t seem to care enough for me to trust them. My friend couldn’t eat her starter of lamb croquettes as they were so hard and dry. Mains were better but not great. Lamb was dry, roasted ‘cherry’ tomatoes were huge vine tomatoes and the dauphinois weren’t great either. We paid as quickly as possible and went to Greens for dessert. The lady working behind the bar was trying to serve us and everyone else downstairs, but was rushed off her feet. I think there are tables upstairs too but no idea why we didn’t get to sit up there. We sat looking out the window commenting on why there were so many cobwebs! I think a spring...

So the good points, service good, the young lady was pleasant and interactive. And now for the not so good points. The menu choice was limited, I decided on a jacket potato to then be told they had run out, so I then choose the burger which judging by the very expensive price £13.50 I thought would be special , how wrong I was! As you can see the portion size was child like, the chips over done and although the meat was tasty it was that small it was lost in the bun. My friend on the other hand ordered a ham hock and Emmental cheese sandwich which came on white bread mixed leaf garnish a few crisps, unfortunately the bread was stale with mould showing, the waitresses apologised and offered to replace it which they did however now on brown bread prosumably because the rest of the white bread was off too my friend was told that his sandwich would be taken off the bill. The bill came to £19.50 which included two very expensive soft drinks. Sorry, but for what your charging, the portion size and the quality issues we experienced this was incredibly poor...