Running Horse, Winchester

Official site of Running Horse - www.runninghorseinn.co.uk

Official site of Running Horse - www.runninghorseinn.co.uk

Much more a restaurant than a dining or gastro pub, the style of service is entirely restaurant in manner, waiting at the bar we were told to take a seat and someone would take an order. They did shortly after - twice - then the drinks arrived. To be fair once the diners settled down counter service was resumed. The pub is split down the middle into an L shaped bar area and a second roughly L shaped dining area, there’s a view into the kitchen as you enter at the back from the car park. It has stone floors, grey wainscoting with random photos etc, many of horses, on the cream coloured walls above, the counter is of pale grey painted pallet wood. The dining area is panelled in medium wood and has a collection of old books as decoration. Three pulls were serving two beers from Crafty Brewing (Surrey apparently), a bitter and a golden Ale, both fairly mundane, the golden being slightly better, both competently kept but nowt special, silk purses and sows ears come to mind or indeed what can and cannot be polished. Kegs are fairly ordinary but Pilsner Urquell and Grolsch were among them, no smooth of course. A selection of pump clips by the counter shows a mix of beers from the boring to the quite interesting. There does seem to be an element of local custom rather than the dining middle classes. There’s an outside seating area at the front and a big tepee at the back.