Alfies, Winchester

Official site of Alfies - www.alfieswinchester.com

Official site of Alfies - www.alfieswinchester.com

A modernised incarnation of an old pub, with painted-up woodwork and a tidy interior, which loses some of the character but is not totally unpleasant. At the back is a large courtyard area including some covered parts in old buildings. It does have a good selection of ales though (and Cask Marque accreditation) so worth a visit. Perhaps a little unfair to say it could be much worse, it is certainly better than it would be if taken over by a chain restaurant which seems to be the fate of many.

Popped in here for lunch after a business meeting. Pretty decent pub grub and a nice pint of Red Cat Prowler to wash it down with. Not knowing Winchester and calling in totally at random, I think we made a decent choice, would certainly call again.

Perhaps a surprise GBG entry (it hadn’t ever pinged my radar on previous visits to Winchester and it was known more as an evening bar venue) so I gave it a go. Refurbed a while back, it’s a relatively open-plan, multi-pillared interior with a scuffed wood floor and done-out in fairly dull neutral tones (battleship grey etc). An offshoot room to the right has a bit of character and lots of mirrors. So I’m not really sure what they spent half a mill on, to be honest. Newspapers available, though you’d do well to concentrate over the dire selection of piped music. To the beer - five pumps with three ales on; Red Cat Prowler (very good nick) and Porter (good) plus Flacks Double Drop, alongside Westons Cider. Pricey. Overall - nice beer but not great as a drinking venue. Crawl fodder rather than a session, if I'm honest. Still, hats off that they're giving ale a go and doing well. 6.5

This pub is set in quite a nice old building opposite the Guildhall and has previously been known as the India Arms and the Old Coach House. The latter seems an apt name, as the pub has a covered passageway down one side which leads into a rear courtyard where I imagine the old stable block would have been. The pub itself has a bare boarded interior with the servery along the rear wall and seating areas to either side and along the front wall. Standard chairs and unusual pews with Latin text on the back run under the front windows, whilst comfy banquette seating is provided on the right hand side of the room, under a TV screen which remained turned off throughout our visit. There's a smart fireplace nearby and another can be found over to the left where seating is hidden a little inside a couple of recesses along the side wall. Walls have high panels painted in neutral colours whilst the servery sports a nice decorative counter front which is let down somewhat by the unimaginative modern bar back. Decor is limited to a series of black and white portraits of famous faces, including one of Michael Caine in the role of Alfie, which perhaps explains where the pub got its name from. The aforementioned passageway has more portraits on the whitewashed walls alongside a number of old enamel advertisements, paintings and clocks, all underneath a ceiling plastered with even more items. The passage leads out to a nice courtyard garden with a good deal of seating and a converted double garage to the rear which houses a pool table in one half and has lots of seating around a mighty looking burner in the other. There were six handpulls on the bar offering Red Cat Mrs M's Porter, Flowerpots Perridge Pale, Flack Manor Double Drop and beers from Itchen Valley and Upham as well as a real cider. I gave the Porter a try and it was a very nice drop in excellent condition and worthy of the pub's current Good Beer Guide listing. We popped in here primarily to have a bite to eat and found the food to be of a very good quality and at fairly reasonable prices. I can't say I remember this pub in any of its previous guises, but this incarnation certainly impressed. I thought the pub had been tastefully fitted out with high quality food and drink available, enabling it to attract a good mix of customers who in turn generated a good atmosphere on a late Friday afternoon visit. I really liked this one and would rank it up there with some of the best Winchester has to offer.

My old Hampshire beer guide shows that in the 1980s this place was the India Arms and probably a Watney's pub. Since then it's been given the Islington treatment inside with grey paint everywhere including on some of the old beams. TV Sport is heavily advertised which is off putting but quite rightly nothing was being shown on a Thursday afternoon. The bar has six hand pumps which had a cider and five beers from more or less local micros, Flower Pots Perridge Pale & Gooden's Gold, Red Cat Mr M's Porter, West Berks Good Old Boy and Three Castles Autumn Leaves. I went for the Porter which was in good nick but cost a ridiculous £4.20. It's a 4.5% ABV beer not a barley wine or an imperial stout. Prices like that and the TV Sport would deter me from coming here again but I wouldn't be missing much.

Any pub with a name like "Alfies" is unlikely to find myself darkening the door. Thankfully, having done my homework, it is a case of what's in a name? Inside there is a traditional pub with a large room sporting the bar and a smaller room to one side. Boarded floors, exposed brickwork including fireplaces, some wood panelling, lowish beamed ceilings with gnarled wooden posts. Decor includes various film stills including a great picture of Hitchcock, whether this is related to the pub name I don't know. The bar area was quite lively with a youngish crowd on Saturday evening, the side room was a bit more restrained so we camped here, a wall had a display of old domestic bedroom mirrors; football on TV with music playing at a sensible level. The atmosphere overall was convivial, there were newspapers in a rack by the fireplace. There is a huge outside area including an outbuilding with an open frontage, outside TV pool table and old metal advertisements. So, onto the beers, six pumps, Upham First Drop, Flack's Double Drop, Flowerpot's Perridge Pale, West Berks Good Old Boy, Red Cat Mr M's Porter plus a cider from Weston's. This place is well worth a visit, don't judge a book by its cover.