Address: 14 Southgate St, Winchester, SO23 9EF

Telephone number: 01962 841414

Website: http://www.hotelduvin.com/

Date of visit: 8 December 2009

Approximate cost per head: £25 +

Comments on wine list/beer: one of the biggest wine lists I have ever seen

Summary:

I went with 2 friends for lunch.

I was really looking forward to this as I had heard so much about it.

The first thing I noticed was that there was no table cloth. My mate M – who practically lived there – said: it’s only a bistro! Well, nearly all French bistros that I have visited in France have table cloths. By the way, the restaurant was pretty full for a Tuesday lunch time.

The menu was interesting; there was a section for vegetarians and a Christmas menu. We chose pigeon, chicken liver and Jerusalem artichoke soup – I had the soup. The soup was very nice – smooth and creamy – but it tasted of a normal vichyssoise. Soups made from Jerusalem artichokes or celeriac should taste of the vegetable!

My main course of burger and chips cost £13.50. When I asked for it to be cooked medium, the waiter – to his credit – explained that they only serve it well done as it was not made on site. When it arrived, it was a finely minced version similar to a Birds Eye quarter pounder. The texture was very smooth which suggested that it was machine made. The chips that came with it were salted and far too salty for my taste – why are more and more restaurants (over) salting their chips?

My friends had ox cheek which came as several large lumps in a heavily reduced sauce. That was £16.50. Side orders of vegetables are another £2.95 each. My friends assured me that it was well cooked but at £16.50 for 4 lumps….…………

On the other hand, the wine list was very interesting. We had a bottle of Clarendon Hill Cabernet Sauvignon. Clarendon Hill is supposed to rival Penfold for the top end Shiraz in Australia. At £71 a bottle, it was the highlight of the day. It was frsh and tasted like a great cab from Napa Most wine here has a 200% + mark-up which is not bad. At the end of the meal, my mate M managed to get us a tour of the cellar. When the sommelier was asked: which is the greatest wine in the cellar? He said that it was a Las Cas 82. This is very strange as Leoville Las Cas 82 (second growth, St Julian) is a 100 points wine according to Robert Parker. I have drunk several bottles and in my view, it’s a dark brooding wine – very dense and woody. It’s not a restaurant wine as it only goes with heavy game and oxtail. You can drink it here for £380 a bottle – it auctions for just under £200 a bottle.

Overall, I found the the food average. However, it charges above average prices. The other point to note is that there is no telephone number for this place on the bill or the corporate web site.

Eddie