Hampshire pub "has gone down the khazi" says top critic (From This is Hampshire)
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Giles Coren slams Winchester pub The Wykeham Arms
2:13pm Thursday 19th February 2009 in News
IT HAS been voted one of the UK's top ten pubs and is Hampshire dining pub of the year.
Winchester’s famed Wykeham Arms is renowned for its mix of history, good food and fine wine.
But its owners are today reeling from a savage review by a national food critic claiming it has “gone utterly down the khazi”
and turned into a “shameful clipjoint”.
In a searing rant about the decline of the historic drinking den, “a pub I used to love”, outspoken journalist and broadcaster Giles Coren gave the cooking nought out of ten and urged people not to go there.
Instead the critic, best known for appearances on TV’s F-Word with chef Gordon Ramsay, suggested diners visit Winchester’s Black Rat restaurant in Chesil Street, which he praised for its “ballsy cooking”.
But Coren was unrelentingly scathing about the Wykeham.
“Whoever the hell is running the place now has made a terrible mess of it,” he said.
“Not in the sense that it looks different, or that it isn't pretty much permanently full. It’s just that the food has gone utterly down the khazi.”
He described a succession of disastrous meals, particularly an order for ten steak sandwiches.
“What arrived were ten stinking, grey slabs of gristle slapped between two slices of, of all things, focaccia. Oh, the horror when cheap, ugly produce meets pretentiousness and ineptitude.
When asked which were the rare ones, the waitress said: ‘Chef cooked them all the same because they were thin.’ But they were not thin. They were thick as a sewage-worker’s hands, and twice as smelly. The meat was grey and chewy and appeared to have been boiled.”
He was even more scathing about owners the beer giant Fullers, which took over the pub when they bought out Hampshire’s Gales brewery in 2005.
“The Wykeham Arms is destroyed. They have turned a great old English institution into a shameful clip-joint. It is a shuddering, howling tragedy.
“They (and it is owned by Fuller's, so I guess that is who I mean) have decided to exploit the pub's reputation by slashing the quality, ramping the margins, and screwing every last penny they can out of mug punters with outdated guidebooks.”
A Fullers spokesman said: “It is one review out of thousands that we get and the vast majority are incredibly positive. We are surprised and disappointed that he felt it did not come up to scratch.”
Comments(46)
Denzil'
says...
2:28pm Thu 19 Feb 09
wellow werdna
says...
2:34pm Thu 19 Feb 09
D'Arcy Sarto
says...
2:45pm Thu 19 Feb 09
wellow werdna wrote::-)
I will drink to that - just not in there!!!
JillyBee
says...
2:52pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Top food critics like Giles Coren do not need to "try to gain attention" -the restaurant trade takes notice of him anyway, which is why this has hit the headlines. Now if it had been "Denzil, allegedly from Chilworth" complaining, then that might have been some "jumped-up loser" talking!
harleywoman
says...
3:18pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Millbrook Dave
says...
3:28pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Denzil'
says...
3:29pm Thu 19 Feb 09
harleywoman wrote:You can jog on aswell.
You're a chauvinistic ignorant little man Denzil..
harleywoman
says...
3:36pm Thu 19 Feb 09
harleywoman
says...
3:40pm Thu 19 Feb 09
hulla baloo
says...
3:45pm Thu 19 Feb 09
harleywoman wrote:Looks like neither of you have 'met' Denzil before.
well JillyBee looks like Denzil has finished his ironing as he is back on here again!!
Nai Sorc
says...
3:45pm Thu 19 Feb 09
harleywoman wrote:perhaps he meant hog on as well!
you sad little man Denzil is that all you can comeback with..?
King Mush
says...
3:47pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Food critics? Like most 'critics' who are mostly those who have never done well in their chosen vocation so spend their life in trying to write 'amusing' put-downs. Pure jealousy across the spectrum.
To quote an old but relevant cliche:
CRITICS ARE LIKE EUNUCHS IN THE HAREM
THEY KNOW HOW IT'S DONE
THEY CAN SEE HOW IT'S DONE
BUT CANT DO IT THEMSELVES.
Ozmosis
says...
3:47pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Steady Eddie
says...
3:51pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Bill-B
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3:56pm Thu 19 Feb 09
King Mush
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4:00pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Steady Eddie wrote:Who cares?
Denzil lives in Romsey, not Chilworth, He had a letter published in the local rag last week highlighting tree carnage on a railway line.
He might live in Romsey and concerned about trees but 'logs on' in Chilworth.
alwoodcock
says...
4:06pm Thu 19 Feb 09
alwoodcock
says...
4:12pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Jerry Parsons
says...
4:12pm Thu 19 Feb 09
I've stopped going there now, I much prefer the Black Boy.
wellow werdna
says...
4:20pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Iain
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4:45pm Thu 19 Feb 09
alwoodcock
says...
4:49pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Bright Spark
says...
4:52pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Ozmosis wrote:That's a shocking statement and should be removed from this forum. HSB/USB/ESB are pretty damned good, better than that Stella rubbish that Denzil stinks of.
It used to be a great pub, but Fullers beers aren't what I consider real beer so I long since stopped visiting.
S!mon
says...
5:07pm Thu 19 Feb 09
I've not seen him before, so is the picture correct?
Will Carson
says...
5:14pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Iain wrote:Maybe he was with nine others? Doesn't take much thinking about...
Why did a food critic order ten steak sandwiches? Surely he should have been sampling a wider variety of the pub's produce? Or was he just really, really, craving steak.
teh
says...
5:22pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Bright Spark
says...
5:34pm Thu 19 Feb 09
:(
KA
says...
5:37pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Denzil'
says...
5:41pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Steady Eddie wrote:Get with it loser, I got my own flat last March.
Denzil lives in Romsey, not Chilworth, He had a letter published in the local rag last week highlighting tree carnage on a railway line.
Denzil'
says...
5:43pm Thu 19 Feb 09
harleywoman wrote:Look woman, I'm a legend on this website. Show a bit more respect and you might get some back.
you sad little man Denzil is that all you can comeback with..?
KA
says...
5:52pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Ocean Village resident
says...
6:01pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Got to love the gross exaggeration in that statement. It's never been a great old English institution.
obelisker
says...
6:37pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Denzil'
says...
7:31pm Thu 19 Feb 09
KA wrote:I think you should shut up.
I think people on this site think your more like a Troll.
Dr Alimantado
says...
7:40pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Jerry Parsons wrote:whatever floats your boat, as long as it is legal
Sadly the critic is right, albeit a little vitriolic for some reason. I've stopped going there now, I much prefer the Black Boy.
Big Vern
says...
7:58pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Anyway, The King Alfred pub is the best in Winch, fantastic food, local nice people too.
Denzil'
says...
8:16pm Thu 19 Feb 09
B. L.
says...
10:26pm Thu 19 Feb 09
8:16pm Thu 19 Feb 09
"The best pub in Hampshire is The Plume of Feathers. End of chat."
Jeez!! How freakin old are you ?
Why can't we 'quote' you, someone in disguise ?
JillyBee
says...
11:05pm Thu 19 Feb 09
Thanks for the tip!
Finlay
says...
12:25am Fri 20 Feb 09
This 'Giles Coren' who ever that is is bleating on about a pub that is serving food and .. well he isnt
Cooks make food so whsts special about that? Worrel Thompson is shutting down cos hes notup to the mark as are many others and getting spanked by burger stands
Says a lot for these gobby kitchen boys dont it
jc himself
says...
9:03am Fri 20 Feb 09
B. L.
says...
3:45pm Fri 20 Feb 09
JillyBee wrote:The pub of that name in Winchester was demolished in the late thirties, hence my comment, but he did say "in Hampshire" so you need to ask him where his pub is. :)
Well, if Denzil's choice is the Plume of Feathers, at least the rest of us know where not to go. Thanks for the tip!
Denzil'
says...
11:15pm Fri 20 Feb 09
B. L. wrote:It's in St Marys you loser, if you want a 'chat' I shall be there from luch time
JillyBee wrote: Well, if Denzil's choice is the Plume of Feathers, at least the rest of us know where not to go. Thanks for the tip!The pub of that name in Winchester was demolished in the late thirties, hence my comment, but he did say "in Hampshire" so you need to ask him where his pub is. :)
B. L.
says...
7:08pm Sat 21 Feb 09
Disallusioned Saint
says...
11:15am Sun 22 Feb 09
Giles summed it up just right. This pub is full of pretitious,arrogant stuffed shirt buffons who believe they own Winchester and anyone who does not live within half a mile of the Cathedral/Winchester College is made to feel very unwelcome if they dare to cross the threshold!
The beer there is absolutely naff and the food over-priced, undercooked and frankly often inedible! The service is equally inept and the ambience more akin to a gentlemens club! This is no longer a pub and those who drink in it are welcome to their own boorish and hoy-toy company!
AVOID THIS PUB LIKE THE PLAGUE!!
panangol
says...
11:26am Thu 26 Feb 09
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