The Black Rat

Gourmet food, amazing flavours and there is nothing else like it in Winchester. We will definitely be going there again.

Took a chance based on favourable reviews. Booked Tuesday evening for dinner. Dining room contained 6 tables to accommodate up to 4 per table and 1 accommodating up to 10. Tables well spaced allowing private conversation. Venue quirky, cosy, warm and inviting. Staff friendly, knowledgeable and funky. Food delicious from a relatively small and varied menu. We are desperate to visit again and I foresee this becoming a firm favourite for relaxing lunches and entertaining guests despite the 45 minute drive.
Hint. Try the local gin and ‘no 9’ tonic if you are driving or just not drinking. The ‘no 9’ tonic is refreshing served with ice.
Try this restaurant and enjoy.

Superb meal in very inviting situation, staff excellent.

Wonderful oasis of food and drink pleasure !!

Delicious food, attentive staff in a lovely cosy setting.

Went out for Lunch with visitors, trying new food and nicer food within Winchester as somewhere special.

All of our choices were delicious and very good value, even with only three choices it was still hard to choose everything was so appetising.

Service was polite, attentive and not intrusive.

Fantastic food and service as always.

Amazing. We had such a lovely time here!!! The food was epic, service really good and we spent 3hrs here, enjoying life. Would 100% recommend and will most likely return!

Great service, good food. Lovely ambience and venue

We thoroughly enjoyed every morsel. Excellent food

Had Sunday lunch. Starter and pudding were excellent but the main (chicken) was pretty average seeing as it is 1* restaurant. Great value though so would go back.

We had a really lovely evening. Impeccable food and service.

Lovely atmosphere with outstanding food for great value. The service was perfect- relaxed yet attentive. A very special experience. Will definitely be returning in the future.

Excellent food, service and ambiance, and well deserving of its Michelin star.

Great service as always and delicious seasonal food.

Everything worked well food-wise I thought. In addition my dry martini (cocktail) was possibly the best I have ever had. The sauvignon blanc was also excellent, as was the sherry to desert. Service was also excellent.

Really enjoyed the food, service was excellent and it's a great place to go. We visited the Black Boy and Black Bottle afterwards which I really recommend.

Whilst I can't fault the food or presentation, I felt that some of the ingredients were a bit too out there and it felt like they were trying too hard to be different when they really didn't need to. I'm not remotely fussy with food and will try anything, but maybe just me, however, I think I would have come away giving 5 stars for everything had they just cooked good food - maybe I'm missing what they need to be for Michelin!

Could not find fault. Fabulous food in a beautiful setting that felt like stepping back in time. Wonderful staff too.
We’ll be back soon.

Nous ne pouvons pas dire que nous avons mal manger, que l'accueil était mauvais ou que le personnel manquait de professionnalisme mais qu'est-ce que ce restaurant fait dans le Guide Michelin. Nous dirions que c'est plus le Guide qui est décevant que le restaurant !
Il faut quand même savoir qu'il n'y a pas de menu proposer que vous devez le composer vous-même sur un choix pour le moins limité de plat. Ne sachant pas quel sera la quantité servi vous ne savez pas comment vous aventurer dans l'expérience culinaire, mais vous vous lancez 2 entrées et un plat.
Après nous être sustenter nous ne pouvions plus tester les fromages ou les dessert.
Bref la qualité et la recherche gastronomique n'est largement pas à la hauteur d'un étoilé Michelin.
Quand on pense que le Galvin la Chapelle de Londres n'est que recommandé sans étoile et qu'il en mériterait au minimum une on se pose la question de la qualité de "l'inspecteur" local du guide..

Second visit, and both times were truly memorable. Try the gins before you order food, and don’t be afraid to try the seemingly outlandish.

We had lambs tongue as one starter, sea bream as the other. Then ox heart as a main, and the scallops & red mullet. Everything was exceptional. Half bottles of Chablis & Crozes Hermitage - excellent wines and really complimented the food. Rounded off with one apple terrine (very good), and the madeleines (absolute must try).

Cannot recommend enough. We stayed at the Black Hole & had a drink (or 3) in the Black Boy. A really memorable day away.

Had a lovely meal with the wife and kids this week. All four of us loved all three course and the chef was definitely on form. Will definitely go again soon.

We have rarely come out of a restaurant on such a high. Absolutely first-class cuisine, service and ambience.

(Unfortunately, a customer on the next table needed a smoke between courses and came back from the garden stinking, but of course there was nothing the staff could do about that.)

Great food and atmosphere but let down by a lack of attention to detail. For a 1 Michellin star restaurant we would have expected a bit more explanation about the dishes they were serving as they brought them to table and the wine waiter was sloppy in pouring wine and water, letting it drip onto the table.

It has a gothic oldy worldy tavern feel with its old wooden beams and low lying ceilings providing a great atmosphere for dinner. The starters (Tandoori goat and crab with salmon) were well presented and tasty. The mains we had (grouse with micro veg and scallops tagliatelle , were also quite delicately presented and mixed with some great flavours. I wasn’t that keen on the desserts, but then I prefer a warmed pudding. It was a pleasant experience with well a great selection of gins and well cooked food, a little too complicated for my low brow taste but a nice little find.

We booked lunch for a special occasion, the service, food and whole experience was a real treat. defiantly a few dishes that will test the parameters of your taste buds and expand your thoughts on the art of the possible.

We will be back

Fantastic experience for a friend’s birthday- attentive staff, fabulous food and made to feel very special. Great time- thank you!

The building was really rustic and liked the fact there was music playing. The starter (salmon) was outstanding but was a bit disappointed by the main. I had scallops with black ink tagialette but the sauce was far too rich and felt like it was pure double cream. I felt too sick to finish my meal. There was no tasting menu unfortunately which is usually better for rich food as quantity is smaller. We also had to ask for the dessert menu and I felt the staff had lost interest by the end of the evening. That said the selection of gins and the choc orange expression martini I had to finish were great as was the barman upstairs. Overall good but not as good as I had expected for star level when compared to other one star restaurants I’ve been to.

Very high quality food and service. The quails egg starter was one of the best courses I’ve ever tasted.

Very memorable food and attentive service. A wonderful part of our visit to Winchester.

Wine is a bit pricey - but that's my only 'complaint'. Have been before and will go again.

Excellent food from a simple menu, with mouthwatering flavours. No nonsense, friendly service. A real treat.

This is a fantastic mix of pub feel and superb quality fine dining. Lovely informal atmosphere with extremely friendly and relaxed staff, none of the stuffiness that you often get with more expensive restaurants. It will never be cheap dining at this level but this place is great value and makes a lot of the High St chains look massively over priced by comparison, it’s only a bit more expensive than them but easily twice or three times better. We will definitely return.

Fabulous food and wine - very engaging staff. A super place for dinner whatever the occasion.

If you were going to Winchester for the weekend it might be worth going here. The food was good but perhaps 'troppo lavorato' They had fantastic ingredients but in our opinion had overworked them . The gin menu was pretty amazing. The wine list was limited.

Great food, service and value. Thoroughly recommended.

Well-presented, imaginative food, good service, relaxed ambience, decent wine list

A very pleasurable evening with gorgeous food. Our waiters were extremely accommodating and helpful in the choices that we made.

We had an outstanding lunch. So many flavours packed into 3 courses! Service was also just right - not too fussy but there when needed. Excellent value considering the quality of the food.

Food was good and different. Well presented. Service strange. Very caring on arrival. Had to ask for pre starter plates to be removed. Also had quite a wait to see dessert menu. Tables were very sparse , large brown square wooden tables.

Excellent service. I treated my 11 year old daughter for lunch, which is, to be honest, a rather difficult venture due to the limited and 'mature' choices of the fixed choice menu, however the staff and management did their utmost to accommodate her.