Winchester - where's good to eat/sightsee?

[BooToYouToo]

Myself and 5 girlfriends are off for a weekend in Winchester end of April. Can anyone recommend decent restaurants? What about shopping. Anything else we shouldn't miss?

Oh - I just wrote you a massive post and mumsnet ate it! Grr. Anyway, here it is again:

The shopping is quite good in Winchester, although most of the shops are fairly expensive! There are lots of nice shops in The Square (by the cathedral) - including the Hambledon, which is one of my favourites for lovely homewares and clothing. Parchment Street is worth a look for its little boutiques, and the High Street has all the usual suspects including Jigsaw, Cath Kidston, Joules, Hobbs and that sort of thing. There's a great secondhand bookshop on George Street and a few nice antique shops scattered around.

The restaurants are nothing special, really - lots of chain pizza/pasta places. Pizza Express is a good place to lunch, though - it's in a lovely old building overlooking the mill, so you get a great view of the weir. If you're after something more expensive you could try Hotel du Vin or Brasserie Blanc, and if you stroll along Jewry Street (at the top of the High Street) you'll come across lots of restaurants and bars including a Dim T and an American-style diner.

Winchester's so old that there are loads of touristy things that you could go and look at, but I think the only unmissable one is the cathedral, which is very beautiful. The crypts should be open by April, so you could pop down there for a look at the Gormley sculpture. While you're there, it's worth taking a look round the Cathedral Close and round by Winchester College as well.

Hope this helps!

now thats funny as i went there and onyl saw the high street - the rest must be hidden

If you turn down the little alley by the Buttercross you come out by The Square and the Cathedral - you wouldn't necessarily notice it if you didn't know it was there!

Another good touristy bit (though less well known) is the Westgate Museum where you can go up onto the roof and get a bird's-eye view. From there, the main bit of the city just looks like a lot of roofs, showing that a lot of the streets are really quite narrow. When walking down the high street, you need to keep looking to see the little passageways that lead off from the high street.

Winchester Cathedral is rather well hidden. Goodness only knows why they decided to build it on probably the lowest ground when there was plenty of higher ground around.

On Jewry Street there's also Green's Wine Bar, which is good for sitting outside if the weather is fine, just drinking and watching people go by. They do only lunches, not too expensive, but you'd probably have to book. The food is cooked on the premises and tends to be good old-fashioned English fare (sometimes including steamed treacle sponge!).

The high street often gets very busy on Saturdays, unless the weather is poor, and because it's fairly narrow it can get crowded. There are often buskers - many of whom are very good, especially school bands, etc.

Thanks for the advice, sounds like Winchester is a good choice for a weekend away. Can't wait - shopping, wine bars, culture and best of all no kids

You can eat v well for less at Patisserie Blanc. If weather's nice, best place is to sit outside a pub/restaurant in the Square (which is not square-shaped).

(I got kicked out Green's winebar for lewd behaviour as a teen, haven't been back since!)

I went to Winchester recently for a short visit and stayed in the King Alfred pub - found it on tripadvisor. Very good - lovely boutiquey rooms with smart bathrooms and the breakfast was super. Good busy real ale pub and restaurant in the evening. I had some wine by the glass and it was extremely good. Would definitely go back