The Bakers Arms

Girls weekend away we decided to visit Winchester as not been before, we arrived on Fri 1st Dec. That eve as we were walking down through the centre I spotted lots of pretty lights up one of the side alleys, we decided to head there, The Bakers Arms. We were greeted by a lovely barmaid Kim, we only stopped for one as we had booked a table prior to our visit to Winchester at Incognito. But said to Kim we will definitely be back as it seemed like a lovely pub with friendly staff & locals. On Saturday night we went back & had a great night, even though it was packed all the staff were quick to serve & super friendly. The DJ that was on was playing great tunes. Got to meet June the land lady she was lovely & we had a good chat as she is friends with our landlady at The Dolphin. We loved the Bakers Arms & will definitely visit again when in Winchester. Thank you for having us 🥰 & making us feel welcome.

Having moved to Winchester a few months ago, I've had the opportunity to visit more than a dozen local pubs this summer and have received uniformly friendly, welcoming service wherever I've gone...until now. For those unfamiliar with the establishment, the Bakers Arms isn't visible from the High Street but you can always hear a boisterous crowd sitting in their garden as you pass the little alleyway that leads to the pub. I've been curious for ages what the place was like but had never ventured in, as I thought it might be a bit awkward walking into such a busy pub full of regulars, until last night when I finally decided to take the plunge. The young man behind the bar was extremely friendly when I ordered my pint but I immediately noticed a look of contempt on the face of the woman standing beside him the moment she heard my American accent. I'm guessing she assumed I was a tourist - I'm not, but so what if I was - and I wondered if perhaps she had confused me with someone else or if I had simply misread her look. But when I went to order a second beer fifteen minutes later, the same thing happened and I knew I wasn't imagining her bad attitude. Nonetheless, I stuck around for a few more drinks, having met a group of fun-loving Scots at the next table, and eventually had to deal with Miss Sunshine directly as the pub got more and more crowded. She left me standing at the bar as long as she possibly could until finally taking my order, never responding to my offer of thanks when she handed me the beer or when I paid for it - just a really stern look and an obnoxious eye roll as she walked away. I suppose I shouldn't feel entirely bad, given that I wasn't the only one on the receiving end of her unnecessary rudeness, as I watched her aggressively confront several other patrons about anyone at their table who might not be ordering drinks as quickly as the rest of the group. Honestly, if five people are seated together and one of them is a light drinker (or possibly even a designated driver for the evening), what should it matter if the other four are regularly placing drink orders? So, have a look at the rest of the one and two star reviews and see if there's a common thread between them and you'll find repeated references to a middle-aged woman with short hair treating paying customers badly. It's actually a shame, as the beer garden is very attractive, the drink prices are excellent and the locals are as friendly as can be. The pub definitely does great business, so losing me as a regular customer certainly won't bother the owners one iota, but why waste your time having to deal with this woman when you can go anywhere else in town and be treated respectfully and appreciatively as you spend your hard-earned money?

It really is a shame that a nice place like this has such rude stadf. It clearly is highly frequented only for the cheap prices and not for the service provided. My softdrink was okay, but the short-haired elderly lady refused to serve my friends beer in proper glasses. Instead she told us, that we would only be served in plastic cups, since we were no regular customers and got really rude. Definitely not coming back.