The Winchester

I am blown away by the food here, every dish I’ve had is absolutely delicious. The recent spiced hazelnut avocado toast and cherry labne are just amazing.

After sampling what I consider to be the best waffle I’ve ever tasted at this restaurant’s booth at Dose Market months ago, I finally got to have the full experience for brunch today. I was excited to sample that delicious waffle again, but was a little disappointed to see that the brunch menu only had one waffle option: a $ 9 waffle with blueberries and cream. So, I opted for what I hoped would be the next best thing: the Croque Winchester, which included the waffle. Overall, each part of this dish was good, but the sweetness of the waffle combined with the savory emmental just didn’t work for me. I felt like separately, everything would’ve worked better. I know they revised their menu somewhat recently, so fingers crossed that for the next update, they let that delicious waffle stand alone in a starter or perhaps as a sweet entrée. The potatoes that came with the Croque were very good – great seasoning and just the right amount for a side portion. If I go back, I might try to negotiate a «create my own» entrée.

The Winchester’s interior is stylized and understated. Price point is to be expected. The Winchester loses a star for the service we received. Alicia was super friendly taking our drink order, but then we waited quite a while to order food. When someone in my party flagged her down and let her know we were ready to put in our food order, it must’ve really ticked her off because her demeanor did a 180. She was extremely curt with us as we told her our menu selections and asked a couple basic questions about ingredients. My husband asked about their burger since he’d heard it was good but didn’t see it on the menu. Alicia rudely replied that it’s not on the brunch menu, as if a burger on a brunch menu was absurd. (Attitude) check, please. That said, the food was really good. I ordered the croque. The dish delivered just what I love for brunch: both sweet and savory flavors. The accompanying potatoes were flavorful and tender with crispy skin. My one critique of the dish is that the waffle was a bit too dense.

This light and airy restaurant was the perfect place to kick off a Saturday morning. The bloody Mary is legit spicy and very good. Get the egg sandwich and ask for them to put bacon top… probably one of the best breakfast sandwiches I’ve ever had.

We came here on a Thursday night for a late dinner. There were about 4 tables of diners. We ordered the Smoked Pork Chop, Seafood Bolognese and Crispy Brussels.
The food was decent. I thought the bolognese was on the small size and not great, but not bad. The pork chop was generous and definitely the highlight. The brussels were really — kind of tangy. What lost me was the service. Our food took pretty long — 50 minutes, surprising for the lack of diners they had. Our waiter kept disappearing. The BF had to order another beer with the bus boy.
I like to try it for brunch since all the reviews I read about how wonderful this place is — is about brunch. Really cute setting, perfect place for a first date.

Stopped in a couple weeks ago for brunch and had the avocado toast with eggs. The toast was perfection and the eggs were great as well. The Winchester has such a nice laid back atmosphere. I love how the tables are spread out at a decent distance so you don’t feel so crowded. They also play the best music, I literally danced to LCDSoundsystem while enjoying my meal the entire time. That’s pretty amazing in itself.

This place is 5 mins from my apartment (in a residential area) and I’ve been here for lunch 2 – 3 times on weekdays and one weekend (so I can’t comment on dinner).
Ambiance is very nice with all the trappings to make a hipster or romantic happy.
Food is good, but portions are a bit small for the price even for this type of establishment. I recognize that this is because it’s the closest thing on Augusta in the area unless you want to go a bit father on division. That said, I would come back here and I prefer it over most places on Division (as well as Flo or Whisk) for a daytime lunch/​quick brunch.
Their trout salad is excellent, as is the scrambled egg sandwich. The quiche doesn’t have quite enough egg in it and is fluffier than I’d like.
The Mac and cheese is okay with a good crunch from their take on breadcrumbs, but the cheese could be sharper and the portion size is quite tiny considering its pasta.
I don’t think it would be good for groups larger than 4.

Biscuits and gravy = one of the best I’ve had (and this is my go-​to for any restaurant that has it… bang bang biscuit)
Pot roast = good but a little salty
Waffle with marmalade = AMAZING (My table shared this; I wasn’t all that excited for it but def the highlight!)
Very cute/​bright atmosphere with hip hop! Loud though. Cushions on the benches would have been more comfortable and helping sound level. Server forgot our waffle but knocked off 10% of the bill for customer service.

I heard brunch is good here so I’ll have to come back. My first time though was for dinner on a Friday night. We made a reservation but clearly didn’t need to… it was pretty empty but started to fill up a bit around 8:30/9pm. We sat in the left side of the restaurant which had the bar area and high top tables. The seats were awful! If you have any semblance of a butt, it’s going to hurt and/​or slide off the miniature sized seat. LBVS. The water glasses only hold about 6 oz. Why? That’s a swallow. But they do leave a carafe of water on your table so that you can refill as needed. Also, they have this creepy guy that slides around your table to fill it for you too… but he doesn’t speak. The first time he came by was halfway through our dinner and we hadn’t seen him before (maybe his shift started late???) so I watched him like a hawk like «what are you doing??» until I realized he wanted to top off our water. I’m telling you… so creepy it warranted a shout out in this review.
The food was tasty. I ordered the Seafood Bolognese. When it arrived in a rather small plate I was initially disappointed and thought I was totally shorted an adult sized dinner portion. However, as I started to dive into the dish, it was full of seafood, hearty and filling. I was pleasantly surprised and the taste was quite good. I wouldn’t change anything about it and I would order it again. My friend had the burger and fries. It was pretty darn big and looked good. She also gave it the stamp of approval.

Came here for brunch on a Sunday morning and was surprised to see it almost full fifteen minutes after opening – and for good reason. My friend and I split the avocado toast, waffles, and quiche, all of which were absolutely delicious.
Avocado toast – paired with chili and grapefruit, the toast came with a generous portion of avocado. I loved how the spicy, sweet and sour flavors came together while maintaining a lighter flavor profile.
Waffles– I can’t say enough good things about these waffles. The whipped almond infused butter and cinnamon spiced apples had just a hint of sweetness to it, and it was refreshing to finally have an order of waffles avoid the intensely sweet flavors most other brunch places tend to go for.
Quiche – While the quiche itself wasn’t bad, I have to say it was probably the weakest out of everything we ordered. The potatoes that came with it, however, were amazing; the crumbled bacon, salt and what seemed to be a tiny amount of cayenne was a delicious combination and paired quite well with the arugula.
Needless to say, I will definitely be back time and time again.

This isn’t going to be a «hidden gem» for very much longer. Top notch bar program and a dinner menu that blows anything within a 2 miles radius out of the water.
Service is very great, and the staff is attentive. Dinner is an immensely enjoyable experience in their cozy dining room.
Obviously, this is a great brunch spot, and the lines on Saturday and Sunday prove that point. But dinner is the real show. Must. Peep. Now.

The outside looks really rachet and unimpressive. Once you get inside though, it looks beautiful. They didn’t have the lox board, which made me sad. I ate the egg sandwich, the quinoa hash browns, and an order of waffles. I loved every dish. The waffles were dipped in what seemed to be a sugar glaze and had a surprisingly rigid texture to it, covered in sesame seeds, I really enjoyed it, without any maple syrup. The quinoa hash browns were extremely tasty, surprising because quinoa normally doesn’t have any taste. The egg sandwich was resting on a sort of brioche bread with chili jam lightly spread on one side. The jam was sweet and caught me off guard, I liked the sweet-​savory contrast within the egg sandwich. The food didn’t take long to come out either. I really enjoyed this place, the menu wasn’t overwhelming at all, very simple, straightforward, and seemed to be seasonal.

Very solid brunch execution. Their waffles were liege style which are thick and crunchy. I am a fan and they vary the prep. Also had an omelette which was well executed on with breakfast potatoes and toast.
Very easy to find parking around the area for brunch and decently easy to find free parking. I will be back.

Mediocre food but i had a good time and would like to go back for brunch before forming a full opinion.
Garden salad: nothing to write home about.
Baker Miller rye salad: tasty.
Curry cauliflower: blah… felt too much vinegar
Steak: not good quality meat… over-​cooked.
service: good. I had met one of the servers from PQM and a champ from Blue Bird before. They were great there. They are great here.
Quaint restaurant with nice outdoor sitting.
Maybe/​hopefully a bit of an off-​day for them.

I enjoyed this place. It kind of has that hipster feel, especially with the way the wait staff dress. It has that rustic yet industrial look. Caution: the stools are extremely heavy, so good luck trying to maneuver your seat.
I ordered the Pink Unicorn cocktail. It was grapefruit-​based. Super yummy. It wasn’t too strong either. It was kind of like a margarita and came in a pink Himalayan salt rimmed glass.
For my entrée, I ordered the lake trout. I wasn’t too impressed by the portion, but it was good. The trout was crusted with black sesame — yummy! On the bottom was a layer of arugula, nothing special.
I might come here again, but I’m hesitant to because it’s kind of pricey for what you’re getting.

Stopped in for brunch on a Sunday morning around 10. There are no reservations for brunch by the way. Got seated right away. I liked the décor. Someone at my take noted that it was like we were eating in a urban outfitters because of the décor. Not a bad thing necessarily.
The menu seemed really reasonable nearly everything was around $ 10 or so and they had Kombucha so my wife was happy. I got the biscuits and gravy. They were really good. You could tell the biscuits were fresh as they had a little crisp to the outside and the gravy was full of sausage like I like it. I saw the hash browns on someone’s plate and they looked glorious. All different sizes of potato and extra well done.
We really enjoyed it. I’d recommend going early. By the time we left around 11 there were people waiting outside so plan accordingly.

The food: ¹⁄₅. I went there for brunch when they first opened, and was so underwhelmed by the food that I haven’t gone back even though I live half a block away on Winchester. Their eggs benedict is expensive and on the smaller side, and I remember getting nothing but two pieces of pure fat for braised bacon. The waffles were too sweet and didn’t go well with the other ingredients. Coffee was also overpriced.
The service: ³⁄₅. The service was nice but a little chaotic.
Overall: ²⁄₅. Underwhelming food at unjustified prices.

My hubby actually noticed this place and wanted to try it based on exterior looks alone («Hey! That place looks neat!). Easy parking on a Sunday morning!
We were just in time for the end of brunch.
I ordered coffee and the daily waffle special (coconut whipped cream, raspberry purée, and peanuts). My husband ordered biscuits and gravy because that’s what he tries everywhere.
Coffee was good and strong. Bottomless cups at $ 4 is a little pricey for eat-​in coffee.
My waffle was delicious! The waffle dough has a yeasty flavor, almost like a glazed doughnut without being too sweet.
Also, the biscuits and gravy looked just like other reviewers’ photos and they were pretty good. Sausage gravy was a little spicy, but definitely tolerable. Biscuits were very light and fluffy. Pretty good!
So why only three stars? I’m not sure what happened, but it took a REALLY REALLY long time to get our food. Tables nearby that ordered after us received food before us. We didn’t ask for any special modifications to our dishes, so I’m not sure what the hold-​up was. Our server was super sweet and apologized for the delay and brought us ¼ of a waffle to snack on until our food arrived. Nice gesture and pretty tasty. Since we had nothing else to do, we didn’t care too much, but we definitely would have been irked about how long it took.
Since we’re moving soon, it’s not on our list of places to return to. Give it a try and see for yourself since reviews are mixed.

I’ve got to say I was very pleasantly surprised by this place. It ended up being an accidental restaurant week visit. We initially just made our reservations in order to try out something different for dinner. The servers were pretty friendly and though I’m not a huge fan of the white paint on brick scheme, the place does feel quite open despite being on the smaller side.
My first course was the aranchini they were crispy and soft on the inside. The sauce was slightly spicy and it had the perfect balance of acid and richness.
The second course was the fluke. I thought it was very well cooked. the fish was light and flaky and went well with the earthy cauliflower.
The dessert was one that was a bit mind boggling for me. I loved that I couldn’t put my finger on what was anything in the desert waffle yet it was fantastic.

On a recent trip to Chicago over the holidays, we kicked off our New Year’s Eve with dinner at the Winchester. We made reservations several weeks in advance to ensure we would have a table. They called a few days ahead of time to confirm the reservation, and then again the day of and made us call back to confirm the reservation, I guess just in case.
We met some friends there, and we were unable to find parking nearby for about twenty minutes, so we were ultimately like 30 minutes late to completing our party of six, but they weren’t rude about it all. That being said though, the service all evening was super, super slow. They definitely we taking their time, and we were going to a concert after, which we were almost late to even though we scheduled two hours for dinner, it ended up taking almost three. The décor seems very forced with a mixture of Crate and Barrell and IKEA meets a rustic attempt. There was also a very irritating on and off buzzing noise throughout our meal that drove us all crazy.
They have a small selection of cocktails, and I ordered a some cocktail that had sake in it and was not that good. Strike one. We liked that they didn’t have a prix fixe only menu given that it was NYE, but they didn’t have that many options for a pescatarian. I kept looking over the menu, and nothing really stood out to me. As soon as I placed my order, I regretted it. I went with the warm grain salad and a side of mac n cheese. I tried a lot of my friends’ food, and most thing were decent. They have a really good smoked salmon caesar salad, but the fish in it definitely wasn’t salmon, but some other smoke fish. Nothing else was very memorable. I particularly disliked the sauce on the warm grain salad. It taked odd and didn’t really work with the dish. The mac n’ cheese was okay but tasted slightly metallic.
My boyfriend got the prix fixe menu, which «utilized all parts of the pig». He didn’t really have rave reviews about any of the five courses. The first one was a tartine with ham and apples, which he said tasted like bread, cold cuts, and apples, nothing special. The main course had a pork bolognese sauce that he said tasted very much like ragu. I tried the dessert, which was something pistachio, and it was pretty tasty.
We overall were pretty disappointed by the Winchester, especially because of all of the rave reviews we had read before our visit. Maybe it was just that they were at full capacity for NYE, but maybe it just isn’t that good.