Vintner, The

If you fancy eating and drinking in the place that is reputed to have served as William Shakespeare's off licence, The Vintner is for you. The fine timber-framed building has been little altered since it was built in the late-1400s and provides a handsome setting for the café bar, a restaurant and private dining in the Banquet Room.

Handy for the Royal Shakespeare Theatres and open seven days a week, the cuisine ranges from traditional English cooking through to pan European, and draws on fresh, local produce. Visitors and locals mingle cheerfully, assisted by a wine list that will take you on a challenging journey round the globe, all of which helps towards creating the high zing factor that rings around the ancient beams.

The Vintner has to be one of the busiest places in town. After some five hundred years, it's still privately owned. In 1600, John Smith traded here as a wine merchant and it's reputed that William Shakespeare came here to buy his wine. If the list which he was able to choose from then bears any resemblance to the one on offer to those who eat and drink there now, then Will certainly knew a thing or two!

The Vintner offers a modern café bar and a handsome restaurant. The Private Dining Room is an ideal setting for a wedding breakfast, a reunion, that special birthday party or a meeting of the Board perhaps? The menu offers a delightful three course meal, with optional champagne on arrival.

In the restaurant, they serve breakfast from 10am daily, and their à la carte menu is available all day until 10pm, with weekly-changing specials to supplement the excellent choice available on the normal bill of fare. They have a range of appetisers to get the meal off to a start - chicken and ham croquettes, Italian meatballs in spicy tomato sauce or devilled chicken livers amongst a varied selection, while starters run into tantalising choices such as fine chicken liver pâté with toast, crispy pork salad with mango and watercress or king prawns pan fried in garlic and herb butter.

Further down the menu, you might spot main courses such as salmon fishcakes with wilted spinach and sorrel sauce and breast of chicken roasted in lime butter with mango, mild curry sauce and basmati rice. Other notable dishes could include the Aberdeen Angus fillet steak with peppercorn sauce and creamed potatoes or a fully garnished classic burger with 100% ground prime cuts of British beef.

The dessert list is enticing and even the most committed calorie counter might be tempted into trying the iced hazelnut parfait, the banoffee pie or the marbled chocolate mousse with Amaretto crème Anglaise. There’s also a selection of English cheeses for those who simply prefer savoury endings.

For further information a visit to their Website comes as obligatory.