Josie’s, Winchester, England UK

Ordered at Josies of Winchester just outside of London, England.

I hadn’t been back to England in 9 years. That sounds like a really long time. But since my father now has a home in Winchester, just outside of London, it only seemed right to visit on “our way back” from Iceland.

Winchester is the quintessential London suburb, an epitome of British culture. I jested to my father that “It could have been a Hollywood set where they film TV shows and movies for Americans.”

Strewn with shops, cafes, pubs, and historical features dating back centuries, Winchester was lovely. And we pretended it was Saturday on a Tuesday, doing my best to enjoy the day while constant messages from the office in LA reminded me I really wasn’t on vacation.

My father picked Josie’s for lunch, a café that normally has a line well out the door… fortunately, it was Tuesday.

I wanted to love Josie’s self titled club sandwich. Everything about the café/restaurant screamed locally celebrated British. Their menu selection was perfect. My iced coffee came default with sugar and milk, each tea had a cup of milk beside it, beer was of course on tap… when in Rome…

We ordered for the table and caught up on life as we waited for our bruch to arrive.

The self titled Josie’s Toasted Club was a decent meal, but not one that inspired me the same way that Josie’s ambiance did.

Lemon herb chicken that was minorly flavorful. Lightly toasted, plain, whole wheat bread. A few crispy, British rashers of bacon. Some leaves of spinach. There wasn’t much excitement here.

But what blew me away, a touch I had never experienced in a club sandwich, was the fact that they smeared both guacamole and mayonnaise into different layers of this triple decker meal. I’m quite familiar with the concept of Brits putting mayonnaise on everything, and my guess is that avocados travel quite far to get to England, so this combination confused me beyond my own imagination. Guac and mayo – only in the UK!

We had a lot of fun during lunch that carried into the late evening, and while I had a great time on this trip and honestly would love to go back to Josie’s next time I am here, I won’t be ordering Josie’s Toasted Club Sandwich.

Location