The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
Cosa Nostra
Cosa Nostra is a busy, family-friendly Italian on Whitby's Church Street, cooking a broad, crowd-pleasing menu of pasta, pizza, risotto and grill. Its wine list is a compact, sensibly priced, all-Italian-led selection that matches the cooking region for region and pours generously by the glass, though it thins out at the sparkling and dessert end and offers no dedicated help with the menu's hottest plates. It will suit a table wanting a well-chosen Italian red or a crisp southern white for a relaxed dinner, rather than a drinker hunting depth or a serious cellar.
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The Black Swan at Oldstead
Oldstead, North Yorkshire
Modern British (fermentation and foraging-led tasting menu)
The Black Swan at Oldstead is a Michelin-starred, garden-and-foraging tasting-menu destination in rural North Yorkshire, cooking almost entirely from its own land. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation — a deep, personal, icon-and-grower cellar whose greatest strengths, a bone-dry Sherry for the cured roe and a profound sweet-and-fortified shelf for the blue cheese and the puddings, are precisely what the menu's hardest courses need, nearly all of it poured by the glass. It will most reward the wine lover who comes to give a serious kitchen a serious cellar, and who lets the glass follow the food from the first broth to the last sweet pour.
Read the assessmentMelton's
York, North Yorkshire
Modern British
Melton's is a long-standing Michelin-listed restaurant in York, cooking a refined, seasonal tasting-led menu alongside one of the deepest and most personal wine lists in the region. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation — over a hundred and fifty owner-chosen bins, strong on Champagne, Burgundy, Yorkshire English wine and mature vintages, that answer the hardest plates with exactly the right high-acid and sparkling styles — best enjoyed by the bottle, the half or the tasting flight rather than the glass. It will most reward the serious wine lover who wants a great cellar to explore across a proper dinner.
Read the assessmentThe Star Inn at Harome
Harome, North Yorkshire
Modern British, Michelin-starred
The Star Inn at Harome is a Michelin-starred North Yorkshire village inn whose seasonal, produce-led cooking is matched by a deep, merchant-built wine list. The programme reaches genuine mutual elevation — a generous by-the-glass offer, three pour sizes on the still wines, runs from entry-level whites to a full dessert, fortified and Port flight, and the menu prints a considered match against individual dishes, so the hardest plates are answered where the diner orders them. It will most reward the wine lover who wants to drink seriously by the glass alongside ambitious food, without committing to a bottle from the fine-cellar tier.
Read the assessmentThe Bow Room at Grays Court
York, North Yorkshire
Modern British fine dining, tasting and a la carte
The Bow Room at Grays Court is a fine-dining room in a historic York house, cooking refined modern British food from its own kitchen garden. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation — the hardest plates on the menu are precisely the ones the cellar answers most fluently, and an unusually deep by-the-glass offer puts serious Champagne, Burgundy and Barolo within reach without a full bottle. It will most reward the curious wine lover who wants to drink at a high level by the glass and trusts a seriously built list to lead the way.
Read the assessmentThe Star Inn the City
York, North Yorkshire
Modern British brasserie
The Star Inn the City is a riverside York brasserie cooking a generous, produce-led Yorkshire menu alongside a serious, wide-ranging wine list that prints a suggested pairing against every dish. The wine programme achieves genuine, communicated mutual elevation — a deep list, strong by the glass and unusually complete in its sweet wines, with real guidance for every plate, and it answers the hardest of them, the anchovy-rich coley, with exactly the right bone-dry saline whites. It will most reward the curious drinker who likes a great list made easy and enjoys matching wine to food a glass at a time.
Read the assessmentThe Tannin Level
Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Modern British
The Tannin Level is a wine-themed cellar restaurant in Harrogate, four decades old, cooking a seasonal modern-British menu alongside one of the most complete wine lists in the town. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation — real by-the-glass depth over serious fine wine, a proper Champagne run and, rare for anywhere, a full dessert-wine and Port offer by the glass set out to match the cheese board — and it answers the hardest plates, the asparagus and that mixed cheese board, with exactly the right unoaked whites and sweet Ports. It will most reward the wine lover who wants a genuinely wine-led room and the freedom to drink across a great list a glass at a time.
Read the assessmentRhubarb
Harrogate, North Yorkshire
Modern British with Asian influence
Rhubarb is a fine-dining modern British kitchen in Harrogate whose classical cooking is lifted by delicate Indian spice, set against a genuinely serious sommelier's list. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation — the aromatic, high-acid whites answer both the spicing and the hardest cured-fish and asparagus plates, while a Coravin tier and a deep sweet-and-fortified tail add reach that most kitchens of this size never attempt. It will most reward the curious diner who wants a considered glass with each course and is glad to be guided by a list, and a sommelier, that plainly enjoy the job.
Read the assessmentSkosh
York, North Yorkshire
Global small plates (Bib Gourmand)
Skosh is a Bib Gourmand small-plates restaurant in York, cooking an ambitious global menu — Japanese, Indian and South-East Asian technique on Yorkshire produce — that changes with the season. Its wine programme is the wine lover's reason to book: a characterful, flavour-banded list offered by the glass, the carafe and the bottle, with the orange, sweet and aromatic breadth a hard-to-pair menu like this genuinely needs, and the hardest plates answered squarely from the glass. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants to graze across many small plates and match each with a different glass, and who trusts a thoughtful list to keep pace.
Read the assessment