The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
Elnecot
Elnecot is an Ancoats neighbourhood kitchen running modern British small plates, brunch and a full Sunday roast. Its compact, France-leaning wine list is bought with care and unusually well communicated — every roast comes with a printed wine suggestion, and a small fortified corner rounds it off — even if it stays classic rather than adventurous. It will suit the drinker who wants a friendly, well-priced list and clear guidance alongside generous, all-day cooking, rather than a deep or experimental cellar.
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Higher Ground
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Garden-led modern British
Higher Ground is a garden-led modern British restaurant in central Manchester where whole-animal, own-grown sharing plates are designed to be eaten with wine. Its cellar is one of the most coherent low-intervention lists in the North — deep in growers, complete from grower Champagne through orange wine to a full sweet corner by the small measure, and rooted in a remarkable local beer-and-cider programme. It will most reward a curious drinker who wants to explore natural wine with food and to lean on a genuinely expert floor team.
Read the assessmentAnother Hand
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Modern British, vegetable-led small plates
Another Hand is a small, Michelin-listed modern-British kitchen on Deansgate Mews, cooking a vegetable-led small-plates menu that turns over constantly. Its short, low-intervention wine list is built with unusual precision to match that food — high-acid whites, a genuine orange section and English growers doing the heavy lifting — so the pairing works as a single thought rather than two. It will suit the curious drinker who wants natural wine chosen with judgement alongside ambitious, ferment-forward cooking, and who is happy to range by the glass rather than chase a deep cellar.
Read the assessmentHawksmoor Manchester
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Steakhouse
Hawksmoor Manchester is a charcoal-grill steakhouse whose wine list is far more serious than the format requires, merchant-grade in its buying and deep in its reserves. The wine programme earns its place by doing the steakhouse job superbly while keeping real by-the-glass answers for the raw bar and the few genuinely hard fish and cheese plates, and by selling its Sherry and Port the right way, by the small glass. It will most reward the steak lover who also wants a properly bought cellar to drink from, and who is happy to use the by-the-glass list to navigate the plates a big red cannot carry.
Read the assessmentMaray
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Middle Eastern
Maray is a Manchester city-centre small-plates restaurant serving Levantine and Eastern-Mediterranean sharing food with real verve. Its wine list is the quiet achievement — a thoughtful, food-led global selection that deliberately echoes the kitchen's palette, with a standout orange flight and a deep bench of chillable, low-tannin reds for the spice, served by glass and carafe to make exploring easy. It will most reward the curious drinker who enjoys lesser-seen grapes and regions and wants a list that genuinely thinks about the food in front of it.
Read the assessmentHispi
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Modern British
Hispi is a polished Didsbury neighbourhood bistro cooking seasonal modern British food at a fair price. Its wine programme is short and glass-led, but it earns real respect by printing a well-judged wine against every dish and closing with a complete small-glass fortified corner — genuine, useful pairing thinking that many a grander cellar never bothers to offer. It will most reward the diner who wants a confident pairing chosen for them without studying a tome, and who values being looked after from the first glass to the last.
Read the assessmentSterling
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Wine bar
Sterling is a wine-and-cocktail bar in Manchester city centre serving a short menu of bar snacks alongside an expertly curated list. The wine programme punches well above the kitchen — tight, classic, strong in Champagne and complete in dry Sherry by the small glass — and finds real mutual elevation with the few plates that matter, the cured-ham croquettes and the oysters above all. It will most reward the wine lover who comes to drink first and graze second, and who knows that a fine Sherry with jamón is one of any table's true bargains.
Read the assessmentSalut Wines
Manchester, Greater Manchester
Wine bar with a kitchen
Salut Wines is a central-Manchester wine bar with a small kitchen, where charcuterie, cheese boards and a few small plates are built to sit beside the glass. The wine programme earns its reputation through breadth by the glass — every major style, three pour sizes and a carafe, with a tidy fortified and dessert corner — even if the published list shows only what is poured and not the wider cellar. It will suit the drinker who wants to range across styles in an evening without committing to bottles, and who values an honest tasting note and a welcoming approach over a destination cellar.
Read the assessment