The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
Fratelli
Fratelli is a large, crowd-pleasing Italian ristorante and pizzeria in central Belfast, matched to a genuinely Italian wine list with real regional depth from Soave and Gavi through Amarone, Barolo and a tier of aged Super Tuscans. The programme integrates well with the food and offers a strong by-the-glass range including Champagne, held back mainly by conventional buying, an absent dessert and fortified offer, and hardest plates met more by chance than design. It will most reward the diner who comes to eat Italian and enjoys exploring the regional bottles, glass by glass, across a long table.
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Noble
Holywood, Northern Ireland
Modern European
Noble is a neighbourhood bistro in Holywood with a cellar of real ambition, from a £30 house bottle to grand Burgundy and Bordeaux, and a Coravin programme that puts serious wine within reach by the glass. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation — the hardest plates on the menu are answered fluently from the by-the-glass list, and the depth, the English sparkling and the mature bottles reward a curious drinker. It will most reward the wine lover who wants to drink above their usual bottle budget for an evening and trusts a serious list to lead the way.
Read the assessmentThe Great Room
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Fine-dining modern European
The Great Room is the fine-dining restaurant of the Merchant Hotel in Belfast, serving luxurious modern European cooking built on Northern Irish produce. The wine programme is among the deepest in the guide — a vintage-aware Bordeaux and benchmark-Italy cellar with prestige and grower Champagne, a curious Rare Finds page and a well-judged by-the-glass — and it answers the menu's genuinely awkward plates as fluently as it pours its first growths. It will most reward the wine lover marking an occasion, who wants a great cellar to lead the evening and a sommelier to open it up.
Read the assessmentDeanes Meat Locker
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Steak / Asador grill
Deanes Meat Locker is the Asador steak grill of Belfast's Deanes group, cooking dry-aged Irish beef over fire behind one of the deepest wine lists in this guide. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation — a red-deep, merchant-grade cellar is exactly what a dry-aged grill was built to drink, with high-acid whites on hand for the seafood starters. It will most reward the wine lover who comes for serious steak and wants a great bottle of claret, Rioja or Barolo to drink beside it.
Read the assessmentmrDeanes
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Modern brasserie
mrDeanes is the all-day brasserie of Belfast's Deanes group, cooking a wide, Asian-and-grill-accented menu behind one of the deepest wine lists in this guide. The wine programme achieves strong integration — low-alcohol aromatic whites and Prosecco answer the spice, classic reds meet the salt-aged steak — carried by a merchant-grade cellar that runs from grower Champagne to mature classed-growth Bordeaux and aged Sauternes. It will most reward the curious wine lover who wants brasserie prices on the plate and the run of a genuinely serious cellar in the glass.
Read the assessmentWaterman House
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Modern European bistro
Waterman House is a Bib Gourmand bistro in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter whose short, seasonal menu is matched by a wine list of unusual seriousness for its size. The wine programme achieves real integration — the hardest plates are answered by the glass, and a characterful, wide-ranging list runs from grower Champagne through orange and natural wines to a genuinely fine cellar and a deep Port shelf. It will most reward the curious wine lover who wants bistro prices on the plate and the run of a merchant-grade list in the glass.
Read the assessmentOra
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Wine bar and tapas
Ora is a wine-and-tapas restaurant in central Belfast where the list is a genuine equal to the global-fusion small plates. The wine programme is properly curated and wine-led — a broad glass-and-carafe range, grower Champagne, benchmark Burgundy and a marked organic and vegan thread — and it carries exactly the off-dry, aromatic and low-tannin styles the kitchen's ferments and chilli demand. It will most reward the curious wine lover who likes to drink a different glass with every plate and to be led by a list that has thought about the food.
Read the assessmentHome Restaurant
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Modern European bistro
Home Restaurant is a long-held Bib Gourmand bistro in central Belfast whose fortnightly seasonal menu is backed by a broad, organically minded wine list of real character. The wine programme achieves genuine integration — the hardest plates are answered by the glass, and a deep by-the-glass and half-bottle offer lets a table roam a wide, grower-led list without a big outlay. It will most reward the curious wine lover who wants seasonal cooking and the freedom to drink adventurously by the glass, and who will not miss a dessert-wine list.
Read the assessmentDeanes at Queens
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Contemporary European / charcoal grill
Deanes at Queens is a relaxed, Bib Gourmand brasserie beside Queen's University, cooking seasonal European food with an Asian streak at accessible prices. The wine programme punches well above the format — a taste-led, well-built list with a broad by-the-glass, a serious Champagne and reserve tier and the right styles waiting for the menu's genuinely awkward plates — held just short of the top rank only by the absence of printed pairing guidance and a little stretch against the spicier dishes. It will most reward the everyday wine lover who wants to drink thoughtfully without a special-occasion bill, and who is happy to be led by the glass.
Read the assessment