The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
The French Quarter
The French Quarter is a French bistro in a Newcastle railway arch where an all-French wine list, poured generously by the glass, the carafe and the flight, is as much the point as the cooking. The wine programme earns its standing on that openness and on genuine curation — organic and natural growers, an orange wine, a grower Champagne, a proper sweet-and-fortified close — with only printed per-dish pairings and a world beyond France missing, neither of them its aim. It will most reward the drinker who wants to explore French wine by the glass, guided by a list that makes exploring easy.
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21
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear
Modern British brasserie
21 is a long-standing Newcastle brasserie of occasion-dining ambition, where a deep, globally serious cellar is laid out by style to be genuinely usable. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation — the list is built to the food, the hardest plates are the ones it answers most fluently, and a generous by-the-glass and carafe offer puts grand bottles within a single pour — held just short of the very top only by a fine-dining markup and the absence of a sweet-wine close. It will most reward the wine lover who wants to drink seriously across a long, intelligent list, by the glass or the great bottle, and let the room's structure do the guiding.
Read the assessmentBlackfriars Restaurant
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear
Traditional British
Blackfriars is an ambitious, French-inflected British kitchen set in a converted medieval friary in Newcastle, cooking market fish and proper meat cookery from a dated seasonal card. The wine list is its quiet strength — wide, curious and cleverly grouped by style, poured generously by the glass and carafe, and deep enough at the top to reward a special occasion — even if it leaves the dish-by-dish pairing to the floor rather than the page. It will most reward the curious drinker who likes to read a list actively and follow each course with a well-judged glass.
Read the assessmentThe Broad Chare
Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear
British gastropub
The Broad Chare is a Newcastle gastropub where proper regional cooking meets a wine list bought with more care than a pub is obliged to take. The wine programme earns its place on a sensible, well-priced by-the-glass core lifted by a handful of serious bottles, poured to suit food that ranges from oysters to offal to dry-aged beef. It will most reward the drinker who wants an honest, well-chosen glass with a genuinely good plate of British food, without ceremony or a large bill.
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