The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
Friends of Ham
Friends of Ham is a charcuterie and cheese bar by Leeds station, a craft-beer room with a genuine, well-chosen natural-wine programme alongside. That programme earns its standing on how directly it is bought for cured meat and cheese — juicy low-tannin reds, an orange wine on keg, and a model small-glass corner of Sherry, Port and sweet wine for the board — within the ceiling a boards-and-snacks kitchen sets, and held back by no Champagne and few stated vintages. It will most reward the curious drinker who comes for the ham and the cheese and wants an honest, characterful glass, or a small glass of something sweet, to go with it.
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The Box Tree
Ilkley, West Yorkshire
Fine dining tasting menu (Michelin star)
The Box Tree is a long-celebrated Michelin-starred restaurant in Ilkley serving a single seasonal tasting menu with a matched wine flight. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation — one of the deepest and most characterful cellars in this guide, reaching from trophy Bordeaux to English sparkling and Jura Vin Jaune, yet opened up by a broad by-the-glass offer and a course-by-course flight. It will most reward the wine lover who wants to drink seriously and adventurously, whether by trusting the flight or by mining a genuinely great list a glass at a time.
Read the assessmentThe Box Tree
Ilkley, West Yorkshire
Fine dining, seasonal tasting menu
The Box Tree is a long-established Ilkley fine-dining restaurant serving an ambitious seasonal tasting menu. Its AA-notable wine list is one of the deepest and best-organised in this guide — grand in its Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux, generous in its by-the-glass, half-bottle and dessert offerings, and matched to the food by a course-by-course sommelier flight. It will reward the wine lover who wants a serious cellar and expert guidance to explore it, whether by the trophy bottle or the thoughtfully chosen glass.
Read the assessmentStuzzi
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Italian small plates
Stuzzi is an Italian small-plates restaurant in central Leeds serving cicchetti-style sharing plates and house-made pasta at accessible prices. The wine programme earns its standing on a genuinely deep, coherent all-Italian cellar that runs from house pours to mature Barolo, Brunello and Amarone, mirrors the kitchen region by region and answers its hardest plates by the glass — held just short of the very top only by no dry fortified wine and no printed per-dish guidance. It will most reward the diner who comes to eat Italian and wants to drink Italian properly, from an honest glass to a serious old bottle, without leaving the country or overspending.
Read the assessmentMartinez Wines
Bingley, West Yorkshire
Spanish tapas / wine shop and bar
Martinez Wines is a specialist Spanish wine merchant in Bingley with a tapas kitchen and a corkage bar, where you drink any of more than 700 bottles at shop price plus a flat fee. Its wine offer is its triumph — the range, the depth of Sherry and dessert wine, and the value are all of a high order — set back only by a guest-led model with no curated table list and a deliberately simple kitchen. It is a genuine destination for the curious wine lover happy to browse and be guided, less so for a diner who wants each plate paired for them.
Read the assessmentOx Club
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Modern British live-fire grill
Ox Club is a live-fire grill in central Leeds cooking modern British food over solid fuel at accessible prices. The wine programme earns its standing on how precisely a short, natural-leaning list is bought for the smoke and spice of the cooking — chillable reds, three orange wines, taut unoaked whites and a genuinely useful small-glass fortified corner — held back only by thin sparkling, no stated vintages and no local wine. It will most reward the diner who comes to eat from the grill and wants a well-judged glass for each plate without a grand cellar or a grand bill.
Read the assessmentFriends of Ham
Ilkley, West Yorkshire
Charcuterie and wine bar, small plates
Friends of Ham's Ilkley bar is a charcuterie-and-cheese counter with a small, thoughtfully bought drinks list to match. Its wine programme punches above a dozen-bottle list through a committed organic and low-intervention buying line and an unusually complete little fortified shelf, generously poured by the glass and carafe. It will suit the drinker who wants to graze cured meat and cheese with characterful, well-priced glasses rather than work through a grand cellar.
Read the assessmentTharavadu
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Keralan / South Indian
Tharavadu is a Michelin-recommended Keralan restaurant in central Leeds cooking spice-led, coastal south Indian food at mid-range prices. The wine programme earns its standing on a rare thing — a specialist Indian list genuinely chosen and annotated to meet chilli heat and souring, with an aromatic Alsace white and high-acid whites for the seafood — held to the floor of the band by no off-dry Riesling for the fiercest heat, no sweet or fortified wine and little depth. It will most reward the curious diner who wants more than a lager with a great fish curry and will take the list's spicy-food steers, or the floor team's, to find the right glass.
Read the assessmentThe Vine
Ilkley, West Yorkshire
Italian trattoria
The Vine is a neighbourhood Italian trattoria in Ilkley serving the familiar range of pizza, pasta, risotto and Italian mains. Its wine list is a small, competent and clearly annotated Italian-led selection, sound for the food and with a good spread offered by the glass, if thin on sparkling and without much to finish on beyond a single sweet wine. It will suit the diner who wants a well-priced, easy-to-navigate Italian bottle with a plate of pasta rather than a list to linger over.
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