The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
The Jew's House Restaurant
The Jew's House is a modern British tasting-menu restaurant in Lincoln, seafood-forward with game and lamb behind it, where curated wine flights do much of the pairing work. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation on the plates it covers — a characterful, well-annotated still list of high-acid whites and low-tannin reds, poured to each course through the tasting flight — but leaves clear gaps, with no sparkling and nothing sweet or fortified for its own aperitif and dessert moments. It will most reward the diner who takes a tasting menu with the flight and enjoys a still list read for its growers and its mature reds rather than for breadth of format.
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Hambleton Hall
Oakham, East Midlands
Modern British, fine dining
Hambleton Hall is a long-celebrated Michelin-level country house above Rutland Water whose daily-changing menu is built to one of the finest personally bought cellars in the region. The wine programme reaches close to the top of what this guide measures — world-class depth and genuine value sit side by side, the hardest plates are answered fluently, and a fine-wine-by-the-glass programme and a teaching wine list make a grand cellar unusually welcoming. It will most reward the wine lover who comes to eat seriously and drink from a great list, and who is happy to let a first-rate sommelier lead them off-piste.
Read the assessmentThe George of Stamford
Stamford, East Midlands
Traditional British and French classic (hotel fine dining)
The George of Stamford is a historic coaching inn serving classic British and French cooking across two dining rooms, from a formal silver-trolley restaurant to a wide-ranging brasserie. Its wine programme is the reason a wine lover should travel: a merchant-grade cellar of real depth, fairly priced by intent, exceptional in Champagne, mature Bordeaux and Burgundy and the Port and sweet page, and generous by the glass and half-bottle. It will most reward the drinker who wants to open something serious — or to graze grand wine by the glass — at a table where the kitchen has cooked with the cellar in mind.
Read the assessmentThe Gallery Restaurant at The Cavendish Hotel
Baslow, East Midlands
Modern British fine dining
The Gallery is the fine-dining room of a country-house hotel on a historic estate at the edge of the Peak District, cooking a short, seasonal modern-British menu. Its wine programme reaches well beyond what a hotel list needs to be — deep in Champagne, distinctive in its English and Eastern-European seams, and unusually generous with serious sweet wines, Sherries and Ports by the small glass, so the menu's hardest plates are answered exactly where they are hardest. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants to explore by the glass and to pair a great sweet wine or a mature Port without committing to a whole bottle.
Read the assessmentThe Barnsdale (1760 Brasserie)
Oakham, East Midlands
Modern British brasserie
The Barnsdale is a country-house hotel brasserie in Rutland whose all-day dining room draws on a carefully curated, merchant-backed group cellar. The wine programme earns its standing on that curation and on the honesty of pricing wine across the glass, carafe and bottle, from an everyday pour up to genuinely mature claret and Burgundy by the glass, with a sweet-and-fortified tail most kitchens neglect. It will most reward the diner who wants to eat well by the water and drink a little above the usual hotel-restaurant level without being asked to commit to a full bottle to do it.
Read the assessmentThe Lake Isle
Uppingham, East Midlands
Modern European
The Lake Isle is a season-led modern-European restaurant with rooms on Uppingham's high street, unusually well supplied with wine for its size. The list is a genuinely bought cellar — deep, mature and fairly priced at the top — that meets the kitchen's hardest plates squarely, with by-the-glass answers for the smoked fish and the asparagus and a real dessert-and-Port close. It will most reward the drinker who travels for a serious list in an unexpected place and is happy to explore beyond the by-the-glass flight.
Read the assessmentIberico World Tapas
Nottingham, East Midlands
Spanish and world tapas
Iberico World Tapas is a long-running Nottingham tapas restaurant whose Spanish-and-Asian small plates sit behind an unusually serious, well-communicated wine and Sherry list. The wine programme earns its standing on genuine mutual elevation — the fortified range answers the hardest plates on the menu, and the by-the-glass depth lets a sharing table drink precisely — with the Sherry section the clear reason for a wine lover to come. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants to explore Sherry properly, a small glass at a time, against food built to show it off.
Read the assessmentTom Browns Brasserie
Nottingham, East Midlands
Modern British brasserie
Tom Browns Brasserie is a riverside grill-and-seafood restaurant whose wine list has been thoughtfully built to match the food rather than merely to fill it out. The programme achieves real mutual elevation — the trickiest plates are answered fluently by the glass, the style-banded list guides the diner, and a proper sweet-and-fortified offer lets a meal end well. It will most reward the diner who likes to drink by the glass across a shared, seafood-leaning table and wants a list that makes the choosing easy.
Read the assessmentDon Paddy's on the Square
Uppingham, East Midlands
Brasserie, wine bar
Don Paddy's on the Square is an all-day brasserie and bar on Uppingham's market square, cocktail-forward but with a wine list that rewards a second look. Recently expanded and organised by taste style, it is characterfully bought, generous by the glass and thoughtfully signposted for a less-confident drinker, and it meets the harder smoked-fish and asparagus plates with genuine unoaked answers. It will suit an easy-going table that wants to drink well by the glass across a relaxed, all-day menu.
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