The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
Noble
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.
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The 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 assessmentShu
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Modern European
Shu is a long-standing modern European restaurant on the Lisburn Road, cooking well-travelled, spice-inflected food at an upper-middle price. The wine programme is well composed and pitched to the room — a broad by-the-glass, a considered fine tier and an unusually complete shelf of dessert wines by the glass — with the styles the spicier plates need all present and correct. It will most reward the wine lover who likes to drink across a whole meal, from a crisp glass with the chilli plates to a sweet one with the pudding.
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