The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
The Orange Tree Bar and Grill
The Orange Tree is a broad, accessible bar and grill whose kitchen centres on a serious steak counter. The wine programme is a competent, mostly commercial list that covers the grill squarely and rewards a drinker willing to trade up a rung, though it leaves the hardest plates and the sweet-and-fortified end underserved. It will suit a mixed table wanting familiar, well-priced wine by the glass more than the wine lover chasing a cellar to explore.
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The Wilderness
Birmingham, West Midlands
Modern British tasting menu
The Wilderness is a Michelin-starred modern-British tasting-menu restaurant in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter where a sommelier-led cellar is treated as the equal of the food. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation — a fearless, wide-ranging list that runs from blue-chip France and deep England to Serbia, Georgia and Lebanon, with a Coravin offer that puts grand bottles within reach by the glass and answers the menu's hardest courses precisely. It will most reward the curious wine lover who wants to be led somewhere unexpected and trusts a great list, and the person pouring it, to lead the way.
Read the assessmentAlbatross Death Cult
Birmingham, West Midlands
Seafood-led tasting menu (Japanese-inflected)
Albatross Death Cult is a fourteen-seat counter restaurant in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter serving a single seafood-led tasting menu poured by the glass and the flight. The wine programme earns its standing on integration — a small, low-intervention, sea-themed list built precisely from the saline, unoaked and low-tannin wines that the hardest cured-fish and caviar plates demand, with a Manzanilla and a strong sake shelf doing the work most kitchens of this size leave undone — held back only by a narrow published list and no Champagne. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants the room to choose the pairing and enjoys a list that follows the sea rather than the usual map.
Read the assessmentThe Fitzherbert Arms
Swynnerton, West Midlands
Gastropub (British)
The Fitzherbert Arms is a relaxed Staffordshire country gastropub whose wide, characterful and keenly-priced wine list is built to be drunk from across a broad, seasonal British menu. The wine programme matches the food with real thought — crisp unoaked whites and an off-dry rosé by the glass for the hardest plates, structured reds for the pub classics, and a genuine sparkling range topped by the pub's own English fizz — held back only by a thin dessert and fortified offer. It will most reward the drinker who wants a properly considered glass with good pub cooking, without a city markup.
Read the assessmentTropea
Birmingham, West Midlands
Contemporary southern-Italian (Calabrian) small plates
Tropea is a Bib Gourmand southern-Italian restaurant in Harborne serving Calabrian-accented small plates designed to be shared. The wine programme earns its standing on a disciplined, all-Italian list ordered from lightest to richest and built to be drunk with the food, fairly priced and deepened by a short cellar of properly aged bottles, held back only by the absence of Champagne, a thinner fortified corner and pairings left unsignposted. It will most reward the diner who wants to eat and drink Italian together and trusts a coherent regional list, read by feel, to lead the way.
Read the assessmentWillow (Trentham)
Stoke-on-Trent, West Midlands
Mediterranean / Middle-Eastern bistro
Willow is a large, all-day eastern-Mediterranean bistro whose cooking leans into harissa, zhoug and Persian spice. The wine programme rises above its casual setting through an intelligently organised, well-communicated list with a genuine Greek, Cypriot and Lebanese seam that mirrors the food, let down only by an absent sweet-and-fortified end. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants a characterful glass to match a plate of mezze and is happy to be guided by a list that does much of the thinking for them.
Read the assessmentFiume
Wolverhampton, West Midlands
Italian
Fiume is a broad-menu modern Italian restaurant in Wolverhampton, strongest in its pastas, pizze and grill. Its wine list is a coherent, mostly-Italian collection with real regional character through the middle and a genuine Champagne top end, let down only by a near-absent fortified-and-dessert shelf and a by-the-glass choice held to the house tier. It will suit anyone who wants a dependable Italian bottle to match an Italian meal more than the diner chasing the unusual or the hard-to-match plate.
Read the assessmentArco Bar and Ristorante
Coventry, West Midlands
Italian
Arco is a broad, mid-range Italian ristorante and bar in central Coventry with a short, mostly Italian wine list built to sit close to the food. The wine programme does the easy middle of the menu honestly and at fair value, but stays shallow and leaves the harder chilli plates for the diner to solve, with no printed pairings, no dessert or fortified wine and only two sparkling choices. It will most reward the diner who wants a straightforward Italian red or white to go with their pasta at an accessible price, rather than one looking for range or a cellar to explore.
Read the assessmentCogs Bar and Kitchen
Coventry, West Midlands
Modern British bar and kitchen
Cogs is a relaxed Coventry bar and kitchen with a broad, spice-and-grill menu and a compact everyday wine list served by the glass, the bottle and a self-serve Wine Wall. The wine programme is assembled rather than curated, but it is fairly priced and carries a sensible, low-tannin, fizz-friendly answer to the kitchen's spicier plates. It will suit a diner who wants a good glass without ceremony far more than one hunting a serious cellar.
Read the assessment