The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
Pasta Ripiena
Pasta Ripiena is a family-run stuffed-pasta specialist in central Bristol with a warm, thoroughly Italian wine list. That list achieves real mutual elevation through careful regional matching, an exceptional 125ml-on-anything policy and enough range to answer even the fieriest plate on the menu. It will most reward the drinker who loves Italy and likes to taste widely by the glass without committing to a bottle.
The full assessment — the wine programme, the pairings that lift a plate, and how the room reads for a wine lover — is for subscribers.
Subscribe for full access Already subscribed? Sign inMore in South West
Olive Tree
Bath, South West
Modern British fine dining
The Olive Tree is the Michelin-starred dining room of a Georgian townhouse hotel in Bath, cooking a seasonal, produce-led modern British menu. Its wine programme is one of the most complete in this guide — an award-winning, award-deep list of more than a hundred and fifty bottles, strong in the very categories most kitchens neglect, with genuine access built in through the glass, the Coravin and the pairing flights. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants a great list to lead them, whether by the guided flight or by a single considered glass against each course.
Read the assessmentOutlaw's Fish Kitchen
Port Isaac, South West
Seafood tasting menu
Outlaw's Fish Kitchen is a small harbourside seafood room serving a daily-changing tasting menu drawn straight from the day's catch. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation — the hardest cured and soused fish plates are answered fluently by the glass, the by-the-glass offer runs across the whole list, and a full sweet-and-fortified shelf serves the dessert in a way most seafood rooms never manage. It will most reward the diner who comes to eat fish at its best and wants a serious, well-matched glass, from an accessible crisp white to a grower Burgundy, chosen to suit each course.
Read the assessmentWilks
Bath, South West
Modern French (seafood-led tasting menu)
Wilks is a six-seat gastronomic restaurant in Bath cooking a constantly changing, sea-led tasting menu with Michelin pedigree behind it. Its wine programme is a tightly personal, low-intervention list that punches well above its length, notable for offering a serious by-the-glass wine across every colour in a room this small, so that each course can be drunk with its own considered match. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants to eat wild fish at a chef's counter and let a natural-wine list lead them, glass by glass, through the meal.
Read the assessmentLittle Hollows Pasta Co.
Bristol, South West
Modern Italian pasta
Little Hollows is a Bib Gourmand pasta restaurant in Redland whose broad, carefully annotated, Italian-led list matches the seriousness of the cooking. The wine programme earns its standing on that fit, on a list anyone can navigate and drink to a plan, and on real range — skin-contact whites, English sparkling and a proper dessert flight — held back only by the absence of Champagne. It will most reward the diner who comes for the pasta and wants a characterful Italian glass, or two sizes of one, to follow each plate.
Read the assessmentCor
Bristol, South West
Mediterranean small plates
Cor is a fire-driven Mediterranean small-plates restaurant in south Bristol with a Bib Gourmand to its name. Its wine list achieves real mutual elevation, a low-intervention Atlantic-and-Mediterranean cellar carrying the saline sherries, high-acid whites and chillable reds that this cooking asks for, and pouring them generously by the glass. It will most reward the curious drinker who likes to graze across styles and is happy to ask the floor for a steer.
Read the assessmentHarry's Restaurant
Exeter, South West
Steakhouse and grill
Harry's is an independent Exeter grill, family-run since 1993, where a genuinely personal wine list — built around the owner's own Burgundy imports — is cooked up to rather than merely stocked. The programme earns its standing on that personal buying, a generous by-the-glass offer across every style, and a fizz and pudding-wine range most grills neglect, held back only by a France-first spread that leaves no dry Sherry for the saltiest plates. It will most reward the diner who comes for a good steak but is happy to be led into a glass of white Burgundy along the way.
Read the assessmentRoot
Bristol, South West
Modern British small plates
Root is a vegetable-led small-plates kitchen on Bristol's harbourside where a thoughtful natural and low-intervention list has been chosen to sit with the food. The wine programme earns its standing on that integration and on genuine breadth of style — skin-contact whites, sailboat-imported bottles and a Sherry flight that punches well above the list's size — with only the absence of Champagne and of any printed pairing guidance holding it back. It will most reward the curious drinker who likes natural wine, or wants to try it, and is happy to let a well-judged glass follow each plate.
Read the assessmentBOX-E
Bristol, South West
Modern British small plates
Box-E is a small harbourside restaurant in Bristol whose short, seasonal, vegetable-forward cooking is matched to a grower-led, low-intervention wine list that punches well above its length. The wine programme earns its standing on breadth by the glass, a real orange and sweet-and-fortified offer, and buying with a genuine point of view, let down only by the absence of printed pairings to guide the diner. It will most reward the curious drinker who likes to explore a list by the glass and is happy to let a well-chosen pour lead the way.
Read the assessment