The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
SIX Panoramic
SIX Panoramic is a rooftop brasserie at the top of a Cambridge hotel with a broad, cocktail-forward drinks list that carries a genuinely wide wine offer behind it. The wine programme is a competent, well-spread fit for the crowd-pleasing food — by-the-glass across every colour, a deep Champagne run for the occasion, and a real answer to the hardest plates, the smoked fishcake and the curry — held to a reliable mainstream standard rather than a connoisseur's. It will most reward the drinker who wants to drink a glass at a time across the styles, with a Champagne for the occasion, over a wide brasserie menu.
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Restaurant Twenty-Two
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
Modern British tasting menu
Restaurant Twenty-Two is a Michelin-starred tasting-menu restaurant in Cambridge with one of the finest and most distinctive wine programmes in the guide, deep in English wine and fine bottles and offered by the Coravin glass, by flight and by the half. The wine programme achieves genuine mutual elevation — a sommelier-curated cellar of real conviction that pairs every course with thought and lets a diner drink fine wine a glass at a time — with a full sweet-and-fortified offer and even a considered non-alcoholic flight. It will most reward the serious wine lover who wants a great cellar and a great sommelier team to lead them through a tasting menu.
Read the assessmentThe Wine Rooms
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
Wine bar and small plates
The Wine Rooms is a wine bar and shop in Cambridge where a small-plates, fondue and cheese kitchen exists to partner one of the most serious by-the-glass lists in the guide. The wine programme is genuinely elite for the format — 125ml and 175ml glasses, half-bottles, a Coravin pouring fine and aged bottles a glass at a time, and a complete sherry, sweet and fortified range by the small glass — held back from the very top only because the food is small plates rather than a full kitchen. It will most reward the wine lover who wants to explore widely and adventurously, a glass at a time, over good cheese and charcuterie.
Read the assessmentCambridge Wine Merchants, Cherry Hinton Road
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
Wine bar and shop (cheese and charcuterie)
The Cherry Hinton Road bar of Cambridge Wine Merchants is an award-winning wine bar and shop where cheese and charcuterie boards meet a complete by-the-glass programme and a whole shop to drink from for a flat corkage. The wine offer is genuinely elite — every category by the glass, from grower Champagne to Sherry and Vin Santo, a monthly organic-and-natural flight, and per-cheese pairings printed on the menu — held back from the very top only because the food is boards rather than a kitchen. It will most reward the wine lover who wants to explore widely and cheaply, a glass at a time, over good cheese and charcuterie.
Read the assessmentThe Cambridge Chop House
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
British steakhouse
The Cambridge Chop House is a British steakhouse on King's Parade with a genuinely curated wine list, unusually biased towards the Languedoc-Roussillon and finished with a full sweet-and-fortified offer by the glass. The wine programme is a thoughtful, well-priced fit for the grill-led food — southern reds for the chops, saline whites for the fish, and a proper answer to the hardest plates, the cured salmon and the offal — with a broad by-the-glass and carafe range that makes exploring easy. It will most reward the drinker who wants a good steak, a characterful southern-French list and the freedom to drink a glass or a carafe at a time.
Read the assessmentThe Pint Shop
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
British gastropub and charcoal grill
The Pint Shop is a British charcoal-grill gastropub in central Cambridge with a curated, organic-and-natural-leaning wine list, much of it offered by the small glass and the carafe. The wine programme is an honest and characterful fit for the grill-and-charcuterie food — bone-dry saline whites for the cured fish, an orange wine for the hardest plate, ripe reds for the steaks — broad by the glass and let down only by the near-absence of sweet and fortified wine. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants to explore widely and cheaply, a glass or a carafe at a time, over good food cooked over coals.
Read the assessmentThe Millworks
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
British charcoal-grill gastropub
The Millworks is a charcoal-oven gastropub in a converted Cambridge mill with a genuinely curated wine list, unusually biased towards the Languedoc-Roussillon and finished with a full sweet-and-fortified offer by the glass. The wine programme is a thoughtful, well-priced fit for the grill-led food — southern reds for the steaks, green whites for the fish, and a proper answer to the hardest plates, the asparagus-dressed hake and the blue-cheese wings — with a broad by-the-glass and carafe range that makes exploring easy. It will most reward the drinker who wants a good grill, a characterful southern-French list and the freedom to drink a glass or a carafe at a time.
Read the assessmentThe Bell Inn
Stilton, Cambridgeshire
Modern British
The Bell Inn is a historic Cambridgeshire coaching inn whose modern British kitchen is matched by a well-built, style-banded wine list of real range. The wine programme earns its standing on that breadth and on a generous by-the-glass offer — three sizes across the still wines, and a single measure reaching even to a Champagne and a dessert Sauternes — answering the hardest plates by the glass and closing the meal thoughtfully, short only of a personal cellar's individuality and a fuller fortified shelf. It will most reward the diner who wants genuine choice by the glass across an ambitious seasonal menu.
Read the assessmentVino Tapas and Wine
St Neots, Cambridgeshire
Spanish and Italian-leaning tapas
Vino Tapas and Wine is a St Neots tapas bar with an Iberian-leaning kitchen and a genuinely wine-led list. That list is thoughtfully bought — organic bottlings, old-vine and lees-aged reds, a proper Rías Baixas Albariño and a small sweet-and-fortified tail — and chosen to partner small plates, though several of its best food wines are offered only by the bottle. It will most reward a table happy to share plates and a bottle, and drinkers who like crisp, saline Iberian whites.
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