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The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers

The Boathouse Instow

68/100
  • Instow, Devon
  • British seasonal seafood, coastal pub
  • By the glass
  • mid-range
  • Beta
  • Assessed July 2026
What's this?

These are confidence labels — how sure we are that what we publish still reflects the restaurant's current practice. They are not a judgement on the restaurant; the wine and cooking are scored separately, out of 100.

  • Beta — assessed and scored, but we are still confirming some details (such as the current wine list), so it is published with that caveat.
  • No label — a fully confirmed entry.
  • In development — not yet a review; it appears so you can see where coverage is coming.

Some restaurants change their menus often, and we cannot always keep pace. The date beside the label says when we looked.

We assessed The Boathouse Instow in July 2026 from the menu and wine list as they stood then. Dishes and bottles move on; how to drink well here changes far more slowly. We name bottles from the list we saw and say what to reach for by style, so the advice outlasts the list. Once you are seated, At the Table in the Vinealto app reads the list in front of you.

The Boathouse is a busy Devon coastal pub whose seasonal kitchen leans hard into local seafood, from Maldon oysters to Porthilly mussels and Devon crab. Its wine list is a broad, glass-led group selection that serves that food well (crisp high-acid whites for the shellfish, a genuine dessert-and-Port tail for the puddings, and unusual value by the glass) even if the pairings are left to the diner. It will suit anyone who wants to drink widely and affordably by the glass alongside good seafood, and who is happy to steer their own course through a well-stocked but un-signposted list.

The full assessment — the wine programme, the pairings that lift a plate, and how the room reads for a wine lover — is for subscribers.

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More in Devon

81/100 Beta

The Seahorse

Dartmouth, Devon

Mediterranean seafood

The Seahorse is Mitch Tonks's Dartmouth seafood restaurant, cooking Italian and Mediterranean plates around the daily Brixham catch. Its wine list is a deep, regionally organised cellar built to flatter that fish, generous in its by-the-glass range and unusually honest in its pricing, with the full cellar offered at little more than cost. It will most reward the drinker who likes high-acid whites and is tempted to trade up into a premium bottle at a price rarely seen on a restaurant list.

  • By the glass
  • £££
  • Assessed July 2026
Read the assessment

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