The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
The Mariners
We assessed The Mariners in July 2026 and this review is based on the food menu and wine list at the time of the review. As menus and wine lists change, we name styles in order for the information to remain more useful as menus change. If things have slipped you can use the Vinealto Dining app including accessing an up to date reading using 'At the Table' from the wine list in front of you in the restaurant. How we assess
The Mariners is Paul Ainsworth's easy-going Rock gastropub, sending out Cornish seafood, a proper grill and a Goan-spiced plate or two beside the Camel estuary. Its short, sensibly bought list leans on unoaked high-acid whites and a well-priced by-the-glass range that flatter the seafood and keep pace with the kitchen's heat, even if the pairing thinking is left to the drinker. It will suit anyone after a relaxed harbourside lunch who wants a well-chosen glass without ceremony, and who is happy to lean on the floor team for the final call.
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Ugly Butterfly by Adam Handling
Newquay, Cornwall
Modern British tasting-menu fine dining
Ugly Butterfly by Adam Handling is a Michelin-starred, modern-British tasting-menu restaurant on the headland above Fistral Beach in Newquay. Its wine programme is one of the most serious in the South West, a deep, sommelier-curated cellar that runs from a friendly by-the-glass adventure to a genuine fine-and-rare collection, with an outstanding English sparkling showing and a dessert-and-fortified chapter to match. It will reward anyone who loves wine enough to explore it, from a curious drinker dipping a toe in by the glass to a collector chasing a mature Burgundy or a great Champagne.
Read the assessmentPaul Ainsworth at No.6
Padstow, Cornwall
Modern British fine dining
Paul Ainsworth at No.6 is a fine dining restaurant in Padstow serving an à la carte and an eight course tasting menu built on Cornish produce. Its deep, expensive list is matched to the kitchen with a priced glass for every à la carte course, two wine pairings and an outstanding Champagne page. It suits diners who want a special occasion with expert wine guidance close to hand.
Read the assessmentBarnaby's at the Vineyard
Padstow, Cornwall
Sharing plates, vineyard restaurant
Barnaby's is a seasonal sharing plates restaurant set in a working vineyard outside Padstow, cooking Cornish seafood and meat with flavours from Turkey and Georgia. Its list of small, low intervention producers, including five wines from the estate itself, follows the food's travels from Georgia to the Canary Islands. It suits a relaxed lunch or dinner for anyone curious to drink the local vineyard alongside wines they will not find elsewhere.
Read the assessmentPrawn on the Lawn
Padstow, Cornwall
Seafood small plates
Prawn on the Lawn is a small seafood restaurant in Padstow with a menu that changes daily, from Porthilly oysters to whole fish for sharing. Its list is built of fresh whites and natural leaning bottles, with 20 wines by the glass and three wines from a vineyard in Padstow itself. It suits seafood lovers who like a lively, low key list with plenty to try by the glass.
Read the assessmentPintxo
Fowey, Cornwall
Spanish tapas and sherry bar
Pintxo is a small waterfront tapas bar whose sherry list is the reason for a wine lover to seek it out. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation in a narrow compass. The hardest plates on the menu, the salt-cured anchovies and sardines, are precisely the ones the by-the-glass flor sherries answer most completely, and the sweet sherries carry the pudding. It will most reward the curious drinker who wants to explore sherry properly, glass by glass, against the food it was made for.
Read the assessmentCastaways
Mylor Bridge, Cornwall
Wine bar and restaurant, seasonal seafood
Castaways is a harbour wine bar and seafood kitchen at Mylor whose list is built, unusually well, for the food it serves. The wine programme earns its standing on that integration and on a generous four-size by-the-glass offer of the house and mid-range, with a bottle-only tier that climbs to Burgundy and Champagne, let down only by the absent sweet and fortified wines its puddings would welcome. It will most reward the drinker who wants to taste widely by the glass alongside good seafood, with the option to finish on something serious by the bottle.
Read the assessmentSamphire at The Old Quay House
Fowey, Cornwall
Coastal Cornish, small plates and mains
Samphire is a relaxed harbourside restaurant in Fowey serving Cornish produce as plates to share, with flavours drawn from Asia and beyond. Its short wine list is fairly priced, mostly poured by the glass and unusually helpful, suggesting a dish for every wine, though the spicier plates are only partly served. It will suit diners who want an easy glass with their seafood and are happy to start with a dry sparkling.
Read the assessmentGRAZE
Newquay, Cornwall
Spanish and Mediterranean tapas
GRAZE is a tapas bar in Newquay serving Spanish and Mediterranean small plates. Its list is a coherent Spanish and Portuguese selection, mostly by the glass, with a fine run of Sherry in small measures, though the version online carries no prices. It suits groups sharing plates who want an easy, regional glass with them.
Read the assessment