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The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers

The Plough Inn

60/100
  • Hillsborough, County Down
  • Gastropub
  • ££
  • Beta
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. Even so, our review stands as a point-in-time assessment — it can help you decide whether to visit, and it sets out the principles of pairing wine here, which should serve you whatever is on the list when you go. If things have moved on, the Vinealto pairing app can give you up-to-date advice on the spot.

The Plough Inn is a busy, many-roomed village gastropub in Hillsborough with a modern, spice-forward kitchen. Its wine list is broad and grown-up for a pub — a wide, well-described spread that can answer almost everything the kitchen throws at it — held back mainly by the absence of prices and of any dessert or fortified wine. It will suit an adventurous diner who wants a real choice of styles alongside big, flavour-driven food, and does not mind asking the price before ordering.

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 County Down

73/100 Beta

The Poacher's Pocket

Lisbane, County Down

Gastropub with wood-fired pizza

The Poacher's Pocket is a wine-minded gastropub at Lisbane with its own food-and-wine shop and a list far more ambitious than the setting suggests. The wine programme genuinely elevates the food — a well-priced by-the-glass and carafe house tier for the everyday plates, and a curious, wide-ranging bottle list that can partner everything from smoked salmon to an aged steak — let down only by the lack of any sweet or fortified wine for the puddings. It will most reward a curious drinker who wants real choice and honest by-the-glass value alongside generous, modern pub cooking.

  • By the glass
  • £££
Read the assessment
50/100 Beta

The Whistledown Hotel

Warrenpoint, County Down

Contemporary Irish, hotel restaurant and bistro

The Whistledown is a busy seafront hotel whose bistro cooks a broad, spice-leaning contemporary-Irish menu to a crowd that comes as much for the bar. Its wine list is short and modest but a step above the basic, with a few genuinely characterful bottles and real Champagne lifting it clear of a pure house selection, held back by no wines by the glass, no vintages and no sweet-wine finish. It will suit the casual diner who wants an honest bottle with a curry or a steak more than the drinker seeking a list to explore — though that drinker may find more to love in the gin.

  • ££
Read the assessment

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