The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers
The Royal Standard
The Royal Standard is a seaside pub on Lyme Regis's Marine Parade serving Greek-influenced seafood and pub classics a few steps from the water. Its wine programme is short and commercially bought but keenly priced, genuinely well chosen for the food and unusually well annotated with plain-English pairing notes, lifted by a properly local Dorset sparkling. It will suit casual diners and families after an honest, accessible glass with fresh crab or fish and chips, rather than anyone hunting a deep or adventurous cellar.
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The Seaside Boarding House
Burton Bradstock, Dorset
Modern British, seafood-led
The Seaside Boarding House is a small, seafood-led hotel dining room on the Dorset cliffs at Burton Bradstock, cooking what the coast and the season bring. Its wine programme punches above a compact list through careful, kitchen-led buying, honest glass-and-carafe pricing, and a genuine local anchor — Dorset's own wines by the glass, right down to a sparkling to drink with the local oysters. It will most reward the diner who comes for the seafood and wants a considered glass or carafe beside each course rather than a grand bottle.
Read the assessmentThe Plume of Feathers
Sherborne, Dorset
Italian small plates (cicchetti)
The Plume of Feathers is a Sherborne pub whose kitchen sends out sharing-sized Italian small plates. Its wine programme turns an Italy-led, largely by-the-glass list into the room's real draw, letting a table match plate by plate and finish on a proper small-format fortified or sweet wine. It will suit the curious drinker who would rather graze across a dozen Italian glasses than commit to a single bottle.
Read the assessmentSobo Sommelier
Bournemouth, Dorset
Wine bar / Spanish-Portuguese tapas
Sobo Sommelier is a sommelier-led Southbourne wine bar pairing Spanish and Portuguese small plates and Dorset boards with a personally curated, ever-changing list. The wine programme earns its keep through genuine by-the-glass depth, honest pricing and a floor that knows every bottle, even if the Champagne and Sherry ends are thin. It will suit the curious drinker who likes to graze, pour by the glass and be guided, more than the collector after a landmark cellar.
Read the assessmentSantos and Co
Dorchester, Dorset
Portuguese-British fusion, petiscos small plates
Santos and Co is a warm, Portuguese-British petiscos kitchen in Dorchester whose wine list commits, almost to the bottle, to Portugal. That single-country focus gives the food a natural partner — Vinho Verde for the salt and the fried plates, Algarve reds for the grill, Port for the custard tarts — poured generously by the glass and the carafe, even if depth and pairing guidance are thin. It will suit a drinker who wants to eat and drink their way around Portugal without ceremony, and who is happy to choose for themselves.
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