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The Restaurant Guide for Wine Lovers

Upstairs at the Grill

81/100
  • Chester, Cheshire
  • Steakhouse and grill with a raw bar
  • By the glass
  • premium
  • 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.

Upstairs at the Grill is a Chester steakhouse that dry-ages its own beef and pours it alongside a wine list far deeper than its setting suggests. The programme's strength is genuine ambition — cult California, a serious Champagne cellar and a full dessert-and-Port tail by the glass — matched to the food with printed pairings and a by-the-glass shortlist across every colour. It will suit the wine lover who wants a proper cellar with their steak, and who knows to spend on the by-the-glass shortlist and the everyday bottles unless the occasion calls for the trophies.

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 Cheshire

79/100 Beta

Linden Stores

Knutsford, Cheshire

British sharing plates wine bar

Linden Stores is a small, wine-led British sharing-plates bar where a curious, grower-focused list is the reason to book and the kitchen cooks a seasonal menu to suit it. The wine programme achieves real mutual elevation — the hardest plates on the menu are precisely the high-acid, delicate and fresh-cheese dishes the list is stocked to answer — with a rare depth of countries and a sweet-and-fortified close for a bar this size. It will most reward the curious drinker who enjoys discovering low-intervention wines from off the beaten track and trusts a characterful list to lead the way.

  • By the glass
  • mid
Read the assessment
68/100 Beta

Vin Santo

Chester, Cheshire

Wine merchant and bar with cheese, charcuterie and pâté small plates

Vin Santo is a Chester wine merchant and bar where the food exists to serve the wine rather than the other way round. The programme's strength is a small, genuinely curated international list, communicated with unusual clarity and paired thoughtfully to a cheese-and-charcuterie counter, held back only by a narrow kitchen and a weekly list we could see but not price. It will suit the curious drinker who would rather explore a merchant's shelves at close to shop prices than work through a restaurant's markup.

  • By the glass
  • mid-range
Read the assessment
59/100 Beta

Wallop

Knutsford, Cheshire

Sourdough pizza and wine bar

Wallop is a relaxed sourdough-pizza and wine bar whose drinks list, shared across its small group, offers an honest, well-priced and format-friendly spread rather than a pairing-led cellar. The wine programme's strength is accessibility and value — plenty to drink well and cheaply by the glass — while its clear gaps are any sweet or fortified wine and any deliberate matching to the food. It will most suit an easygoing drinker who wants a good glass with a good pizza without spending much or thinking hard about it.

  • By the glass
  • budget
Read the assessment

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