Wine Bar Restaurants
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Wine Cask
Two-story-high gold-leaf-stenciled ceilings, and elegant fish, beef, and pasta dishes make every guest feel chic. It's Santa Barbara's hottest table for serious eating. On balmy days or evenings, feast on the invigorating New California menu in the romantic garden courtyard. The wine list brags 2500 labels, with vintages dating back to 1900, but verify the price of the bottle before you let the sommelier pick a wine for you.
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Peploe’s
Lots of air-kissing and comparing of shopping-bag contents takes place at this sophisticated and sumptuous wine-bar, which is basically Dublin’s answer to London’s Ivy Rooms. It’s all about elegance and attention to detail – check out the sumptuous tableware – and not really about the perfectly adequate continental cuisine, which is merely a complement to the superb wine list.
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Enoteca Fuori Porta
Set just outside one of the city’s medieval gates, this mellow old enoteca (wine bar) proffers up to 500 different wines, including dozens by the glass, with a special strength in Tuscan and Piemontese reds. For a light lunch or evening meal, take a seat on the pleasant terrace and order a plate or two from the limited list of pastas, salads and crostoni (grilled, open-faced sandwiches).
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Union Bank
This upmarket and rather groovy cellar door and wine bar has more than 500 wine labels, any of which can be enjoyed with a cheese platter or antipasto plate. There's also a wine store.
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Ristorante Enoteca La Torre
This is Viterbo's best restaurant: the Japanese chef combines precision and delicacy of presentation with innovative uses of fresh seasonal produce.
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Jimmy Watson’s
Wine and talk are the order of the day at this long-running wine bar-restaurant. The fare is European, Middle Eastern and a dash of Mod Oz, with a nod to ingredients such as kangaroo.
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Proof
One of the most acclaimed new wine bar/small plates restaurants in the city, Proof has become one of the poshest culinary stars in the Downtown firmament of late. Everything is excellent – the duck and pork confit in cassoulet is a smoky marriage made in heaven – but if you want to keep costs down and still eat well, opt for the excellent cheese and charcuterie dishes, which are likely the best compliments to the epic wine menu. The four-course $56 tasting menu is also a winner that gives you a good idea of what the kitchen is capable of, but if you’re in a group, try to mix and match off sexy small plates like cozy flatbread under creamy ricotta and lightly fried…
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Les Pipos
A feast for the eyes and the senses, this bar à vins is above all worth a visit for its food. Its charcuteries de terroir (regional cold meats and sausages) is mouth-watering, as is its cheese board, which includes all the gourmet names (bleu d’Auvergne, St-Félicien, St-Marcellin etc). No credit cards.
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Trattoria Biondo
Biondo has a split personality. The trattoria side is pure Fellini film set, always crammed with congenial, noisy locals who come for Palermitan classics such as involtini di pesce spada (swordfish roulades) or pasta con le sarde. Crates of fresh produce greet you at the door, which leads to several low-ceilinged dining rooms decorated with plates, tiles and paintings. Just around the corner, Pizzeria Biondo offers the same great quality at half the price. An animated crowd fills the sidewalk tables every night for some of Palermo’s finest pizza.
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Cork Wine Bar
This dark ‘n’ cozy wine bar manages to come off as foodie magnet and friendly neighborhood hangout all at once, which is a feat. Smart wine choices plus small plates equals culinary bliss – a brioche of prosciutto is graced by fontina cheese and a smiling, sunny-side-up egg, while chicken livers arrive on a rosemary bruschetta accompanied by a dollop of intriguing shallot marmalade. With this innovative menu (and excellent cheese selection) you generally can’t go wrong, although those little dishes do add up on the wallet.
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Ferenc Pince
Ferenc is both a wine- and food-lover's dream; not only does its chef cook up a Hungarian storm in the kitchen with a mixture of local and national meat and fish dishes, but some of the best wine available is served by the very people who produce the stuff. During the day, its open terrace offers expansive views of the lake, while at night the hypnotic twinkling lights of the southern shore are in full view from its cosy thatched-roof house. Ferenc Pince is around 2km south of the abbey church.
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Les Domaines Qui Montent
Les Domaines Qui Montent has been around since before the cave à manger trend began, and although it’s not quite as trendy as most newcomers, it is very much the real thing. Above all a wine shop, it offers simple 2-course menus at lunch which you can pair with any of their available bottles.
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Trimani
Part of the Trimani family’s wine empire (their shop just round the corner stocks about 4000 international labels), this is an unpretentious yet highly professional enoteca, with knowledgeable, multilingual staff. It’s Rome’s biggest wine bar and has a vast selection of Italian regional wines as well as an ever-changing food menu – tuck into local salami and cheese or fresh oysters. Book ahead to take one of the regular wine-tasting courses.
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Ely
Scrummy homemade burgers, bangers and mash, or wild smoked salmon salad are some of the dishes you’ll find in this basement restaurant. Meals are prepared with organic and free-range produce from the owner’s family farm in County Clare, so you can rest assured of the quality. There’s a large wine list to choose from, with more than 70 sold by the glass. There are two more branches on either side of the Liffey.
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Vineria Roscioli Salumeria
Walk in and swoon over the mingled aromas. This traditional deli is a temple to food, with olive oils, cheeses (around 450 varieties), Italian and Spanish hams etc to buy. It’s packed at meal times, when you can dine deliciously in the molto chic interior (think exposed brick arches and contemporary paintings). Dishes include fresh pastas and beef tartare, and the wine list has some 1100 labels (900 Italian, 200 French).
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Zawodsky
Zawodsky is only a 1.5km walk from the touristy haunts of Grinzing, yet light years away in atmosphere. This stripped-back set-up features picnic tables surrounded by apple trees and vineyards, and a small selection of hot and cold meats complemented by various salads. From Grinzing, walk up Strassergasse, take tiny Rosenweg on your left past the Maria Schmerzen Kirche and Reinischgasse appears on your right.
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Plonk
Where to go for a drawn-out three-martini, gossipy lunch? Plonk serves a wide-ranging menu from light snacks to full meals, mostly made from local organic products. In summer the entire front opens up and cool breezes enter the long building, which also has a shotgun bar and pressed-tin ceilings.
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Buccone
Step through the door, under the faded gilt and mirrored sign, and you’ll feel as though you’ve gone back in time. Once a coach house, then a tavern, in the 1960s this building became Buccone, furnished with 19th-century antiques and lined with around a thousand Italian wines as well as a good selection of international tipples. It’s perfect for a light meal, with salads, cured meats, cheeses, torta (cakes) etc.
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Ardeo’s
Ardeo’s is one of the original small plates/wine bars in the city, and still one of the best. There’s a lot of rich pastas, fresh fish and juicy meat selections, plus a few salads and sandwiches. Try a local specialty like succulent, pan-roasted rockfish served with a ragout of prosciutto, sweet corn and plantains. The combo selections of wine and saki are excellent, and a good way of starting a long night.
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City Wine Shop
Take home or sample the de jour drops by the glass from the wall of local and international wines. You can also buy by the bottle, which adds a corkage charge to the marked price. Counter meals such as crab cakes or goat’s cheese omelette (the bar shares a kitchen with the European restaurant next door) demand you make a night of it. Its prime footpath tables are a delight in summer.
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Gales Wine Bar
With 30 years of history as a wine bar and a 100-strong wine list that spans the globe, this wood-lined eatery, with a huge log burner, is a friendly and popular spot with a relaxed feel. Inventive mains make the most of local produce with daily changing menus based around lamb, steaks and fish. The owners also offer B&B accommodation in comfortable rooms with a continental breakfast.
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Del Frate
Locals love this upmarket wine bar with its simple wooden tables and high-ceilinged brick-arched rooms. There’s a formidable wine list and a small, but refined, selection of beef and tuna tartares, appetising salads, cheeses and fresh pastas.
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Hirt
Hidden among the vineyards on the eastern slopes of Kahlenberg, Hirt is a simple Heuriger with few frills. Basic wooden tables, a small buffet and marginal service all help to create a traditional atmosphere, while views of Kahlenbergerdorf and the 21st district across the Danube are a pleasure to enjoy over a few glasses of wine in the early evening.
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Vertical Wine Bistro
Although it's a sophisticated wine bar dressed in cocoa and candlelight, don't worry if you can't tell your pinot noir from your pinot grigio. Each dish, including such menu stars as pulled pork and harissa-grilled chicken, comes with its own wine recommendation. Sample several 2oz tastes or choose a bottle from the 400 options on the wine menu.
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Enoteca Carso
Locals love this unassuming place with streetside seating. It has a great range of fresh wines on tap or from the bottle, and can't-go-wrong tasty dishes of the day such as mozzarella-and-tomato salad or pasta with basil and tomato - point and choose from the glass cabinet. The waiter with the headband will see you right for wine.
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