Multiple Columbus-area restaurants with more than 23,000 bottles in stock have earned mention on Wine Spectator magazine’s 2025 worldwide listing of the best places to dine for wine lovers.
It’s a big boost for the central Ohio dining scene in the annual survey by Wine Spectator, which reviews more than 10,000 wines each year and bestows its Best Restaurants for Wine recognition on about 3,800 businesses annually.
In 2024, six area restaurants made the magazine’s list, and two of them — The Refectory and Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse — were placed in an elevated category for “serious wine lovers” called the Best of Award of Excellence.
Restaurants honored as Best of Award of Excellence winners typically offer at least 350 selections on their wine lists, depth across regions and top producers and what Wine Spectator calls “a deep commitment to wine, both in the cellar and through their service team.”
The Refectory and Jeff Ruby’s were joined on the 2025 Best of Award of Excellence list by Agni, Butcher & Rose, Mastro’s Steakhouse and Tucci’s.
Six other central Ohio restaurants were honored as Award of Excellence winners, a category for those with wine lists of at least 90 selections. That list includes Barcelona, Cento, Eddie Merlot’s, Granville Inn and Mitchell’s Steakhouse restaurants in Polaris and Downtown.
No Ohio restaurants were selected for Wine Spectator’s Grand Award list of business with at least 1,000 selections and “an uncompromising, passionate devotion to the quality of their wine programs.”
Dining reporter Bob Vitale can be reached at rvitale@dispatch.com or at @dispatchdining on the Instagram social platform.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Wine Spectator’s 2025 Best Restaurants list includes multiple Columbus honorees
Reporting by Bob Vitale, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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