Wine & Brine

The story

Wine & Brine, Moira: Modern Cuisine with Michelin Bib Gourmand in Northern Ireland

A crossroad of great produce

On Main Street in Moira, Wine & Brine sits where Northern Ireland’s best ingredients meet a chef with serious pedigree. The dining room is bright, with an open kitchen that lets you watch the action. For private occasions, three quietly elegant rooms offer more seclusion.

Chef Chris McGowan

Chris McGowan is the force behind the stove. A three-time Great British Menu contender, he spent 20 years training with the likes of Richard Corrigan (at Michelin-starred Lindsay House), Pierre Koffmann at La Tante Claire, and Gary Rhodes. That Michelin-star training shows in his precise, confident cooking. He and his wife Davina run the place with palpable warmth.

The cooking

The menu is modern, deeply rooted in old techniques. Brining, pickling, fermenting – these aren't gimmicks but ways to extract deeper flavour from local meat and vegetables. The ox tongue ’n cheek pie drew raves from judges Oliver Peyton and Matthew Fort, and Tom Kerridge called the black pudding the best he’d ever tasted. That sums up the approach: simple, bold, and fiercely local.

Recognition

The Michelin Bib Gourmand for 2026 praises “good quality, good value cooking.” It’s a fitting nod to a restaurant that the Waitrose Good Food Guide editor called “a hive of endeavour” – the kind of place every town should have.