The Montpellier Wine Bar & Cellar Restaurant

You descend into Bayshill Lodge expecting the usual Cheltenham polish, but what you find is something altogether more convivial. The Montpellier Wine Bar is the kind of place where serious wine lovers sit shoulder-to-shoulder with locals after work, all of you sharing the same low ceilings and candlelit charm. The cellar setting feels genuinely special—not designed to feel special, but actually old and lived-in, with bottles stacked where they've probably been stacked for years. Staff know their stuff without being insufferable about it, and they'll happily guide you through the list or just pour you something good at £5 a glass. Food is straightforward and done properly; the sort of charcuterie and proper small plates that make sense at 8pm on a Wednesday.