Old-school Iberian firepower, wine list needs a pep talk
Ironbound · Newark · Spanish and Portuguese steak and seafood · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed June 24, 2026 · How we review
RagingWine reviewed Don Pepe Restaurant’s wine list and gave it The Reliable — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
Don Pepe has been feeding Newark since before most of us were born, and the wine list feels like it's been on the same slow simmer. You open it expecting something with Iberian soul and instead find a lot of familiar California faces staring back at you. That said, the room is alive, the steaks are enormous, and nobody's here to overthink their wine order.
The list runs 60-100 bottles and skews heavily American — Kendall-Jackson, Francis Coppola, Hess Collection — which is a curious choice for a restaurant rooted in Spanish and Portuguese tradition. The bright spots are the Iberian picks: Rías Baixas Albariño from Ponte da Barca and Aveleda Vinho Verde give the list some actual personality, and the Figuière Provence rosés signal someone occasionally reads a wine magazine. The Pouilly-Fuissé from Louis Jadot is a reliable crowd-pleaser that fits the room's banquet-hall energy. Gaps are obvious — there's almost no Rioja, no Douro reds, and zero Tempranillo representation of note, which is a strange miss for a place that calls itself Spanish.
Seven to ten options by the glass, and they're a mixed bag. The Rías Baixas Albariño is the clear standout pour — crisp, mineral, and genuinely appropriate for the seafood-heavy menu. The rest of the glass list leans on Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay and a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, which are fine but unremarkable. The presence of Blossom Hill White Zinfandel on a list at these food price points is a head-scratcher we'll leave without further comment.
Ponte da Barca Rías Baixas Albariño — N/A
Available both by the glass and bottle, this is the wine that makes the most sense in this room. Albariño from Rías Baixas is built for shellfish and grilled seafood — it has the acidity and salinity to cut through a whole lobster or a plate of garlic shrimp without flinching. Skip the Chardonnays and go here first.
Figuière Signature Magali Rosé 2021
Provence rosé sitting on a menu surrounded by California Chardonnay tends to get overlooked, but Figuière makes genuinely serious wine. The Magali is structured and dry — not the thin, watery pink most people expect at a steakhouse. It handles the paella and seafood dishes better than anything else on the list.
Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio
Santa Margherita is a fine wine. It's also one of the most marked-up bottles in American restaurants, routinely priced at two to three times what you'd pay retail. At a steakhouse in this price range, you're paying for the brand name, not the experience in your glass. The Zenato IGT Pinot Grigio or the Gavi from Marchese Raggio will get you more wine for less money.
Aveleda Vinho Verde + Spanish-style garlic shrimp
Vinho Verde's slight effervescence and bright acidity are practically engineered for garlicky, olive-oil-drenched shellfish. The wine cuts the richness, lifts the garlic, and keeps your palate fresh through the whole plate. It's also one of the more affordable bottles on the list, which never hurts.
The Bottom Line
Don Pepe is a Newark institution worth every bit of its reputation for food, but the wine list is coasting on the restaurant's legacy rather than pulling its own weight. Come for the lobster and the Albariño, and don't overthink the rest.
· Newark · Spanish and Portuguese
Spanish Tavern is a Newark institution with the bones of a wine-forward dining room — the setting, the cuisine, and the Iberian focus are all pointing in the right direction. The list likely plays it safe and the markups are probably what you'd expect from a white-tablecloth special-occasion spot, but if you're here for a proper sit-down dinner of paella and seafood, a bottle of Spanish red will do the job. We'd love to see the list push further into the Iberian depth that the kitchen deserves.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Arts District · Newark · Tasting-menu / New American
For a concert hall dining room in Newark, this wine list has no business being this French, this specific, or this fairly priced — and yet here we are. The by-the-glass selection alone is worth flagging for anyone catching a show at NJPAC. Go in, order the Vouvray or the Morgon, and be pleasantly surprised.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Newark · Wine Bar
Enoteca Wine Bar earns its Wild Card badge by being exactly the kind of place Newark shouldn't be sleeping on — a focused Italian and Spanish program in a room built for lingering, at price points that don't punish you for ordering a second bottle. We'd want a closer look at the full list and glass pours before calling it a destination, but if you're in the neighborhood and want wine with your wood-fired pizza, this is a smarter bet than most.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Newark · Brazilian Steakhouse
The Taste of Brazil is almost certainly a great time if you're here for the rodízio experience — the meats, the energy, the all-you-can-eat chaos. The wine program, though, is an unknown quantity we can't responsibly endorse, and the lack of any transparent list online suggests wine isn't a priority here. Order a caipirinha, enjoy the picanha, and save the serious bottle for another night.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Newark · Italian
Five Corners has stocked four respectable Italian reds and essentially stopped there. Without pricing, pour options, or a list that can accommodate the full table, it's hard to call this a wine program — it's more like a wine shelf. Come for the Italian cooking; manage your expectations on the wine side.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Montclair · Newark · Tasting-menu and New American
Halcyon is a reliable dinner-out option in Montclair where the wine list does its job without showing off — broad enough to find something that works with the seafood, priced at the higher end of what the neighborhood commands. Until we can get eyes on verified bottle selections and pricing, the specific picks stay blank, but the overall program earns a cautious endorsement: go for the crab cakes, ask your server what's pouring well by the glass, and you'll land somewhere fine.
Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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