Best restaurants in Bath Published 08 February 2023
Bath, with its stunning Georgian architecture and historic charm, is also a haven for food enthusiasts. The best restaurants in Bath showcase the city’s dedication to culinary excellence, offering a rich tapestry of flavours and dining styles. Whether you're drawn to contemporary twists on classic dishes or menus that highlight seasonal and locally sourced ingredients, the best restaurants in Bath cater to every preference. This guide provides an essential resource for exploring Bath’s thriving food scene, ensuring that every meal becomes a memorable part of your visit to this beautiful city. In amongst the Georgian elegance, you'll find one of the finest bakeries in the country, fine cheeses and a cluster of excellent restaurants. Here are the best places to eat in Bath.
This admirable neighbourhood bistro offers astute, seasonal Anglo-French cooking (with a few modern global influences) at affordable prices – the prix-fixe lunch, in particular, offers exceptional value. It’s a low-key… Read more
This admirable neighbourhood bistro offers astute, seasonal Anglo-French cooking (with a few modern global influences) at affordable prices – the prix-fixe lunch, in particular, offers exceptional value. It’s a low-key, bijou, warm-hearted kind of place, squeezed into the ground floor of a Georgian terrace not far from Pulteney Bridge, with a small private room overlooking the river at the back. Affable service has a quiet confidence that comes from knowing what they’re serving is good, from scallops with kimchi to onglet steak with Café de Paris butter. Our openers ranged from fried polenta on a bed of deeply flavoured wild garlic purée with tapenade and Parmesan to crisp buttermilk quail accompanied by kohlrabi coleslaw and pear ketchup. To follow, sea bream arrived with just-squeaky green beans dressed with a delicate lovage sauce, while a pork chop was served with apple, roast garlic and Calvados sauce. For dessert, poached rhubarb with whipped mascarpone and vanilla crumb brought things to a close. The mainly French wine list provides plenty of affordable drinking, but there are a few pricier options for those who want to push the boat out.
Corkage has always felt like the kind of neighbourhood restaurant that can give a neighbourhood a good name. The original manifestation was in an engaging tiny space quite a way up Walcot Street and was so successful a larger bran… Read more
Corkage has always felt like the kind of neighbourhood restaurant that can give a neighbourhood a good name. The original manifestation was in an engaging tiny space quite a way up Walcot Street and was so successful a larger branch opened in Chapel Row, just off Queen Square. Post-pandemic, only the Chapel Row branch has survived. A long and narrow dining room with chunky wood furniture, bookended by a snug front bar and a timbered and tented rear terrace, it’s instantly appealing, a very attractive operation with rough edges but with its heart in the right place. It works as a wine and small-plates bar, offering great value, breezy, friendly service, and bags of atmosphere. The short, regularly changing menu is reflective of the Mediterranean basin, the seasons, and the chef’s enthusiasms. Thus you’ll find cured-and-torched mackerel fillet with soured cream, vermouth jelly and breadcrumbs alongside lamb sweetbreads with a mix of peas, broad beans and shallots, a dab of labneh and a smear of herb oil. Or there could be slow-braised shoulder of lamb with butter beans, lemon and greens, and nicely charred octopus atop chickpea purée with a red pepper and onion salad. Pudding might be a tart (perhaps lemon with crème fraîche) or a special of burnt Catalan cheesecake. Not the least attraction of the place is the long list of kindly priced wines, a mainly classy Eurocentric coterie with skin contact and 'funky' offerings, plus a good by-the-glass selection.
Henry Scott’s townhouse restaurant has the poise and understated elegance of the city itself. Its gently worn tables, soothing palette and hidden herb garden are an appealing backdrop to this West Country chef’s though… Read more
Henry Scott’s townhouse restaurant has the poise and understated elegance of the city itself. Its gently worn tables, soothing palette and hidden herb garden are an appealing backdrop to this West Country chef’s thoughtful, precise brand of modern British cooking. His concise menu is understated, with just three choices per course – there’s also a four-course ‘taste’ (including a vegetarian option) where you let the chef decide what you’re eating – and all evidence suggests the kitchen is growing in confidence. Expect interesting flavours and exciting textures but nothing too ‘way out’. Welsh longhorn ravioli with BBQ leeks and tomato, followed by a refreshingly straightforward sea bream fillet with celeriac risotto, radish and langoustine dressing have been uncomplicated successes. Vegetarians miss out not a jot: rosemary maize cake with cucumber, dill and rhubarb salad or tempura broccoli with avocado, onion compote and soy dressing deserve their place on the carte. No order is complete without the luscious, liqueous dark chocolate tart. Local beers, cider, kombucha and cocktails complement the short, smart wine list.
Head chef Chris Cleghorn has been honing his technique in the Queensberry Hotel's basement restaurant for more than a decade now, and things are down to a pretty fine art. If you're looking for inventive, refined and beautifu… Read more
Head chef Chris Cleghorn has been honing his technique in the Queensberry Hotel's basement restaurant for more than a decade now, and things are down to a pretty fine art. If you're looking for inventive, refined and beautifully presented dishes, then his tasting menus (choose anything from three to nine courses) hit the mark. Cleghorn places great emphasis on seasonality as well as provenance, and is rightly proud of the wealth of local produce he can draw on. It is perhaps a shame that cooking of such flair is hidden away below ground in a room which, although well lit and tastefully decorated, is a little characterless. Service is suited and formal, though efficient and helpful. You will not be pouring your own drinks here. Each dish is carefully explained by the kitchen staff as it is brought to the table – a starter of cured trout with wasabi cream, purple radish and apple sorbet, for example. Even the seasonal lunch menu offers overtly opulent ideas such as poached and barbecued Cornish lobster with vanilla salt, fermented sweetcorn, lovage oil, verbena leaves and a frothy, light lobster cream. Cleghorn's technical mastery is showcased in a late-summer dessert involving mildly smoky, intensely flavourful barbecued raspberries with tonka-bean parfait, coulis, fennel strands and 25-year-old balsamic vinegar. The extensive, globetrotting wine list is user-friendly, with an excellent selection by the glass and various bottles grouped by style ('rich, intense, opulent') so you can easily choose something to suit your mood.
Up above the ground-floor Landrace Bakery in the centre of Bath, a block away from the Avon, is a small eatery that is one of the city's treasured all-day resources. Its doors open at 9am for coffee and fresh bakes straight from t… Read more
Up above the ground-floor Landrace Bakery in the centre of Bath, a block away from the Avon, is a small eatery that is one of the city's treasured all-day resources. Its doors open at 9am for coffee and fresh bakes straight from the oven; take out if you haven't time to loiter. Lunch and dinner service are well worth the loitering, though, for the inspired (and often astonishing) contemporary bistro cooking on offer. The Cheddar curd fritters are a popular way of priming the appetite, or consider a plate of Cantabrian bonito with butterhead lettuce, radish and egg. There's more than a hint of English tapas about many of the options, even when it comes to the larger dishes, such as turbot with white beans, agretti and aïoli. Mutton gets too rare an outing on the British restaurant scene, but here it is, the roast leg with courgettes, Jersey Royals and salsa verde, providing succulent sustenance or perhaps forming the base for a meaty version of puttanesca sauce with mafalde pasta and pangrattato. 'It's the kind of place you could eat at all day, every day,' enthuses a reporter, who would clearly never tire of the changes the kitchen rings, right down to finishing touches such as apricot and almond cream puffs or Neal's Yard cheeses and chutney. Classic cocktails use plenty of vermouth, beers are organic and there are some freaky wines to add character to the occasion.
Originally a bakehouse and later a Jägerbomb-fuelled student hangout, Walcot House now attracts a lively crowd with its offer of a clubby dance venue/nightclub, cocktail bar and stylish restaurant. The space is filled with natura… Read more
Originally a bakehouse and later a Jägerbomb-fuelled student hangout, Walcot House now attracts a lively crowd with its offer of a clubby dance venue/nightclub, cocktail bar and stylish restaurant. The space is filled with natural light during the day, when locals drop by for breakfast, coffee and light bites, although it has an altogether sexier vibe come evening. The whole place has an exuberant buzz, so get in the mood with an up-to-the minute cocktail from the Dilly Bar, before sampling the restaurant’s wares. Walcot’s owners also run the local butcher’s, specialising in native breeds and ageing all their meat on-site – sample the quality by ordering a well-seasoned beef tartare (complete with capers, silky rich confit egg yolk and some West Country pecorino). After that, a ribeye steak cooked on the bone has a powerful meaty flavour – just add some buttery, garlicky roasties, and baby gem with pancetta and sourdough croûtons in a pleasant Caesar dressing. The kitchen also shows its mettle when it comes to day-boat fish – perhaps seared hand-dived scallops with smoky roasted cauliflower and sweet/salty caper and raisin purée followed by delicate lemon sole embellished with the saline zing of marsh samphire. Desserts are mostly classics such as pain perdu with roasted plums and vanilla Chantilly or Valrhona chocolate mousse with olive oil and smoked salt. The staff get full marks for their warm, welcoming attitude and their seamless attention to detail; they also talk passionately about the wine list – we landed on a ‘lip-smacking’ Cabernet Sauvignon from the Yarra Valley, Australia.
A taste of real-deal Nepalese cooking without having to endure a long-haul flight to Kathmandu, this cheery townhouse basement has all the homespun flavours and authentic artifacts you could wish for. The carte is quite short… Read more
A taste of real-deal Nepalese cooking without having to endure a long-haul flight to Kathmandu, this cheery townhouse basement has all the homespun flavours and authentic artifacts you could wish for. The carte is quite short but group menus offer much more variety – and great value too. Meat eaters might plump for spiced pork momo dumplings, peppery bhutuwa chicken or the YYY lamb suffused with cumin; others could pick butternut squash and braised chickpeas with turmeric or bakula banda (spicy stir-fried white cabbage and broad beans), followed by kesariko dahi (creamed saffron yoghurt with marinated oranges and crushed pistachios). Citrussy Nepalese Kuwa beer is the drink of choice.
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