Hinton Charterhouse, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: A “quirky and interesting” local with a “good atmosphere” serving a “creative menu, with cooking of a consistent high standard”. It makes a “fantastic pub for Sunday lunch”, with “outstanding roasts”.

2023 Review: The “food and wine are always interesting” and are “still as good as ever” at engaging Anglo-Scottish chef Gordon Jones’s former sandwich shop on the southern edge of town. There’s “a single tasting menu available” (the only choice is whether to have 7 or 9 courses) and it comes as a complete surprise, with each dish introduced as it arrives at your table (and no vegetarian or other options).

“Great for game if you are in Bath” – a “pleasant” and clubby hotel-restaurant that’s the brainchild of Mike Robinson, of London’s acclaimed Harwood Arms, and accordingly strong on venison et. al. The venue occupies several adjoining Georgian townhouses, and the victuals are “gusty” and “immensely satisfying”, as The Telegraph’s William Sitwell put it in a Nov 2022 review (also proclaiming that he would “rave about this joint well into the New Year”).

2022 Review: Taking afternoon tea in this “wonderful Georgian setting with a trio playing during the meal” – and the Roman baths next door – is to wallow in English history, with literary visitors from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens as your guides. The nibbles – “beetroot-cured smoked salmon with homemade blini”, perhaps – are a secondary consideration, “but well worth having!”.

“Very enjoyable French food in a convivial atmosphere” ensures the continued high success of Chris Tabbitt (ex-of London haunt Bibendum) and Sarah Olivier’s modern European, est. 2016 and named after their first child. It’s a “comfortable and not showy” sort of place with “casual” service, where no one doubts the “very proficient” cooking (“not cheap, but definitely felt good value for the overall meal”).

Limited but positive feedback this year on this well-established wine bar and bottle shop, whose distinguishing feature is a large, barn-like extension and terrace that really comes into its own during the warmer months.

“Buzzy” and “very popular city centre spot” that excels for its “great food, friendly ambience and good value”. Chef-patron Rob Clayton opened it 12 years ago, after seven years as head chef at the Bath Priory Hotel. He has worked in top kitchens for 35 years, including a stint at Chez Nico in London.

This “interesting restaurant set in a bottle shop” (est. 2015) is part of the Beckford group, which runs four SW England inns, and – as of December 2022 – Bath’s Beckford Canteen, set in a Georgian greenhouse. The “tapas-style food” is “very moreish” and there’s unsurprisingly a “good, reasonably priced wine list” to go with it, making it “very popular” and “deservedly so”.

“Pleased to say standards remain high in this popular and much commented-on bistro serving modern European food”, in a useful central location. it’s “one of the best choices in a city served mainly by the chains”.

This gastropub with a garden, in an attractive setting near Victoria Park, is handy for the city centre and won solid support all-round this year in our annual diners’ poll.

“A brilliant new addition to the city” – this late 2022 newcomer is a sibling to the Abergavenny small plates restaurant from Daniel Saunders and Danielle Phillips and is tucked away in the centre, off Broad Street. Feedback is “outstanding” but more limited than we would like, but in an August 2023 review, The Telegraph’s William Sitwell also raved over its “bang-on-trend” formula, dubbing it “top notch and stunning value”.

This widely fêted newcomer is a “welcome restaurant version” of the nearby Beckford Bottle Shop (see also), set “in a lovely old greenhouse” with “very nicely done décor”. “The food is very good indeed” under highly rated ex-Kitty Fisher’s/Cora Pearl chef George Barson, and has wowed critics including Grace Dent of The Guardian (“a delicious paean to modern British classics and comfort foods”) and Giles Coren of The Times (“staggering beef tongue crumpet”). Top Menu Tip – “the fried pommes Anna are to die for”.

“A favourite in Bath” – this “intimate and relaxed small space” upstairs from the popular Landrace bakery “produces beautiful, well-cooked plates of local, in season, produce”. “The couple that run it” (ex-Quality Chop House and Brawn chef Rob Sachdev and ex-Big Jo manager Jude Copperman, who re-thought their London lives during lockdown) “are passionate about their business, and the menu changes weekly with typically small-plate starters of salads, cold cuts and amazing cheese fritters. Mains usually consist of a meat, fish or vegetarian option, typically a pasta dish which is silky and delicious”.