The food handbook for Bath

You've booked the foodie break, here's your handbook for your stay in the Michelin-recognised city.

23/06/26

Bath has quietly become one of Britain's most compelling food cities. Not through fanfare or manufactured culinary scenes, but through the kind of organic, independent-led growth that happens when good people decide to set up somewhere beautiful and cook properly.

These are the places we love. We know the team, we remember their orders, and they know ours. The restaurants are worth planning a visit around, the spots worth finding before everyone else does. Curated from seven Georgian townhouses on Queen Square, where we've been watching Bath's food scene evolve from the best possible vantage point, with Emberwood at the hearth.

Emberwood

We'd be remiss not to start here, though we'd recommend it regardless of where we operate. Executive Chef Dave Hazell, presides over a charcoal-fired open hearth that defines everything on the plate. Seasonal ingredients, local provenance, West Country produce at its best. Recognised by Michelin within three months of opening. Named Times Top 12 Restaurant 2025. Bath Life Restaurant of the Year. Gleaming brass, potted palms, velvet banquettes, a martini trolley that arrives when you least expect it and exactly when you need it. The smoky scent greets you at the door.

Green Street Butchers

Opened in 2023 with a simple intention: supply Bath's best restaurants with properly butchered, provenance-focused meat. Then someone suggested hot sandwiches, and Bath has been talking about them since. Rotisserie chicken with caramelised shallots and mayo. House porchetta with celeriac remoulade and salsa verde. Rare roast beef with béarnaise mayo. Everything made fresh at the counter, warm, ciabatta holding up properly under the weight of it all. No seating inside, just wooden benches outside where people hunch over baps with the quiet satisfaction of someone who's found exactly what they needed. Get there before the lunchtime queue. They're worth the wait even when they're not worth the wait.

Colonna Coffee

Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood roasts with precision and serves on Chapel Row with the same rigour. Single-origin, cold-brewed, the flat white that frequently gets cited as Britain's best. We won't argue. The staff can explain origins and processing methods without making you feel like you've wandered into a lecture. Start your day here, return for an afternoon espresso, and take beans home.

Good Day Cafe

Established in 2018 by Steph on Upper Borough Walls, Bath has been queuing for it ever since. The branding is pink and neon; the counter is the thing you can't look away from. Brownies, blondies, brookies, scotchies, cookie dough baked in the bakery next door, arriving daily, disappearing quickly. The Triple Choc Brownie is what purists order. The Jammie Dodger blondie is what everyone else dreams about afterwards. The brunch menu runs alongside it all: loaded hash browns, French toast, pistachio pancakes. Go for brunch and leave with a box. You'll wish you'd ordered the larger one.

Morso Bakery

A new arrival on Saville Row, and already one to know. Morso is an independent bakery and café with a vegan focus and a patisserie approach that takes the work seriously. Freshly baked daily, speciality coffee, the kind of counter that makes you reconsider your original order. They run patisserie courses alongside the café, macarons, entremets, and the real French technique, which tells you everything about how seriously they approach the craft. Worth finding before the rest of Bath does.

The Scallop Shell

Marco Pierre White called this his favourite restaurant in the area. Fish sourced sustainably, cooked simply and well. Always packed, always worth it. This is what a fish and chips restaurant looks like when someone genuinely cares about the provenance of what they're serving. Hidden just around the corner from us, on Monmouth Place, it short walk that's worth every step.

Green Street Wine Bar

Natural wines. Low-intervention producers. Small plates designed for lingering rather than rushing. The team know what they're pouring and will guide you without being prescriptive about it. Limited seating makes reservations essential on weekends, which tells you everything you need to know about how Bath has received it. Thursday evenings here have become something of a ritual for those who know.

The Francis foodie package

If you're visiting Bath for the food, and increasingly that's a perfectly valid reason, we've built a package around exactly that.

Book the foodie. From £270 per night midweek, including £150 to spend in Emberwood however you choose. Dinner, cocktails, afternoon tea, the martini trolley, spend it your way. Sleep in our recently refurbished rooms, wake to breakfast overlooking Queen Square, and spend your days working through the list above.

Our tote bags come with a map of Bath's independents, curated by our team who've eaten their way through the city over the years. Every recommendation on that list reflects somewhere we'd actually send a friend.

Book direct for our foodie package, click here.

Bath is a food city now. Eat accordingly.