If the best restaurants in Bath once risked straying into insipid chain territory, 2026 proves they’ve managed to resist this entirely. Now, the calling card for the city’s best spots is hyper-local ingredients, letting Somerset’s bounty take centre stage.
Tucked in the rolling hills just north of Bath, Oak restaurant’s market garden is where herbs bloom alongside redcurrants, tomatoes and gooseberries. The garden’s produce dictates what’s on the menu at this tiny vegetarian restaurant in the shadow of Bath Abbey. At the recently opened Root further up town, the restaurant is growing some of its own vegetables using Wilding Cider land in the Chew Valley, in exchange for helping out with their apple harvests. And the flour for the hunks of sourdough delivered to your table at Upstairs at Landrace on artsy Walcot Street is milled at Westcombe Dairy outside Bruton.
Dotted amongst the Georgian grandeur, the West Country’s best growers and farmers are up in lights across the city’s burgeoning food scene, whether it’s for a white tablecloth set-up or countertop-small plates eaten in whistlestop time before the theatre. Here, find the best restaurants in Bath, from a bistro with small plates and excellent wine to a hotspot for the perfect laid-back lunch.
Landrace Upstairs
Best for: a grown-up dinner
Dish to order: Brixham John dory, sauce vierge and new potatoes
When Landrace Bakery opened in 2018 on Walcot Street, it didn’t take long for word to spread about their cardamom buns, with huge sticky trays of them disappearing not long after opening time. The brainchild of Andrew Lowkes, who’d moved to the West Country from London, its secret weapon from the off has been its mill at Westcombe Dairy in Bruton, producing speciality grains. And when Lowkes joined forces with husband-and-wife Rob and Jules Sachdev to open the small restaurant upstairs, the emphasis remained firmly on dishing up the best ingredients Somerset has to offer. Expect little plates of perfectly salty Westcombe saucisson, then gorgonzola dolce, black figs, rocket and crostini and perhaps white peach with a mascarpone and pistachio choux bun. The hope was that Landrace would bring to Bath the feel of a Continental bistro, and it’s done just that: noisy tables huddled over a stream of local ingredients, armed with cooling glasses of West Country cider.
