Choosing where to eat in any city isn’t an easy thing to do, especially somewhere like Bath which has a lot of inviting restaurants, too many for us to make a decision before visiting. I applied a formula we usually use when exploring somewhere new, check out the most recommended restaurants across a range of sites (from Tripadvisor and broadsheets to foodie sites such as BBC’s Good Food). This includes checking photos to make sure collars match the cuffs, so to speak. On Tripadvisor, it’s not uncommon to see a restaurant described by reviewers as Michelin star standard yet whose photos suggest more greasy café.

Doing this, I ended up with a tick list to check out while getting to know Bath. As we wandered the historic streets, we either discarded or marked as potential the restaurants we saw which were on our list. Passing The Circus, we instantly were hooked by its menu – there were a few dishes which had the tastebuds perking up – and the general ambience which oozed from the place. Luckily, they were able to fit us in that night.

The Venue

Located in a Georgian house on the elegant street between The Royal Crescent and The Circus, the restaurant has the look of a one of those inviting joints you find in café society cities on the European mainland. It’s casually chic without being fussy or pretentious, the sort of place where people lounge outside in the sunshine sipping glasses of crips wine. The jaunty font of the restaurant’s name made me think ‘big top’ rather than its proximity to one of Bath’s architectural delights. It works both ways. It is classy but with a fun, relaxed ambience. Stepping inside, staff with big smiles and an easy manner made us feel instantly welcome.

The décor is quietly stylish, soft silvers and greys punctuated by colourful prints, and the lighting bright enough without being glaring … warm and cosy bright. We were shown to one of the tables in the window, tucked into a bay so that there was no draught when the door opened. It was an ideal position for nosy people watchers like us who like to see what’s going on inside and outside.

The Menu

The Circus’s website blurb describes it as a ‘…family-run restaurant; serving seasonal, locally sourced, freshly cooked food’ which ticks a lot of our boxes. The food is familiar – classic European dishes tweaked by Head Chef Matthew Lisanti to add the restaurant’s signature. As there is a focus on using seasonal produce, the menu changes quite regularly. The online spring menu as I write this isn’t quite the same as the menu we drooled over just a couple of weeks ago. Featured dishes nicely bridge the gap between comforting (leek & potato soup) and sounding fresh and original (Westcombe ricotta & goats cheese gnudi). Non-meat-eaters are nicely catered for (four out of six starters, and two from seven mains, including homity filo pie which, as an eater of anything and everything, I’d happily choose as a main).

The Food

The Circus looks great and its food sounds tantalizing, but does it match up to the promise? Despite being keen to try a starter, mains, and dessert, we opted for mains to start to see how we got on. Andy was reeled in by what seems to be an ever-present dish on the changing seasonal menu, flat iron steak (pan fried medium rare), chimichurri sauce, crispy shallots, watercress, and chunky chips. I could see just from the look of the chips, served in a mini pot, they were class. Andy confirmed how good they were between gushing compliments about both flavour and tenderness of the steak. A huge hit. I went for duck á l’orange, orange glazed Creedy Carver Duck breast, pressed duck leg faggot pithivier, cavolo nero, and a duck jus. We cook duck a lot and I’m hyper critical of eating out and being served food inferior to what we produce at home. No worries here. Both duck breast and faggot were perfect, the pithivier consisting of a thin sliver of pastry on the rectangular faggot rather than completely enclosing it. Pulling them both together was the richly intense jus. Both dishes were enough to fill our bellies satisfactorily, yet leave just enough space for dessert, but only one between us. It had to be sticky toffee pudding, which we both decided was THE best sticky toffee pudding we’ve tasted since returning to Britain in 2021, and there have been a lot of sticky toffee puddings since then. Even our waitress confessed she struggled not to eat it every day. The bad news, it’s not on the current dessert menu.

The Circus delivered across the board, wowing us with sensational food at the sort of prices we pay in some pubs where the quality of the food doesn’t come close to what we ate and thoroughly enjoyed here.

The Details

The Circus; thecircusrestaurant.co.uk; 34 Brock Street, Bath; open: Mon – Fri 10:00 – 23:00, Sat 10:00 – midnight. Starters average £10; mains average £24.