The Circus

Fantastic! Such a great wide range of food. Lovely service, great wine and amazing food. Pop in and have a lovely evening!

wow. this place is really really good.
been here 3 times over the years. not to be missed in Bath.
service is very god. food excellent. a MUST!
but phone in early and book. or risk dissapointment.

You could say I’m biased, having worked here during my gap year, but the Circus really is one of the best restaurants in Bath.
Situated a stones throw from the hustle and bustle of the centre of town, sandwiched between the Circus and the Royal Crescent, the Circus Restaurant is an excellent choice for both casual lunches and more formal dinners.
Family-​run and always welcoming, the Circus serves up a varied selection of locally sourced, seasonal dishes with an emphasis on the best of British cuisine. On my most recent visit winter salads and mutton pasties joined the permanent steak with café de Paris butter (yum) and fish of the day options. And there’s a fantastic array of wines to choose from, to suit every pocket, to wash it all down with — what more can you ask for?
Set in a Georgian building, you can choose from the light and airy ground floor, cosy lower ground floor and, in the warmer months, the tables laid out on the pavement at the front.
Be warned, the Circus fills up quick so it’s always worth booking ahead to avoid disappointment!

What’s that about don’t judge a book by the cover? In this case you do want to judge by the cover I suppose, just not by the title.
I had seen this place mentioned in a few different places but simply wrote it off based on the name… having just arrived in Bath on an evening, and looking straight for restaurants and pubs versus tourist attractions given the time, I had not realised that this place is named for «The Circus» row of flats that it is just off of. With that knowledge the name of course makes a bit more sense, but I’m not sure I would have named it that myself all the same. Alas, back to the review!
Walking by the next day my friend noticed a sign outside of a café looking place that named it one of the top 25 hidden treasures for foodies, or something along those lines, so we peeked in and looked at the menu… it was a great menu to say the least, and not as expensive as I’ve seen for similar food in London (naturally) or even York to be honest… it wasn’t cheap, but not as expensive as the looks and menu could lead you to believe. (It wasn’t until after we decided to try and give it a go that we discovered this was the infamous «The Circus» I had seen mentioned elsewhere.)
I won’t focus on the individual items we ordered too much as I believe their menu chafes frequently, but everything we ordered was spot on… we couldn’t begin to fault the starters, mains, sides, or dessert… even the offered bread options were a cut above what you normally get.
The atmosphere and service were top notch too… friendly and just attentive enough, couldn’t ask for more.
One note, despite being a bit bigger than it looks initially (there’s a downstairs) it’s a good idea to book if you’re interested in coming here on a weekend or busier evening… we walked by in the afternoon and could still only get a reservation for 10:30 that evening! The wait was worth it however.
Side note: I think this would be a great place to take a special someone as well, it certainly had a romantic feel to it without being too over the top… a contrast to the name no doubt.

One of the best meals I’ve had
We both had the lamb patties and couscous (with baked peaches… wow!!)
Wonderful!

We decided to have lunch here after noticing the fries while walking by. It was a very good decision. The restaurant was lovely, the service was very good and the food was delicious. We had the fries which did not disappoint and a goat cheese tart with a thoughtful mixed green salad that accompanied it. Everything was delicious and that combined with such a pleasant atmosphere made for a wonderful dining experience. Would highly recommend.

This place is charming and the food was delicious. Impressively, most of the menu is locally-​sourced. And it changes once a month. Wow! The service is also quite good.
You should probably make a reservation as they are often fully booked.

This is a great place to eat. The lunches are really great value and the parsnip soup is to die for! More expensive in the evening but has both a restaurant feel downstairs and bistro up stairs/​on the street. The burgers well plain great as well as the rest of the French cuisine. Enjoy!

My wife and I loved our trip to Bath last month and our dining experiences definitely contributed to that. The Circus is a great restaurant right next to the buildings/​neighboorhood it is named after. It is small (RESERVATIONS a MUST!) and we saw them turn away about 3 different groups even though the restaurant looked empty because people with reservations were coming in.
We had a romantic dinner with awesome service, awesome food with fresh ingredients. We had a great overall experience and we would definitely go back if we are lucky enough to travel to Bath again in the future.

Quaint restaurant. A little expensive, but their duck was great. The location is very very nice, right between the royal crescent and the royal circus. I would definitely recommend this place for a clean dinner.

An elegant, pastel-​hued restaurant situated near some of Bath’s most beautiful and historic buildings, The Circus is nothing like its name first suggests. The circus refers in fact to the neighbouring circle of sedate, Georgian buildings rather than any carnivalesque connotations.
The food was excellent — well cooked, fresh ingredients and subtle flavours. We tried the ceviche (delicious), followed by steak and wood pigeon (the latter a touch dry but compensated for by being rubbed with Morroccan spices) and for dessert mango crème brûlée and the rhubarb and ginger tart. All were uniformly excellent.
The house wine was good value for money, although unfortunately unless money is no object, there wasn’t much choice for a similar price, the next one up being a solid three pounds more expensive.
The circus is a great option for a romantic meal, softly lit by candles and surrounded by pale walls decorated with tasteful artwork. Although it’s not cheap we felt it was great value for money taking into account the location and quality of the food served.

Great ambiance and good food. No set lunch menu — so if you go for three courses expect to pay around £25 per head for food only. For that sort of money you can get better vfm elsewhere. However, food was tasty and well presented: I had the Scallops followed by a «Power Salad». Desert was a chocolate parfait with amaretto syllabub (delicious). Servers were young and pretty. Service standards professional without being overly attentive. Recommended — I will return.

Friendly posh, relaxed but with exacting standards, so tastefully decorated, lovely food and located just 100 yards from the Crescent in Bath, The Circus Café and Restaurant is gorgeous.
Seasonal, freshly cooked British food is delicious — a whole plaice caught that very day from St Ives, cooked and presented perfectly with lovely home made tartar sauce, a delight.
Stop by for a mid meal refresher, excellent fresh coffee, teas and pick me up snacks — why not try crumpets or toasted tea cakes with butter and jam?
In warmer weather, outside tables (with awning and heaters for the onset of the chillies) are very inviting too, seated with a view of one of Bath’s historic roads, Brock Street and the Circus green just ahead. As it gets darker, this becomes a fantastic setting, you could just imagine Jane Austen strolling along the pavement under the hazy lamp lights.
Plenty of tables inside, on two floors and a continuous stream of visitors suggests this is definitley one of the more popular venues for locals and tourists alike.
Open 10.00am to midnight every day except Sundays, when shut.
Highly recommended.

There are so many things to like about this place I’m just going to overlook the fact I wasn’t massively impressed with my lunch choice of lamb patties. It’s a lovely café just off the circus with fresh seasonal food and friendly staff. I also can’t say enough good things about the bread which was just phenomenal. You pay for it per person and are rationed two slices which you can pick from a tray – wheat or white. The wheat was good but the white was possibly baked in heaven and dropped down by angels, it was THAT GOOD. Thick and doughy and with butter I could have just happily had the loaf and call it a day. If you go, GET BREAD. For mains we had the duck with wild rice salad, the buffalo mozzerella with parma ham and peaches and the lamb patties with aubergene purée. My dad seemed happy with his duck (plate cleaned) and the mozzerella was fantastic, but my lamb was a bit lacking, maybe too cooked, although the aubergene purée was really tasty and different. I was sort of comparing the lamb to the lamb burger at Umbria in SF (which changed my life, really, because I never really knew I loved lamb until I tried it) and it wasn’t quite up to that exalted standard. That said, I would definitely go back (if in Bath), especially because my meal, heaps of bread, a glass of house white and service only set me back £15. And they change the menu monthly so there will always be something new to try!