Bath’s top 10 budget eats

Tony Naylor samples Bath’s tastiest meals for under a tenner ahead of this weekend’s food festival

Food blog: what do you make of our top 10?

1. Best of British

“This is how food was before the advent of the supermarket and mass production,” runs the sales pitch at this little deli-cafe. It certainly ticks all the boxes. Ingredients are British, “100% organic” and there is a real, transparent emphasis on local suppliers. Breads come from Hobbs House in Chipping Sodbury; its Godminster Vintage cheddar from nearby Bruton etc., as you can read on the chalkboards. Crucially, the end products, its gourmet sandwiches and immaculate quiches, taste fantastic. BoB’s proclaimed “best brownie in Bath” is very good. It’s biscuity without, fudgy within and full of bitter, fruity nuggets of a, presumably, high-quality, high-cocoa solids chocolate.

• Sandwiches from £2.50; slice of quiche £3.25. 12 Broad Street, +44 (0)1225 448055; bestofbritishdeli.co.uk

2. The Porter

Bath’s vegetarian scene revolves around two distinct poles, the Porter and Demuth’s (2 North Parade Passage, off Abbey Green, +44 (0)1225 446059; demuths.co.uk). Rachel Demuth’s restaurant offers the more sophisticated experience, but with even lunchtime mains – say, an elaborately-pimped plate of lemon and herb aracini – coming in at just under £10, it hovers on the outer reaches of this feature’s remit. It’s only really Demuth’s breakfasts and snacks – perhaps a warm cheese scone or piece of lemon polenta cake (with tea/coffee, £3.95) – that could be described as “affordable”. The Porter is a much earthier experience. About as close as Bath gets to grungy, this iconic vegetarian pub and live music venue has been feeding a boho crowd for years. You can munch on stuff like hummus and garden salad rolls; a blended bean and lentil chilli; or artichoke and sweet pepper pizza. The only danger is lingering too long. All dark woods, drowsy blues rock and laidback good vibes, it’s the kind of place where you can easily pop-in for a snack and end-up in a long, boozy session.

• Sandwiches £4.25; mains from £6.25. 15 George Street, +44 (0)1225 424104; theporter.co.uk

3. Jika Jika

“Coffee should be as black as hell, as strong as death and as sweet as love,” runs the famous Turkish proverb, painted on one wall. My flat white certainly has a complexity of flavour that puts the high street chains to shame. Popular with yummy mummies and young professionals, this long, quirkily decorated “coffee house and canteen” is, perhaps, a touch smarter than that title suggests, but the food – which, from lunch onwards, centres on ciabattas, salads and a selection of interesting stone-baked flat bread ‘pizzas’ – is good value. A breakfast dish of eggs Florentine (£6.50) is well rendered, the perfectly poached eggs perched on sweetish muffins and slathered in a creditable lemony Hollandaise.

• Breakfast from £4, flatbreads/ciabatta from £3.50. 4a Princes Buildings, George Street, +44 (0)1225 429903; jikajika.co.uk

4. The Whole Bagel

Fresh and traditionally baked still-warm bagels filled with good things. What’s not to like? Well, OK, a New York connoisseur might perhaps pooh-pooh the salt beef on the Guardian’s sample bagel, but stated meat, like the other components (tomato, red onion, horseradish mayo, on a lightly onion-flavoured bagel), has decent flavour, and it all combines well. For £3.25, it is money well spent. The “pizza” bagels, incidentally, halved and thickly topped with cheese and pepperoni (£1.85), look like the kind of guilty, filthy food that a man could get addicted to.

• Bagels from £2.50. 4 Upper Borough Walls, +44 (0)1225 333259; thewholebagel.co.uk

5. The Fine Cheese Co

It was always unlikely that one of the country’s finest artisan cheesemongers would have a crap cafe, and, so, happily, it proved. On principle, the Guardian is knocking off a point for the pre-packed sandwiches (they actually look pretty good), but, otherwise, the Fine Cheese Co cafe, next door to the shop itself, is a bit of a doozy. Chef Hugh Dennis-Jones’s team turn out incredible savoury tarts and cakes, and superior versions of easy dishes such as potted fresh water crayfish or local asparagus, poached quail’s egg and Peroche goat’s cheese. A bowl of celery, new potato and spring onion soup, served with an excellent rye sourdough bread, is a serious potage, the flavours clear and true. Somewhat surprisingly, given the company’s influential role as a cheese wholesaler, retailer and maturer, the dairy doesn’t dominate. Although, you can graze on a plate (£6.95) of fruits, crackers and three freshly-cut cheeses chosen by owner Ann-Marie Dyas. The place itself is a higgledy-piggledy sequence of rooms – think posh country kitchen – with some suntrap seating on the street outside.

• Sandwiches £3.75; mains from £6.95. 29 & 31 Walcot Street, +44 (0)1225 487993; finecheese.co.uk

6. The Sausage Shop

This Delia-endorsed butcher specialises, as you might have guessed, in bangers. Said ultra-traditional links (natural gut casings, additive-free, oats not rusk) come in over 30 varieties and, each day, a couple are available to takeaway hot with mash and gravy, or on a baguette. In sausage terms, the “Somerset scrumpy” is pretty radical. It has a very coarse ground texture, and, while it’s moist enough, there is none of the large burst of hot, lubricating fattiness which, as a nation, we have come to anticipate from even most upmarket sausages. You can tell why some people find the Sausage Shop’s creations – weird concept this, I know – too meaty. Personally, for me, the flavours of pork and apple sing, where most sausages mumble. A fine, filling meal.

• Sausage ‘n’ mash, £3.80. 7 Green Street, +44 (0)1225 318300; sausage-shop.co.uk

7. The Real Italian Ice Cream Co

Next door, you will find its sibling, the Real Italian Pizza Co, which, with its wood-fired oven and thin crusts, is bringing proper pizza to Bath (£6.95 – £9.95). This creperia and gelateria, meanwhile, concentrates on the sweet stuff. The honeycomb pieces were rather humdrum, but, otherwise, an intensely fresh and creamy vanilla cone is testament to the Italians’ fastidiousness over food. All the ice-cream is made fresh each day, as it would be in Rome. Curiously, a scoop is also at least 95% fat free.

• Cones from £1.80; crepes from £3.95. 17 York Street, +44 01225 330121

8. Same, Same But Different

Ostensibly, this is your typical contemporary cafe-diner. It’s all large picture windows; bright, curious art; and casual dining from a modish menu that mixes tapas with mains like grilled mackerel with a warm horseradish, avocado and Jersey Royal salad. However, SSBD’s food is quality stuff, shot through with a certain creative flair, which differentiates it from the competition. For instance, a sweet, meaty dish of good chorizo cooked in cider is cleverly offset by the iron, charred, nutty notes that a few green beans and toasted almonds add to the dish. It is same, same, but ever so slightly different.

• Tapas £4-£5; mains from £7.25. 7a Princes Buildings, entrance Bartlett Street, +44 (0)1225 466856

9. The Raven of Bath

Like pies? Then you will love the Raven. This Camra-friendly boozer (no fruit machines, no music, good beers, convivial chatter) serves eight varieties of pie produced by the award-winning Bristol company, Pieminister. These include one made exclusively for the Raven, a superb beef and ale number that is full of rich, slow-cooked flavours. The kitchen, however, could and should finesse the extras. Both mash and gravy are passable, but the gravy could be punchier and mustard mash is a touch lumpy and underseasoned. In fact, if you are looking for something a bit more gastro, perhaps try the nearby Garrick’s Head (7 & 8 St Johns Place, +44 (0)1225 318368; garricksheadpub.com). What its rather bling interior – pink walls with large silver cloches pinned to them! – lacks in taste, the food more than makes up for. One of three local pubs owned by chef Charlie Digney, the Garrick gets costly at night, but, at lunch, it does a selection of sandwiches and cheaper core dishes (burger, Caesar salad, fish ‘n’ chips, all £9.95). • Pie, mash, gravy, £8.20; other food from £4.10. 6-7 Queen Street, Bath, +44 (0)1225 425045; theravenofbath.co.uk

10. Yak Yeti Yak

Those looking to go beyond the curry norm, should head to this charming basement restaurant. Its light, vibrant, sensitively-spiced Nepalese dishes have won it, not just a loyal local following (it had to move to larger premises in 2007), but praise from several national guides. With rice or daal, you are looking at around £7-£11 for a main course. The lunch/early evening three-course set-menu – a potato and sesame seed aloo dum salad perhaps, followed by that day’s meat or vegetarian curry, with orange musurko dal and basmati rice – is a steal.

• Set menu, vegetarian £10.50, meat £12. 12 Pierrepont Street, +44 (0)1225 442299; yakyetiyak.co.uk

Food blog: what do you make of this top 10?

• Bath Food Festival runs from 3-4 July. Cross Country trains travel from Manchester to Bath, via Bristol.

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Submited at Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at 9:00 am on Restaurant by jessica
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