The Mint Room is renowned in Bath for being something far more special than your average Indian restaurant. We've been impressed by it over the years, and were excited to be asked to celebrate the launch of their new menu with them over drinks and canapés on the restaurant's roof terrace. 

We were given champagne on arrival (it's a champagne terrace after all 🥂) while we chatted in the evening sunshine. The terrace itself has a London rooftop feel with plenty of seating, canopies and a central bar. 

The Hare & Hounds is one of our absolute favourite pubs in Bath. With an incredible view over into the valley and food to match, it's one of Bath's favourites too.

As you all know, visiting the thermal baths or the 'Thermae Bath Spa' is one of the best things to when in Bath. Whether you're a Bathonian or a tourist, everyone loves soaking up the mineral waters and detoxifying their bodies in the steam aromatherapy rooms - it's one of the most relaxing things to do 💆🏼‍♀️🛁! 

What you may (or may not) know, is that the spa has a cafe in it named Springs Cafe. Many of the spa packages include a meal at the cafe, however you can visit it if you're just a "regular" visitor too - they add time onto your stay so that you can grab a bite to eat without it affecting your spa time allocation.

The menu is very vast and caters for both the health-conscious and those who are ready to indulge. The dishes are mostly sourced locally which is always good to hear, and range from soups & salads to more hearty dishes like steaks and mac & cheese. 

If you love flowers, The Giggling Squid is probably one of the most beautifully decorated restaurants in Bath 🌸.

Known for its catchy name & yummy Thai food, The Giggling Squid recently changed their menu - and we had the exciting opportunity to try it all! As a Thai staple in Bath, we were intrigued to try their new & improved dishes. 

We were greeted with bubbly rosé and chatted with other Bath-based foodies. 

Our Giggling Squid hosts talked us through the menu and were incredibly attentive. They hinted towards a running theme throughout the whole menu & challenged us to guess what it was. After some hurried internet searching (trust a bunch of millenials to look up the answer online 😉), we concluded that the references to the numbers '555' throughout the menu's artwork were representative of change - right in line with the evolution of the Giggling Squid's food. 

Taking our seats, we moved onto cocktails.

As the weather starts to warm up, sitting on a rooftop with a view of the city & a spritz, glass of wine or a beer in hand seems like the perfect thing to do.

Because Bath is such a historic town, a lot of the buildings are listed and therefore have strict planning permission so not many have rooftops. That being said, here are five that are definitely worth visiting 🍷😘.

Hall & Woodhouse

Gusta Pizza is probably one of the most popular pizzerias in Florence, especially amongst students. It is both family run and cosy and is close to the Palazzo Pitti and the Ponte Vecchio - the perfect stop for some post-sightseeing food. Expect to find cheap and cheerful pizzas accompanied by a long queue outside, especially in the busier summer months.

Koffmann & Mr. White's is an English French brasserie created by famous chefs Pierre Koffmann and Marco Pierre White, set in The Abbey Hotel. 

With beautiful, romantic interiors, it's the perfect setting for date night, or for a sophisticated evening with friends.

If you like French-inspired food, keep reading 👀.

For all of you wine lovers out there, you might be surprised to hear that Wales makes wine 🍷.

What? Really? 🤔

Yes, really. Last weekend we had the opportunity to check out Llanerch Hotel & Vineyard in Wales, just a 20-minute car journey from Cardiff and about 1.5 hours from Bath.

Llanerch Hotel was originally owned as a family home by a lovely couple named Peter and Diane. In the early 1980s, the couple retired and were inspired to grow their own wine due to the growing success of British vineyards, and in 1986 the first vines were planted. In the 90s, their wine improved significantly and in 2010 the vineyard was sold to its current owner, Ryan Davies.

I'm sure that all of you have heard about Good Day Cafe by now. If not, read about it here - they have incredible banana bread and the cutest dog-friendly interiors 🍌🐕.

A couple of weeks after we first visited, Good Day Cafe hosted an evening learning all about coffee and how to best brew it at home for all of us that loved our coffee but didn't love spending £3 on it every day.

The wonderful hosts Steph (Good Day's owner) and Sonny (their head barista) talked us through the whole process of how a coffee bean 🌱 turns into a cup of coffee ☕️, discussing coffee growing, pulping, drying, grading, roasting, grinding and brewing!

The New Inn has been around in Bath for a long time, however they recently changed their kitchen & menu - so it was the perfect time to pay them a visit.

They have a large selection of beers, craft ales and a great, hearty pub food menu focusing on burgers, salads and bar snacks.

Lucknam Park is a 5-star luxury hotel and spa with both tennis courts and horse riding facilities which is only a 25-minute drive from Bath. The hotel offers two contrasting places to dine. The first, a Michelin starred restaurant named Restaurant Hewel Jones. The second, a more casual Brasserie perfect for light lunches and al fresco dining.

Last week we had the fantastic opportunity to try out Lucknam Park's Brasserie. Luckily for us, it was 25 degrees so we picked a nice spot outside to enjoy our meal 🌻.

The Bear and Swan in Chew Magna is a lovely 18th-century country village pub only half an hour away from both Bath and Bristol. It's a great stop-off point for those who are going to Bristol Airport and would like a nice bite to eat before being subjected to the questionable airport food in the middle of a busy terminal (haha)!

Whatley Manor is a luxury countryside getaway (aka hotel and spa) located in the heart of the Cotswolds. The best thing about it? It's only a 35-minute car journey from Bath (or 2 hours from London) - ideal for romantic evenings and relaxing weekends. Last week, we had the incredible opportunity to try out the food that they have on offer.

Whatley Manor has three different restaurants: 'The Dining Room', a Michelin starred one with Niall Keating as the executive chef, 'The Green Room', a gastronomy bar where you can see the chefs creating small plates and 'Grey's Brasserie', a more casual version of the Dining Room with a sophisticated vibe.

We first started with a wander around their stunning gardens, before heading to their lounge where we enjoyed a couple of drinks and nibbles before getting started.

Good Day Cafe is run by Steph, a local West Country lady, who always knew that she wanted to run her own cafe. You'll instantly recognise it when you walk past by its pink walls, neon lights and fresh pastries and cakes sitting out on the counter, ready for you to devour. You may also spot a couple of pooches keeping their owners' company while they sip their hot drinks (it's super dog-friendly, perfect for all of our four-legged friends) 🐕. 

Bill's is one of the classic chain restaurants that you see in most British towns. Unlike others, however, it's got a really sweet interior, and a great breakfast menu. I used to go there for brunch all the time when I was in first and second year at university - their buttermilk pancakes 🤩.

Last week however, we were kindly invited by the Bill's team to check out their new dinner set menu for Sunday to Thursday. It's £19.50 for three courses, so very good value. 

When we posted photos of Salt Cave Café on our instagram feed last week (link here 👈🏼), it got so much hype! We have had countless messages from you guys saying that you went and loved it. 

Salt Cave Café is Bath's newest cafe, and is very different to anything our little city has seen before. The room is completely made out of salt, and it actually used to be a spa. The salts are supposed to draw the toxins out of your body, and the whole cosy vibe of the cafe has a really relaxing effect on you. Great for that exam season that's looming 🤯. 

Rooted opened in Bath just last year, adding another plant-based cafe and restaurant to the Bath food scene. They focus on nutritious food using local, environmentally-sustainable ingredients. 

In addition to serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, Rooted has also started hosting supper clubs on every last Friday of the month. Last week we were invited to their supper club in collaboration with Lost and Grounded Brewery, a Bristol-based company brewing delicious beer. "Beer is the new wine" was the general theme of the evening. 

On arrival, we were welcomed by lovely staff who were friendly and attentive throughout the evening. They explained all of the dishes and beers to us, and were happy to answer any questions that we had. 

We started with an aperitif. A beer named "A Long Story Short" 3.5%. Although we're not usually beer drinkers, it was a nice change to have beer rather than wine with our meal, and we really enjoyed this first drink. 

For food, we started with the amuse bouche, a wild garlic and nettle soup with oat crème fraiche. We really enjoyed this. It was light but wholesome and really flavoursome, as well as being beautifully presented - very vibrant and bright. 

A couple of weeks ago I went to Barcelona for a city break in serious need of some sunshine. Luckily for us, we had 20 degree weather ☀️. Even more luckily, we found some serious foodie gems while we were there.

Here's a little list for you - I want to thank everyone who gave me recommendations, you guys are the absolute best.

Casa Lolea

Casa Lolea (not Casa Lola), is a wonderful little tapas restaurant famous for its sangria which serves Catalan classics such as iberico ham, as well as options which are a little different.

We ordered smoked salmon blinis with honey truffle yoghurt (omg), truffle orzo risotto (omg), chicken satay (so good) and patatas bravas (good but I prefer the potatoes diced and fried rather than boiled). We also got some bread with tomatoes and one of their sangrias that they're so famous for. It was refreshing and delicious. We highly recommend this place!

££

Carrer de Sant Pere Més Alt, 49, 08003 Barcelona

A few weeks ago we were invited down to the lovely Wolf Wine, tucked away in a tiny hut in Green Park Station (map below), for a wine & cheese tasting evening, featuring four of Bath's Soft Cheese's gorgeous... you guessed it... cheeses.

Spring Wharf is Bath's newest apartment development by the river (just past the other riverside development by the big Sainsburys - map below). 

If you live in Bath and like Tapas, you've probably heard of Tapas Revolution. Maybe you have even read our review from the last time we were there (if not - click here) 🍴

This time, we were kindly invited by the team at Tapas Revolution to one of their Estrella Galicia 'secret' supper clubs. In other words, an amazing food and beer tasting. 

Firehouse Rotisserie is one of Bath's OG independent restaurants, best known for its rotisserie chicken. What you maybe didn't know, is that they also serve stone baked pizzas, burgers and a range of fish and salad.

The Royal Crescent Hotel is probably one of the most beautiful hotels in Bath. Last weekend, we had the opportunity to try out their famous afternoon tea, situated in a room overlooking their serene English gardens.

Unlike traditional afternoon teas, The Royal Crescent Hotel has three different options to choose from. A traditionally sweet one, a more savoury one and a vegetarian option.

Comptoir + Cuisine is one of Bath's newest additions to the foodie scene. It opened a couple of months ago, and you may have seen our review of their champagne bar (click here if not). This time, we were kindly invited to try out their bistro, to discover all of their French tapas-style dishes.

Café au Lait is a family run, independent coffee house in the centre of Bath just opposite the train station. They are known to have speciality coffees and an amazing breakfast & brunch menu. Somehow, after having lived in Bath for years, we still hadn't tried out their breakfast. How? We're not really sure. But this weekend we had the amazing opportunity to finally try it. 

Cafe Walcot, just above Walcot House (where Club XL used to be... if any of you remember 🙃), opened late last year and we finally had the chance to try it out after lots of recommendations by you guys!

If you're a massive fried chicken fan then you've probably heard of Absurd Bird 🐔, a chicken shack with a Deep Southern feel in Southgate. What you probably didn't know, is that they've got an all-new vegan menu that we were recently invited to try. 

If you've never been to The King William, you need to go now. It's a modern take on the hearty British pub, with our favourite dishes taken to a new level through beautiful presentation and an interesting combination of flavours.

We were recently kindly invited by the team at The King William to review some of their food but we had no idea just how good the food was going to be (spoiler alert: amazing).

Origially from Melbourne, Australia (in the Yarra Valley, a region renowned for both wine and cheese 🍷🧀),  Yarra Road is a boutique wine and artisan cheese event caterer for several events in the Bath area.