The Beckford Bottle Shop — Restaurant in Bath

Had a very mixed experience at Beckford Bottle Shop’s Bistro. Initially, when phoning to book in a table of 3, I felt very well accommodated and definitely was excited to come (it was for a meal/drinks for my partners birthday, along with one of her friends).

After that, it kind of went downhill fast, as the booking couldn’t be confirmed unless I entered card details (which I understand is a deterrent for no shows, so that’s fine, although this wasn’t mentioned on the phone).

On arriving on Saturday evening, we were brought to our seat and handed over menus. All good. But at this point, the tone changed; me and my party felt almost like we were being talked down to at every stage. It was hard to put my finger on, as there wasn’t a specific “moment” per se; it was more to do with the general attitude to our party and atmosphere as a whole, such as asking us on 3 separate occasions if we “understood” the menu, and seeming put out if we asked any questions about the food.

We were also younger than most, if not all, of the other customers, which I believe has something to do with it (age range between 27-31).

The experience wasn’t comfortable in this respect, and it felt almost like we were fighting for our place there.

We ordered a bottle of Italian white, and several small plates, of which I also have mixed feedback. The wine was great, so no complaints there (aside from the fact that I was asked to check that it wasn’t corked, instead of my female party members).

The food, however, wasn’t so amazing - and we were let down massively to find out that the cheese board only contained 1 vegetarian cheese (my partner and her friend are both vegetarian). This seems like a pretty major menu oversight, as there’s also a charcuterie option for meat eaters like myself. The cheese board + wine combo was really what we we were coming for, although I guess it could be argued that I should have checked before booking that the cheese board contained vegetarian cheeses…

The rest of the food was pretty average and overpriced. We had several dishes, with the courgette fritti being the highlight, and the “baked egg” being a low point. I also had the pork with kohlrabi which was a tiny portion considering it was £10 a go, and generally kind of bland. It just didn’t feel market-competitive to some of the other great small plate/tapas style restaurants that are available elsewhere in Bath, and ultimately this is what made the experience the most disappointing. Again, the food wasn’t terrible by any means - some was very good, but this just didn’t make up for the strange atmosphere and underwhelming flavours from other dishes.

Speaking personally, and holding over 10 years of hospitality experience myself; I understand that building an organic, intimate experience for guests can be difficult, especially if they’re outside of your normal clientele. However, I do believe that it’s the mark of a truly great restaurant to be able to understand this, and ensure that everyone who dines with you has an exceptional time regardless of their age, dress, look or gender. I don’t feel like BBS lived up to that, and that’s why the average mark here seems appropriate.

On balance, I do think we’d definitely return to BBS, but only for wine and olives (or something similar). It definitely didn’t feel like a destination...

We visited while on holiday and maybe we just had high expectations having seen the Michelin recommendation and having had really excellent meals the three days beforehand but this place just surprised me by how disappointing it was.

The decor and ambience were very good, and it felt busy in a good way. The first disappointment was that the menu online is just a sample menu (the website doesn’t say this) and none of the dishes we’d been looking forward to were actually available. We ordered a cheese and charcuterie board and asked if this came with bread - it didn’t so we ordered some bread. The bread never arrived.

The cheeses were very good and meats okay. The wines we had were very nice and fairly priced. Unfortunately the food wasn’t great overall. The padron peppers weren’t cooked properly and didn’t have any salt on them. The broccoli was bland and not any better than something I could have made at home. The lamb tasted like something you cook from frozen. The bavette was nice but it arrived last and by that time we weren’t really in a mood to enjoy it. The service throughout the evening was pretty mixed - they did tell us we were the last table that had booked for the evening and maybe they were just a bit tired after a busy shift.

It wasn’t particularly an expensive meal but I was hungry when I left and I wouldn’t have said it was good value - £6/7 for maybe a dozen padron peppers and the same for half a head of broccoli seems a lot - we added the steak on when we saw the portion sizes but honestly I’d have added another couple of items if I’d been enjoying it (and some bread).

We did tell the waitress we’d not really enjoyed the evening and she offered us two complimentary glasses of wine but we declined them. She did offer to take the service charge off the bill. I forgot to check if we were charged for the bread.

Really don’t like leaving negative review given how tough things have been for bars and restaurants but this place looks like it is doing okay. It has so many good reviews and perhaps we were just unlucky but it really wasn’t a great evening or somewhere I...

A few mishaps here.

We were visiting Bath for the weekend and had been recommended this venue by a colleague, so I called around 5pm to try my luck for a table on a Saturday evening.

I was told they were fully booked but that they had sofas which were first come first served and we could sit and eat and drink casually (rather than at a formal table).

We arrived at 7:40pm and were told that they were still fully booked and the sofas were full but we could sit outside and wait and they would let us know once there was some space. As the weather was mild for November we agreed.

After waiting 10/15minutes I asked a passing waitress if I needed to go into the bar to be served and she said she could take our order. We were told that we could not have small plates outside and so ordered charcuterie and wine.

On our second round of wine, I was then told that because they were so busy we would not be allowed to order small plates on the sofas (when we eventually got to them)…(frustrating given that this the reason we had stayed and not gone to have dinner elsewhere…?)

By 9:15pm I decided to pop inside and take a look at the sofas, and was incredibly frustrated to find that they were practically empty. I asked if we could move inside and was told of course…

Upon sitting on the sofas I noticed that there was a table for two in the dining room that was empty and laid up for dinner. I asked our new waiter if anyone hadn’t turned up for dinner that evening and he said yes a table for two….I asked if we could take the table and was told no as the dinner service stopped at 9pm…

The wine was delicious and the charcuterie good. They have an excellent selection of wines in the shop, but the venue is not cheap and at these prices they really need to work on the service.

It is quite unacceptable to have such poor service outside, to be told conflicting information and then be forgotten about. We left cold and hungry having...