The Olive Tree

A charming little restaurant serving high-quality food in a relaxed, refreshing setting. The crab dish was especially enjoyable—fresh, flavorful, and beautifully prepared. It was the perfect stress-free dinner—simple, satisfying, and memorable.

+4

I had the tasting menu and it was absolutely sublime. Every bite was an explosion of different flavours. I did however forget to take a picture of the strawberry dessert as i was so eager to try it. It deserves its Michelin star. It has the wonderful added touch of the chefs finishing the plate at your table and explaining the dish. I got to meet Chris at the end and it was clear he loves the food he puts out. The staff are attentive and knowledgeable and were able to offer wine and coffee recommendations. It was an amazing evening. Next time I'm in Bath I will definitely be back.

+6

Shall I compare thee to a summers day or restaurant in this case. This restaurant has surpassed any dining experience I have had before. There is a six course or nine course tasting menu or a smaller four course which we went for. We also chose to have the wine tasting experience with a sample of high quality wine to complement each course. We are so glad we chose to do this. The waiting staff bring over the wine and tell you all about it. Different chefs come out and tell you where the food has been sourced and answer any questions you might have. Each dish was an explosion of amazing tastes. I feel I have been ruined for anything less. The Lobster was my favourite. My husbands favourite dish was the deer. Chris Cleghorn has just won “Chef of the year 2023”. I can totally understand why. It was a birthday treat and if you tell them beforehand they bring you out some chocolates with Happy Birthday written in chocolate on the plate. The quality of the food and wine reflects the price. We would definitely do it all again.

+6

Fantastic food at this great restaurant. Have visited many times and the michelin star level of food is so good. I chose the 6 course menu which is great value for money and was delicious. My favourite dish was the sweetbreads with celeriac. Chris and his team do a really good job. Recommend highly. Staff are always professional and attentive too. Their wine knowledge and cocktail skills are also very impressive.

+6

Delicious food, and excellent service. It’s a fixed menu, and the courses are very small - a feast for the senses, if not the stomach. The dining room is grey, with velvet curtains - inoffensive but uninspiring. They play some pleasant music at a low volume. It was lovely for our special occasion (a 70th birthday), and they even decorated a plate with “Happy Birthday” for us.

+6

We went to celebrate our recent wedding so wanted to spend a little more than usual. This Michelin restaurant was amazing from start to finish. Pristine service to the exquisite food. We chose the 6 course set meal and we were not disappointed. We agreed to have the dishes recommend by the head chef even thou they were not what we would normally go for. It was an experience! The lobster course was outstanding and definitely my favourite dish. We have never tried food so full of flavour and plated in such an elegant way. Staff were so attentive and alert to everything. We never had a chance to refill our drinks glass and they checked in throughout our meal. Each course was delivered perfectly with the chef explaining each dish while adding the final touch of finesse. With all the involvement of staff we never felt imposed upon or that it was too much. The seating was arranged perfectly to allow privacy, intimacy and space. The cocktails were delicious too. Highly recommend but it does come at a high price. Worth every penny!!!

Olive Tree restaurant has truly earned its Michelin star. The ambiance is beautiful, complemented by a friendly and attentive staff. The food is exceptional, showcasing high-quality ingredients and innovative dishes. Special thanks to the bartender for crafting delicious cocktails when we weren't in the mood for wine.

+1

An exceptional evening spent here celebrating our marriage. Andreas was an excellent host who was very knowledgable and provided a perfect ambience to the evening. The food was exceptional, wine pairings were perfectly matched. Would highly recommend this place to others looking for fine dining in Bath.

+6

Truly an excellent eating experience with an amazing use of local produce every time we visit. The taster menus are excellent value for money and offer great variety. As a non fish eater the replacement dishes in the taster where envied by those I was eating with. The serving team was an great mix of chefs and waiters which always add to the presentation. The wine flight is a must and don’t forget the desert wines which I loved.

+6

Our lunch experience was very exquisite. Arrived 15 minutes early but they had our table ready, so we were welcomed straight away. The waiter was nice, addressed us promptly and checked in on us often. We opted for the 3 course meal lunch, and as a couple we managed to try all items on the menu. The cured trout was really tasty, and beef short ribs very tender and juicy. The sole was soft and light, but less of a highlight. We enjoyed the presentation of the food as well as the introduction of the dished. We also received 3 small complementary side dishes which was a lovely touch. We really enjoyed our lunch, would definitely come back and recommend x

+6

We had dinner in a large group and were in a private room. We had two tasting menu options and I chose the vegetarian menu as there were some proteins I wasn’t feeling adventurous enough to try. It was amazing what could be made out of a vegetarian menu. Delicious squash, spelt, ravioli and a delicious raspberry desert. The service was great and we had only short waits in between courses. Overall, a delicious and exquisite treat to have dinner here!

+6

we came here for our anniversary and tried the seven course tasting menu, we also chose to do the non-alcoholic drink tasting as well, it was beautiful visually and loved the different flavours that is bought to the plates. some of the flavours were unique, the room was warm and cosy with only a few tables, staff were very attentive and highly trained in the menu and wines. would definitely recommend and return again.

We almost cancelled our booking because of a recent review but we are so glad we went. The food was delicious and full of rich, balanced flavours (the pictures online really don’t do it justice). Every dish was beautifully presented, and both the vegetarian and meat options were packed with taste, creativity and quality. The team was professional, polite, and attentive, and the restaurant itself is stylishly decorated with a warm atmosphere. Having eaten in several Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe, we can confidently say this restaurant deserves its star. The only slightly odd thing was the bread being served in the middle of the meal instead of at the beginning — but it was so good that we did not care about the choice of sequencing in the menu. We recommend this restaurant if you enjoy good food!

+3

We had a lovely meal with a great array of flavours, a thoroughly enjoable experience. The only very small issue, and this is more of an issue for some than others, but because it is part of the hotel the toilets are quite a long walk away. Also I would suggest they add signs of how to get back to the restaurant from the toilets. Nice toilets mind :)

Just incredible. We arrived early but was still greeted with enthusiasm and energy! Perfect experience, the ravioli was my favourite, bread was a close second and the spelt was next!!!! So much taste and we even got to go see inside the kitchen and chat to Chris!!!!! Worth the price!!

Amazing food, and the time between dishes was perfect which some fine dining spots get wrong by making it too long or short. The trout, pumpkin, and deer were particularly incredible.

Fantastic meal! I could eat the raw scallop every day until I die. Beautiful consideration for flavor and produce. The staff were incredibly lovely, and made me feel very welcome when I was dining alone. I got to meet Chris, an unexpected treat! It’s not surprising the Olive tree is such a magical dining experience with such a lovely executive chef at the helm. Faultless experience, I will be back

Best food we have ever had. Every course was incredible inclusive of the wine pairing which was truly inspired. We have been to Michelin starred restaurants before but this place was great. Can’t wait to come back.

My husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary at the Olive Tree Restaurant: we couldn't have been happier! Great attention to details, to the service and to the quality of each single ingredient. We also loved the flexibility in the menu choice! This is really a plus for us! My husband had the tasting menu whereas I ordered à la carte - we both enjoyed the dinner according to our preferences ❤️

Unlike other Michelin star restaurants we've been to (not snobs promise!) we enjoyed not feeling pressured to get the tasting menu, instead you could choose individual dishes. Saying that, we still had the 5 course tasting menu, but my god, what a taste sensation! Every dish was savoured and had a taste not experienced before. I also had the wine pairing which was worth getting to maximise the tasting experience. Ambience was relaxed, staff attentive, and the chef even wrote a birthday card!

Really really fabulous and delicious and savour every bit amazing food! We had the 5 course tasting menus. One vegetarian and one with meat. Both menus were without fault, beautifully cooked and put together. The staff were wonderful and the service thoughtful. Really enjoyed our experience here and loved the whole 3 hour food heaven stay!

My husband and I came to Bath for a minimoon and booked to stay at the hotel as we'd read great reviews about the restaurant. We had a wonderful evening- I had the six course vegetarian menu and my husband had the meat. Everything on the plate had a purpose and worked together in a harmony of flavour and texture. The chocolate and olive oil dessert was a definite highlight. The staff were all fantastic and delivered an incredibly smooth service- always there to answer questions and help when needed but giving you space to enjoy your meal together. We felt thoroughly spoilt by the end of the night. Highly recommend going up to the outdoor garden after dinner for a night cap. Thanks for a wonderful night.

Best meal I’ve ever had! This restaurant was stellar and I would give 10 stars if I could! Amazingly inventive and creative, excellently executed. Loved the raw scallops, smoked eel, lamb and strawberry dessert. Can’t wait to come back here again whenever life brings me to Bath!

We had the 3 course meal, and my wife was able to swap out the sweetbread for some cured trout with caviar. Cooking of the highest quality - precise, inventive, skilled and surprising. Service by knowledgeable young people was attentive and knowledgeable. Tables a bit close together but a memorable meal nonetheless

Love when places of this quality do vegan menus. It didn't disappoint at all! Beautifully presented, incredible tastes and service was amazing. From a vegan food perspective, would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a vegan fine dining experience.

+2

Good standard for a 1 star. Manager in shift felt a bit disconnected or odd if I may say. All the waiters were professional and attentive. Wine was delicious and well recommended. We had the 3 course set with amuse bouche and petits fours, flavours were different and interesting, chefs coming to the tables was refreshing to see and well executed. It left a bit to desire on actual course size and time that it took for us to finish our meal. It was all too quick. The atmosphere in the restaurant was quite nice. I would just say the walls were missing some extra decor. Overall good experience, though for the price paid it left a bit to desire.

There were some very good dishes including the white asparagus and caviar as well as the Cornish lobster. The chocolate dessert was also divine. However there were some dishes like the morel stuffed with lamb and the duck were not enjoyed by us due to personal taste preferences. The duck was cooked well but overpowered by the truffle and the onion. Service was generally good but with elements of service that would have been fine in a pub but not in a Michelin 1 star restaurant.

+6

What follows is a review of the vegetarian nine menu. This was a pretty well paced meal. There are some strong flavours in some of the dishes. And only one was sub-par with the rest. Definitely one of the better restaurants we've visited. The standout dishes were the Isle of White tomatoes, the spelt with hint of lemon, the cheese course that had lovely soaked raisins, and the rhubarb dessert to finish. All of these had a surprising flavours, either stronger than you'd anticipate or well balance sweet and tart. The spelt was definitely my favourite. The only dish I would have (slightly) changed would be the white asparagus with hazelnuts. The latter dominated the dish a bit. It's very hard to be consistent across all dishes in my experience, so not surprised to find one dish like this. As the (deserved) one Michelin star suggests: worth visiting if you're stopping in the area.

I had a really nice time dining at The Olive Tree Restaurant, part of The Queensberry Hotel in Bath, UK. After being warmly greeted, I was taken upstairs to a cute, uniquely aesthetic bar where I enjoyed a drink and some mixed nuts while waiting to be seated at my table. After being seated, I chose to experience Chris Cleghorn’s ‘Nine’ tasting menu. The standout dishes were the Isle of Skye Langoustine, the Ruby Beetroot (with caviar), and the Islands Chocolate dessert. My least favorite dish was the Veal Sweetbread (not a personal fan of pancreas). I also would’ve expected to be served olive oil instead of butter at a restaurant that claims to be Mediterranean. The experience was finished off with a “Chef’s kiss,” which was a fun and creative way to present the petit fours. Overall, I had a very nice experience dining at The Olive Tree Restaurant. The experience is a decent value and a great idea if you’re visiting Bath as it’s the only Michelin-starred option in the area.

Great cooking - as exactly as you’d expect from a Michelin starred restaurant. We went for the 6 course menu with wine pairing - the monkfish dish and lamb was delicious. The scallop starter with the granita was one of the best scallop starters we’ve had. However the lunch service felt a little rushed, and the wine taster portions could have been slightly more generous but our waiter definitely showed a good knowledge of the wines. Definitely worth a stop.

9 courses Overall, the starters were interesting. I liked the wasabi and fresh fruit to reduce the fishy smell of scallop. The second course was good. Veal sweetbread was tender but with mint sauce which tasted like toothpaste wasn’t my type. The bread was the best I've had. It was very delicious and surprising. The texture and flavour were perfect. I like the second one. The sauce was warm, rich and creamy and was good with monkfish. And the deer was perfect with the sauce. Desserts were impressive in these nine courses. The first course was very interesting. Each component was okay when I ate separately. But eating together, it was more delicious, with different flavours and elegant. It was my first time eating chocolate with olive oil. I couldn't expect the combination, but it was good! The last course was my favourite. As a fan of Yuzu, the combo with meringue and yuzu was good to pair. The yuzu made meringue was not too sweet, a bit sour balance the sweetness and was more fresh. The bottom taste crunchy and crispy which increased the different texture. It was very clever and delicious dessert.

Our experience at The Olive Tree fell slightly short of expectations for a Michelin-starred restaurant. There were issues with our reservation count, appetizers arrived before cocktails, pacing rushed, we were not consulted on the dessert selection, and coffee was served without offering sugar. While the staff were pleasant, these small but repeated lapses made the experience feel uncoordinated.

Overall this is a great restaurant and the overall experience - good, service and atmosphere are good. I love that they allow well behaved kids are certain times, not always the case for Michelin star restaurants. Regarding the food - Every savoury dish was well balanced and delicious. The desserts were also of a high quality but in the 5 course tasting menus I would have preferred one less dessert item. In the matching wines there were 3 dessert wines and it just meant for us a bit too much on the sweeter side, but if you are a sweet orientated person the opinion would be different. Would still recommend this restaurant to others.

Disappointing- I can only speak for the vegetarian menu but it was poor. The dishes (generally) were oversweet and the wines paired with them did nothing to cut through this but just added to the sweetness. As an overall meal the dishes and wine continued to build in sweetness, with the only salvation being the bread (also containing treacle) which offered a distraction to the palette. There were two courses ( the cauliflower and the ravioli ) which were not good though and left the majority of the course on the plate. As I say I can only speak for the vegetarian menu and I suspect that the standard menu is more balanced , complex and with better flavour combinations but I cannot attest to this. As a “sort of vegetarian “ ( I do on occasion eat meat) I feel the Land restaurant in Birmingham knocks the olive tree into a cocked hat , I would recommend the kitchen staff to visit and experience what an accomplished vegetarian meal taste like . Disappointing given the price but it was clear that Valentine’s Day had taken its toll on the kitchen, that said the staff were all very friendly and pleasant. For a vegetarian I would not recommend .

+5

A mixture of some really nice dishes and some that were less exciting. For the price of things and reviews I’d read, my expectations were quite high, but a couple of dishes didn’t quite hit the mark unfortunately. The lamb and fresh baked bread was delicious though - had to stop myself from licking the jus from my plate! I personally found that the restaurant decor and environment let things down slightly - it was pretty cold and clinical which didn’t make the meal feel overly special. The front of house staff were great though and definitely helped elevate the experience.

The food was really good, but it didn’t blow our minds. The main frustration was the wine pairing.. i’m not expecting full glasses, but we literally got like 2 sips per course. Meaning we would be sat without a drink for ages between every course.

I really wanted to like the Olive Tree but this is not Michelin star dining. Most courses were either underwhelming, bizarre or just unpleasant. The trout was flavourless and it had a pin bone left in it. The rye bread, which oddly came four plates in, was a basic bread roll. The raviolo had so much going on that it was completely lost, and the plate included some sad wedges of leek that were truly bleak. The "islands chocolate" had so much olive oil and balsamic that it was like a mouthful of salad. The raspberries were just frozen raspberries in pieces with some meringue atop a flavourless "tonka bean" mousse. The food is pretentiousness with no substance. The staff are also a little bit too inexperienced to be able to deliver the level of service you should expect when you're paying upwards of £200 per person and they deliver every course with a level of theatre that only much, much better food can justify. Honestly, save your cash.

Had a wedding gift, 9 course taster £170pp and we waited for the perfect menu to appear (it's seasonal, we waited 3 seasons) however the two menu items I was most looking forward to were no longer being served as they had been removed weeks prior to our visit. The restaurant itself was so cold I needed to ask for the aircon to be turned off. The decor is poor for a fine dining Michelin star restaurant but the food was very nice but not Michelin star level, food was served by the actual chefs who made.

Food was nothing to shout about. The service was fine on the whole but the insistence on making the chefs present each dish made for an extremely awkward meal! As in every walk of life, some chefs were suited to this task and some most certainly weren’t. Why put them through it? Work to your strengths. I felt really bad for a couple of them, it was excruciating. Food wise, the dishes were nicely presented. But, for a restaurant to actually have a specific vegan menu, you’d expect them to have a clue about protein sources. People often ask “where do you get your protein from” when asking about a plant based diet… well, based on the Olive Tree menu, apparently vegetables! It’s very simple: tofu, seitan or tempeh as a primary protein source, along with a secondary source of legumes, lentils etc. Just look at the comparison of the two menus and imagine the nutritional values of both. With one round cocktails, a bottles of wine and dinner for four coming to over £800, I expected a lot better.

The most disappointing thing about this experience was the staff. When we're paying this much, when we ask questions about the food and pairings, I'd like a knowledgeable response. Our waiting staff seemed too new/busy/young (in that order) to know the answers. The food was OK, with the duck being best, the tagliatelle the worst although the strawberry dessert gave it a run for its money. Some of the wine pairings were odd/different. Perhaps I don't know enough about wines, but then neither did the staff.

We don’t enjoy writing negative reviews, but unfortunately our experience at The Olive Tree fell well below expectations for a restaurant holding a Michelin star. We booked the five-course tasting menu with wine pairing for a special occasion and left extremely disappointed for several reasons. Firstly, the structure of the evening felt disjointed. Appetisers were served before any drinks had arrived, which made for an awkward start, and the overall flow of the menu lacked cohesion. Rather than offering a culinary journey, it came across as a series of fairly average dishes. Secondly, the food itself was underwhelming. A bread-and-butter course appeared in the middle of the menu — oddly placed and lacking in quality. With the possible exception of the langoustine, which some of our party enjoyed, none of the dishes met the standard we’d expect from a Michelin-starred restaurant. While nothing was terrible, very little stood out or impressed. The wine pairings were similarly uninspiring. There were some interesting ideas, but the selection felt limited — three of the five wines came from the Piedmont region of Italy — and the pairings did little to elevate the food. Service of the wines was poorly timed, and explanations were vague and unconvincing. Service overall was below Michelin standard. Although the staff were pleasant and enthusiastic, they seemed quite inexperienced. We encountered a series of small but noticeable lapses: wines introduced while a guest was away from the table, males served before females, a cork fragment poured into a glass without acknowledgment, dishes arriving before previous ones were cleared, food served on chipped plates, and a general lack of attention to detail. While minor individually, these added up to an impression of inconsistency and inexperience. Sadly, none of our party of five would recommend The Olive Tree. It was a wholly underwhelming evening and not suitable for a special occasion as we’d hoped. The only part of the Michelin-star experience it truly lived up to was the bill. In summary: extremely poor value for money and, in our view, not a restaurant that currently merits its Michelin star.