PLATE at The Bird Hotel, Bath

Plush crushed velvet; juicy pulled pork bonbons; friendly faces. Cool contemporiana; cosy nooks and crannies; coffee salted caramel. An alfresco terrace offering splendid cityscape views; sticky jus; a sparkly bar specialising in sparkly cocktails: gosh, there’s so much going on PLATE – the deliciously quirky, super-stylish, flamboyant yet still somehow distinctly down-to-earth restaurant on the lower ground floor of the Kaleidoscope Collection‘s equally unique Bird Hotel on Pulteney Road – that it’s difficult to know where to start describing the experience.

Not that I’m on entirely new territory here; indeed, I’ve been singing praises on behalf of PLATE’s sophisticated yet playful presence on the Bath food scene for a while now – since it very first opened its doors back in the autumn of 2020, to be precise. Over the difficult months that followed, PLATE mastered the art of spinning in order to survive: there were click’n’collect menus to brighten up our darkest lockdown days, and terrace transformations to celebrate sunshine, and uniquely beautiful Dining Domes on that terrace that skilfully circumnavigated all the Covid-related in/out brouhaha in full-on British eccentric style that lifted spirits up, up and away, way above the grim Keep Calm and Carry On response to ‘we’re all in this together’.

Anyway, those difficult days are (hopefully) behind us now and, last month, PLATE relaunched itself and welcomed brand new Head Chef Kieren Ballam (you may have met him before, at The Chequers – I definitely did) to the kitchen. As one would expect from a new chef, Kieren – who describes his style as classic with a contemporary twist, pushing locally sourced, seasonal ingredients to the fore – has introduced a whole new raft of menus including a rather splendid Sunday Lunch offering to PLATE’s plates… but fortunately that décor and those style flourishes still remain. And cheers to that! If it weren’t for PLATE, where else could we dine at a restaurant with a centrepiece involving a beautifully-lit, foliage-filled upside-down rowing boat attached to the ceiling?

After pre-dinner drinks in PLATE’s super-glam bar, we took to a table in the dining room that offered a vantage point of the sun setting across Bath Abbey through the restaurant’s large plate (no pun intended) glass doors. To start, we shared two little dishes from the Little Plates and Bowls section of Kieren’s neat, 4/6/6 menu and, from the off, both the Pulled Pork Bonbons (supporting cast: apple puree, black garlic mayo, beetroot) and the Pan-seared Scallops (crispy chicken skin, pickled radish, compressed apple, chicken tea) proved my point regarding why a concise menu holds far more promise than a sprawling one: there’s attention to detail here, and careful consideration paid to pairings that go way beyond mere pretty plate-fillers (the crispy chicken skin in particular being a case in point here).

For mains, the Bird Burger almost dragged me away from the duck destination that I’d instantly set my sights on – after all, you just know that, at PLATE, neither the burger nor the fish and chips (yup, F&C were present and correct as an option too) are going to be prosaic incarnations of the classic genre… and Mike’s massive 28-day aged rib-eye steak (plus proper fat chips, roast tomato and lashings of garlic butter) was way beyond prosaic too. But hey, the Creedy Carver duck breast came with roast plum, and butternut squash purée, and ‘sticky jus’ – and who can say no to the prospect of sticky jus? I’m very glad that I didn’t, for this was a very ‘cheffy’ duck dinner indeed.

Cheffy twists and turns dominated the dessert menu too: Sticky Toffee Pudding came with a very grown up coffee salted caramel and an unashamedly urbane tonka bean ice cream, while the addition of elegantly aromatic tarragon to the Milk Chocolate and Raspberry Dome (sable breton; vanilla crème anglaise) was a stroke of foodie genius.

As you may have gathered, we had a lovely time at PLATE – and it’s my guess that few people wouldn’t find their own little happy place here either. For me, the plush crushed velvet, friendly faces and sparkly bar specialising in sparkly cocktails give me an instant happy blast; for you, it could be any one of the fantastical statement wallpapers, or the intriguing cocktail menu, or… heck, I dunno, the fact that the cheese selection on the menu is headed Cheese, Glorious Cheese – all those things and more float my (upside-down) boat too. And I know that next time I float by PLATE (and there will be a next time, and a time after that, etc) I’ll find something else that makes me happy.

As the strapline on the Kaleidoscope Collection website says, their hotel restaurants (see also Olio at Homewood) offers a view of ‘life through a different lens’ – and PLATE offers a fresh perspective on eating out in Bath, well worth focusing in on.