We pay a family visit to one of Bath’s newest, brightest and more welcoming eateries – and your dog is welcome too!
Bardacious is a little slice of Mexican-inspired beachfront fun that’s a great place for a meal out, whether you’re a family, friends out for a chat or work colleagues looking to wind down. You can even bring your pet pooch too!
We popped along one midweek early evening, intrigued by the promise of freshly prepared meals, great cocktails, a warm welcome and somewhere a little different. And you know what – we got the lot!
You’ll find Bardacious on Quiet Street, opposite the ProCook kitchen shop. We were greeted by Axel, our waiter for the evening, and shown to one of the comfortable booths to check out the menu and take in the light and relaxing atmosphere of the place. Bardacious has pulled off a real coup here, managing to combine a stylish restaurant with lots of space without being too echoy.
Bardacious is firmly focused on making the venue as family-friendly as possible, with plenty of space between the tables for pushchairs and – you’ll love this – the promise that kids eat free all day, every day! This cracking offer comes in to play when the accompanying adult spends £20 or more, with the children getting to choose from the kids menu, which includes burger and fries, halloumi salad bowl and chicken quesadilla and fries.
What’s more, Mums’ Mondays at Bardacious gives visiting mums the chance to chill out (as much as you can chill out with a toddler in tow!) with coffee and cake in a family friendly, breastfeeding friendly atmosphere.
Our visit, however, was parents and three teens, always eager to try something new but secretly relieved that there were a few familiar dishes to choose from too! The menu features a grand combination of small plates, quesadillas, tacos, salads, burgers and loads more too. Axel, our ever helpful waiter, suggested a tapas approach, with us all ordering a number of dishes, which will arrive as they’re freshly cooked.
The result was a wonderful mixture of tastes including firecracker corn ribs, crispy calamari, confit duck quesadilla, baja fish tacos, a watermelon salad bowl, a pan fried picanha steak sharing plate, two lobster tails, three sides of Bardacious fries and a few more sides snuck in for fun.
Before the dining however, my wife and 19 year old daughter were very keen to try the cocktails, which are all prepared with freshly prepared juices and home made syrups and reductions. While my wife went for the Devillishly Cherry – black cherry-infused vodka, pineapple, lemon, vegan foamer, berry bitters – our teenage daughter prefered the Cuban Crush – Salcombe ‘Island Street’ rum, fair passion fruit liqueur, lime, vanilla and pineapple.
Enough to say that their smiles grew with each sip, while my wife commented, “They’re so good, they drink themselves!”
As soon as the food started to arrive, the freshness of the ingredients showed their quality. Each taste was packed full of taste and flavour, from the freshness and zest of the tacos, to the pinky succulence of the steak. While the firecracker corn ribs were the surprise stars of the show, the quesadilla was a pretty close second and even the fries got a thumbs up from our youngest.
Chatting with Axel, he explained that Bardacious is already proving popular with different crowds at different times of the day. Early on, he explained, they welcomed groups of mums enjoying time together, along with business people taking a rest between meetings to check emails and enjoy a drink and a snack.
Then early evenings are perfect for families, with groups of friends taking over for the evening.
There really is a lot to like about Bardacious. The food is fresh and tasty, the drinks beautifully created, plus there’s also the chance to simply chill out and enjoy the chilled atmosphere. A real winner.
