My Favourite Bath CafesHere is my pick of Bath cafes, chosen for their good coffee, tempting snacks, good reading material, views and other attributes ... The city of Bath England boasts a huge variety of cafes and coffee shops, from the well-known chains to independent cafes with their own character and style. These are my particular favourites of the Bath cafes. As usual, I start at the top end of town and work down towards the river:  At Just Coffee and Desserts Ltd in St James's Street just off St James's Square you can make use of free Wi-Fi while you drink Fairtrade coffee and eat home-made cakes. So you can check out this site and plan your day in comfort! And actually it's not just coffee and desserts! The less sweet-toothed can get pizza, panini and salads.  The Circus Cafe and Restaurant must enjoy one of the best locations of all Bath cafes, situated as it is slap-bang between the Circus and the Royal Crescent. It is open all day and evening, serving delicious local, organic and seasonal food at very fair prices. Perch at a window table for coffee and tasty home-made cake, eat lunch in the beautifully curved ground floor dining room or try dinner in the more intimate space downstairs, all decorated in restful shades of muted green. I am impressed to see filtered water offered gratis to customers, especially as it's provided by a company which donates to charities helping people worldwide get access to safe drinking water.  Same Same But Different in Bartlett Street is a popular destination for breakfast, possibly because the coffee is served with a double shot unless you request otherwise. There are plenty of cooked and continental breakfasts to choose from, and a selection of the papers to help you wake up. There are tables out on the pavement if you want to watch passers-by on this interesting pedestrian street. It's same same but different amongst Bath cafes because in the evening it turns into a fully-licensed brasserie. 
The Metropolitan Café above the Bloomsbury shop in New Bond Street - a vegetarian café serving excellent soups, sandwiches and yummy cakes. My favourite lunch is soup and half an avocado and emmental granary sandwich. There are newspapers and local magazines to read and a great view down onto passing shoppers from the window tables. Popular with locals and one of the busiest Bath cafes, so you may have to wait for a table at peak times, but you can choose your food as you wait and it never seems to take long before a table is free. Takeaway coffee and food also available.  The café on the 2nd Floor of Shoon in New Bond Street provides an intriguing view across the Bath rooftops to the spire of the church of St Michael with St Paul at the bottom of Broad Street. You can get breakfast bagels with a variety of unusual fillings or a choice of toasted breads and spreads. The fillings in the sandwiches and melts are imaginative – I must go back soon to try the onion bhaji and lime mayo sandwich! Great homemade cakes. Attractive, spacious loos.
The Fine Cheese Company in Walcot Street is well-known for its amazing selection of cheeses, breads and other fine foods. In the adjoining shop you can get coffee, sandwiches and hot lunch dishes such as pasta. Sit at the window table and watch people hurrying by or read glossy Bath Life magazine and find your fantasy Georgian house! Coffee, sandwiches and items from the deli counter to take away. 
The Pump Room, Abbey Churchyard – a unique if expensive experience among Bath cafes – here in grand surroundings you can nibble on Bath buns while listening to the trio play. The young staff are very polite and attentive. Best time to go is for morning coffee or you will have to queue, especially in summer. 
Demuths is a vegetarian and vegan cafe and restaurant open all day in North Parade Passage. The coffee and freshly squeezed juice is excellent and there are delicious snacks of all sizes available throughout the day. Be warned - the chocolate fudge cake with a hint of orange is addictive! Newspapers and local mags are available and staff are friendly student types. 
Bar Chocolat on Argyle Street is a chocolate-lover’s dream. It is owned by James Chocolate who make good quality chocolate not far away in the Somerset village of Evercreech. Their high percentage cocoa solids chocolate is used to make the milkshakes, hot chocolate drinks, cakes and cookies. The chocolate brownie is a flat, gooey slab of about 150% chocolate. The white bits look like nuts but in fact are white chocolate buttons! Brownies with nuts also available. They also sell a wonderful range of chocolate bars with unusual flavours like lavender and pink peppercorn and chocolate animals and other treats.  The Riverside Café is in a unique location under Pulteney Bridge next to the weir. You can sit outside too and in summer watch the boats coming and going. To get there, go down the steps next to Oriental Carpets. There is a large and varied breakfast menu, interesting lunches with daily specials, good homemade cakes and dinner (check openings for winter).  Holburne Museum Teahouse – if you are exploring the Pulteney Street area and therefore some distance away from Bath cafes, head to the wooden building to the right of the grand museum for simple home-cooked food like quiche, fish and baked potatoes served in moderate portions - unbelievable value! You can eat at tables outside in the summer. Delicious home-made cakes, treacle tart particularly recommended.  
If you’re in the Southgate area, walk through the tunnel where the taxis park to the left of the station entrance, and over the footbridge across the river. Cross the road and turn left. At the end of the Widcombe shops you will find The Kindling Coffee Company, a welcome alternative to the coffee chains, an independent Bath cafe selling organic, fairtrade coffee, unusual sandwiches and cakes (great brownies by Claudia!) If it’s warm, you can sit on the terrace outside. Pick up a loyalty card and get your 10th coffee free! 
Not one of the Bath cafes, but sometimes takeaway is what you need: Waitrose has sandwiches and a patisserie counter handily placed just inside the entrance if you want to grab a snack to go with your takeaway coffee. My favourite indulgence is the expresso brownies. 
Schwartz Bros, a Bath institution, sells the only burger I would ever buy and has 2 outlets, one handily placed by the Theatre Royal and not far from the Little Theatre cinema. The other is in Walcot Street (pictured).
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