The Olive Tree at the Queensberry Hotel

Under the guardianship of Laurence and Helen Beere, the Queensberry Hotel's Olive Tree restaurant has established itself firmly as a centre of serious gastronomy in Bath. Four Georgian townhouses have been transformed into a prestigious boutique operation that ticks all the chic style boxes. Its restaurant occupies a series of low-lit interconnecting basement rooms done out in cool neutral tones, with abstract modern art on the walls, and chocolate-brown high-backed leather chairs at white linen tables; on-the-ball, informed service helps to set the mood. Nick Brodie heads up a kitchen team that is turning out some impressive work, calling on an arsenal of top-grade local and seasonal materials to generate vivid flavours, informed here and there by Brodie's Asian travels - as in squab pigeon marinated in yuzu and partnered by a green mango salad and roasted pink peanuts. Next comes a line-up of Bishop Collings pork, which offers the kitchen a chance to show off the technical skills needed to tease perfect textures from slow-cooked belly, cheek, loin, kidney and crackling. Nor is presentation neglected: a dessert of iced meringue and white peach parfait with caramel almonds and peach liqueur paints a vibrant picture on the plate and palate. A superb wine list brings together an eclectic blend of traditional and new styles grouped by flavour types to help with food pairing.