Cafe Retro

One of the best fry ups I have eaten. Great sausages, eggs, bacon and delicious fried bread. Nice cuppa tea and just the ticket after a nice walk around bath or after a big drinking session the night before. Great service and great food worth stopping by.

My family and I are here with a bus tour and we stopped in for a late lunch after visiting the Roman Baths. We noticed it had a good rating from Trip Adviser and gave it a try. One of our best meals while in England! Simple but so so good. The portions were generous and the price very reasonable. I ordered the Retro Sandwich basically a club without bacon. Super good. Thick slices of toasted wheat bread, watercress. Came with fries. Also the Panini Meatball with cheese and tomato sauce. Served with a fresh salad tomato, cucumber, bell pepper. Dressing to die for. Basil pesto but sweet. Cole slaw also sweet and very fresh. They also had some fun and interesting shakes and drinks. I tried the Pineapple Iced Tea. Yum!

Decent baguette and free Wifi. This was the first place we saw on a tour to Bath and we were starving. Ordered the tomato, basil
And mozzarella, which was shredded mozzarella not buffalo. seemed a bit strange. Ordered a salad as a side but got chips instead. Nice waitress!

I had read tons of glowing reviews on TripAdvisor prior to coming to Bath, so when we were in search of a non-​chain place to grab a very quick lunch, we stopped off at Café Retro.
Café Retro seems to be a tiny Mom’n’Pop shop that serves mostly locals. They seem to have lots of daily specials (everything from smoothies to soups to freshly baked cakes) so there is plenty to choose from on and off their regular menu. I ordered a panini with salad and my husband opted for a vegetarian chili jacket potato. He also ordered a chocolate orange hot chocolate (plus points for the availability of Soya milk!) and I selected a piping hot latte — it was freezing outside, so both of these hit the spot.
The portions are MASSIVE. My husband’s jacket potato looked like a small boulder on his plate. It came with cole slaw, salad and tons of toppings. He powered through it but was unable to finish — lesson learned, the portions can be big! My panini, while satisfying in terms of hunger, was totally boring. Snore. It was stuffed with mozarella, tomato and rocket — what it needed was some pesto or some dressing to give it a zip. I ate it out of allegiance to what seemed like my never-​ending hunger but it wasn’t something I’d order again.
Service was pleasant but the place was extremely quiet. Most people seemed to automatically head downstairs while were seated upstairs. The ladies serving upstairs seemed to be in the middle of their own coffees and conversation — this is a no frills place.
Good portion sizes, lots of hot beverage options, a decent selection of vegetarian friendly foods. It was a quick and convenient lunch with good ambiance and friendly — but respectfully distant — service.

Just your standard townie café. Service was speedy and staff polite. Too crowded downstairs? Take your tush on up those stairs and make yourself at home.
Retro serves up some surprisingly posh cheesecake for such a humble establishment. Makes me wonder if I should have ordered the carrot cake, too.

Have always enjoyed the breakfasts at Café Retro. Lots of big fat slices of toast, lovely coffee and good quality sausages and bacon. The music they play is always great (makes a nice change from the radio) and they have lots of interesting posters and flyers for events going on in the city. I am told that the veggie breakfast is good as well.
I have never eaten upstairs but only had the breakfasts but for those its worth a visit.

The Café Retro is an okay café, though not very atmospheric or cozy. The food is mediocre and not exactly international, a standard selection of British bistro dishes.

Came here because of the (currently, at least) only other review on the place.
It’s definitely more ‘café’ than ‘coffee shop’, the latter being what I was looking for — BUT I had a fantastic breakfast here, fantastically friendly service — seems like they’re a family team? …fantastic experience.
On that coffee shop thing — I really was looking for a place to hunch over a cup of coffee and do some travel planning via the internet and you probably COULD do that here… but you’d feel awkward doing it. Totally like a little café in someone’s living room. Recommended.

I really like this little café, located right by the abbey in the centre of the city. I always prefer to visit an independent place if I can and this is one of the best in the vicinity. It’s the kind of place that’s great for lunchtime meetings with a few friends, rather than a luxurious cup of tea on your own. The coffees are large and strong, and the food is pretty good, too. The staff have always been very pleasant and eager to help whenever I’ve visited and they haven’t minded me and some friends whiling away a few hours with only a few cups of coffee between us. It’s certainly worth checking out and loads better than Nero/​Starbucks, etc.

This is a lovely little café in the centre of town by Bog Island, just near the Bath Abbey. Open for dinners in the evenings it is a romantic and relaxed place to go with a partner, or a great venue for a meal with friends. Set over two floors space is limited (upstairs is best!) so you might need to book. It also comes into it’s own in the mornings as they serve a great range of breakfast items, all really nice and service with a smile. You can grab a paper and have a coffee or do the full works, it’s up to you. Great milkshakes as well, and the goats cheese salad is particularly good.