The Botanist
Reviews · · · ·Rating: 3
We ate lunch here in August 2026.
Breakfast halloumi bao bun
Tofu bao bun
Deep fried cauliflower
This is our third time dining at The Botanist, and our third time complaining about their service. In fairness, the service was better than the previous outings, but there was a service incident which can not go un-discussed. Get a load of this.
We ordered two cocktails with our meal, one espresso martini and one paloma. When the cocktails arrived however, it was two espresso martinis. Easy mistake, no problem. We let them know, and they took one of the drinks away. We could hear them up at the bar saying that there was a mistake, and this espresso martini was meant to be a paloma. We were confident that the paloma would appear momentarily. Then we waited. And waited. The food came. We ate half the food. Then finally the paloma showed up. This is already not great, but what we are about to share with you rocked us to our core. The table next to us was also drinking espresso martinis. The waitress who had removed our mistake-tini took it from the bar to our neighbouring table. And then, within clear ear- and eye-shot of us, said to them “hey do you guys want this espresso martini, it was made by mistake and I’d hate to see it go to waste.” EXCUSE ME? Aren’t we the ones who had the inconvenience of the drink order mistake, and subsequently waited three lifetimes for the correct drink to arrive?? Why would you offer the free drink to some random table, and not to us??? Are these table some kind of VIPs???? Are you worried about “rewarding” us, perhaps suspicious we actually did order two espresso martinis then changed our minds????? Shocking.
Luckily for The Botanist, they make an incredible plate of fried cauliflower. We loved it in 2022, and it stands up gloriously on repeat dining. We eat a lot of fried cauliflower but this was definitely a cut above the rest. The florets were large and meaty, gloriously crisp, so hot, not greasy, a great dipping sauce, and cooked to absolute perfection being neither too hard nor too soft. The bigger the florets, the harder it is to achieve this, so we were very impressed.
The bao buns were acceptable. Their biggest issue was structure, both of them being stacked in a way that made it hard to eat with your hands. So we used knives and forks, but then you’re dealing with issues of mouthful composition. The flavour was a bit same-y between the two, but we appreciated the inventiveness of the breakfast bao offering.