A brand new Botanist opened its doors in Manchester city centre, so of course, me and the boy had to give it the once over.
The Botanist
What I Wore:
Jaded LDN Butterfly Dress
Topshop Boots
Tory Burch Backpack
Missguided Blue Jacket
Scroll down for my second review when we headed back…
Whilst I am not a food critique in any way, I still love a good restaurant review. Me and my other half love to try out new places in the city, as we generally eat out twice a week, and the same food can get pretty dull. So when a new Botanist opened, I was excited to try it out and see if it could rival the wonderful experience I had had in their Leeds restaurant. I’ll start off by saying it was nice, but not as good. And that’s just me being totally honest.
So what let it down? The menu and decor are great at the Botanist. Homely, earthy foods with an almost luxurious British lunch feel, with Pate, tomato soup and garlic mushrooms on the menu. But rather than the standard style of pub grub, the Botanist makes it fancy, high class and twice as tasty. However, its a shame when your favourite thing isn’t available that day. I am a huge pate fan, like huge. If you watch my videos, you might know this already. So, I had already chosen the pate from the starters menu days before we sat down for the meal. I had had the pate in leeds a few months back and the presentation and overall taste was astounding, so to hear they had just sold the last five to another large table was devastating. We should have ordered faster frankly.
I also tried to order two different cocktails on the menu, but twice the waiter had to inform me they had sold out of the particular liquor, so we weren’t off to an amazing start here.
Instead of the beloved pate, I ordered the Welsh rarebit fondue. Pretty much beautiful breads with cheese fondue. I must say it was delicious, beautifully presented and the cheese was ridiculously tasty, yet, I dont think the chef got the memo about people in England loving cheese. Me in particular. And an abundance of cheese in this dish, there was not. I had finished the small bowl of cheese within about 4 bites, and then I was left with half a loaf of bread practically. As soon as it was put down in front of me I was literally wondering if the rest of it had jumped off of the plate. But in fact, it was just a small portion of cheese and disappointing to say the least. Yet, so so tasty, which makes it all the worse. I wanted more!
Alex had the chicken wings with a blue cheese dip, and they were also super tasty and again the presentation was lovely. He picked well I think and of course I had a cheeky bite.
So onto mains, I went for the Avocado, bacon and stilton salad to try to be somewhat healthy whilst indulging in yet more cheese! This was yummy. Loads of avocado, bits of bacon and sprinkles of stilton, but a little more wouldn’t have gone amiss. Overall, extremely yummy and I’d highly recommend this dish. Alex had the steak and ale pie, which was filled with meat, came perfectly done and was gobbled up within minutes, but thats probably my boyfriends eating habits.
After a few more hiccups with the bill and items being on there that shouldn’t have been, we upped sticks and left. We were going to stay for dessert but decided that tonight was the night to eat somewhat well. So dessert was missed. But we had still sampled the cocktail menu as well as starters and mains.
If I was to rate my experience, I would probably give it a 6 out of 10. We did enjoy it, but one or two instances let it down and I left feeling a tad deflated I must say. However, I really believe this was just a bad day for this restaurant and if we were to go back, it would only be better. The menu is brilliant and that alone can draw me back more than once to a restaurant. I just hope they have the pate next time.
Oh and by the way, do you like my new butterfly JadedLDN dress?
…
SO, after heading back there again a few weeks later (I couldn’t take me mind off that pate), I thought I would report back. This time it was a huge turnaround and at the end, me and my bf left there feeling like we had just eaten at an entirely different restaurant. As I imagined, the last time we visited, it was just a bad day for the Botanist. It happens. Whereas this time, the food was perfection, I got my pate (it was first rate) and the atmosphere was perfect. This time I ordered the Lamb Tagine and just sat in silence whilst I ate my way through it, absolutely yum. And this time we weren’t feeling so healthy, so we decided to indulge in a dessert course each, going for the hanging kebabs of marshmallows and strawberries and bananas and coconut. Delicious.
The whole night was improved massively, so much so that I’d now give it a 9/10. The waitress was superb and attentive yet not over the top. The food was beautiful and we ordered brilliantly this time. After this experience I can boldly recommend The Botanist to you, whether you’re after some cocktails after work or a dinner date on the weekends, but I’d book in advance if I were you. Oh, and order the pate!


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