thebotanist.uk.com Reviews 9

My worst restaurant experience ever!

Nine of us went to Chester restaurant on 27th October 2025 for my sisters 50th. I can’t have gluten or dairy. I eat out all the time, but have never been in a situation where there was nothing I could have and where the restaurant and manager were unwilling/unable to adapt something in some way. Sitting there was embarrassing and the situation distressed my whole group - ruining my sisters 50th (it was the actual day). I tried really hard to find a head office to make a complaint - try it - pretty impossible. That’s why trustpilot works well. Safe to say we won’t ever be going there again.

I booked a table with you for 7pm for 12 people to celebrate my mums 70th birthday.
We arrived early but were told our table wasn’t ready and asked to wait 15mins. We waited and were shown to the table at 7.15. Service was extremely slow although the food was amazing when it arrived.
At 9.13pm the waitress bought the bill and handed it to me saying we need the table back. We had only just finished our meal and didn’t even get offered dessert or coffee.

This bought an abrupt end to our meal and dampened our evening.

This has actually put me off using a botanist restaurant again if this is what you call service. I wouldn’t have minded if your service hadn’t been as slow as it was.

Haydon was an amazing host. He spirited my heavy case upstairs (lift broken) and settled us in. He’s Definately one of the sunshine people. Food great, so well done also to the kitchen who were busy. Table service far too slow. It took 2hrs for us to get thru lunch and that included asking for the bill as our food was served. Otherwise it would have been 5stars.

Visited the Knutsford branch. Have Ben previously and those visits were good. Went on Monday 26th Feb The two stars were for the food which was ok. But the service was lacklustre and that is being kind. It was as though we were an inconvenience. Took ages to take order and take finished plates etc away. We were going to have dessert but decided not to bother as the waiting on staff never asked if we wanted a menu!! It would seem that they only had two members of staff and whilst it was a Monday and not overly busy there were not enough to give the right level of service.

Our first time eating here at the Warrington restaurant was nice. However, this time has been a total let down. Firstly £7.50 for 6 crispy flakes of a mushroom was disgraceful. Secondly, the 6 prawns on a skewer of the Red Thai curry were so salty. And the sauce was the worse Red Thai curry sauce I have ever eaten, it also was very salty.
I never complain about spending money for good food but this was a £71 bill of which in reality was worth £30 and that is being generous. I think this will be my last visit to this restaurant chain. There are much better places to eat at much better prices.

Great food! Awesome!

Our last experience here was somewhat better than the one I will be writing about. We went here and booked the xmas menu but were told when we got there that we needed to give them two weeks notice for them to have the food available for the offer. So they gave us crackers which were cool as we got free drinks from them - they had to amend my free drink though as I won an alcoholic drink but I am pregnant. It was very loud that day due to live music and they were nice enough to move us to a quieter spot. Food wise - the calamari was divine and what little of the chilli chips I had but the mains were a let down, we were asked what sides we wanted with our mains but with the food we got we had everything we needed so felt misled into getting extra food. My partner didn't enjoy his southern fried beef steak and my hanging turkey kebab was so dry even with the thick dripping gravy that I couldn't enjoy AT ALL and it put me off the rest of my meal. And while they took off the kebab, I literally didn't eat the chips either and it put me off and I was so upset over it. They left our free drinks on the receipt as well so we had to remind them. This meal still costed us around £70-£80 quid considering so we will not be going back there for a while. Which is a shame as the staff were so lovely and sweet, accommodating to me and my partner.

Tasty food, but it would be better if you could also see what it looks like and read the menu without a torch. Good food let down by very dim lighting, loud music and poor service. They also add a service charge to the bill without asking.

Amazing food, happy smiling staff and venue for money