Tuesday, June 7, 2011

The Botanical - WARNING - Don't Even Bother!

This place is the pits, awful service, terrible coffee and disgusting food.

This was the second time we've come here for breakfast after our standard Saturday morning run around the tan. Usually we opt for Cumulus Inc but on the two occasions we visited the "Bot" it was only because we were in a rush and it's convenient. Next time this happens I would rather starve than go here and pay money for rubbish.

Where do I start, we were seated for 10 minutes before we had to literally grab the waitress by the arm for menus and even then I thought she was going to walk off and ignore us. No offer of coffees when the menus did come...something that wait staff should automatically do with new customers! We shouldn't have even bothered ordering the coffees because they were beyond horrible, the Asian bakery near my work makes a better latte!! And no water to wash the taste away, the wait staff failed to take away the customers water glasses from the previous sitting! Once again had to flag down the staff to place an order, porridge, corn fritters, scrambled eggs and a serve of toast was ordered.

Corn Fritters - over cooked, dry, relish "not that amazing", if these were a bit more moist and had a little sour cream or creme fraiche with it they would be yummy. Good size and a side of bacon would make them perfect.
Porridge - glug, glug, glug. It didn't have that nice consistency you hope for. It had started to set so it was becoming hard around the edge and if I wasn't continuously stirring it I could have made a porridge pudding out of it. Oh and isn't rhubarb in season? Yes, then why did I only get a teaspoon of it on the top. How could I forget the amateur cut banana sprinkled on top...really for a "up market" restaurant you couldn't even caramelise it?
Scrambled Eggs - The person eating that didn't complain.
Toast - I had to laugh, after struggling to get 5 mouthfuls of porridge down I decided to leave it and at least settle my hunger with some toast. Overcooked but not burnt, so dry that it was cutting my mouth and the stingy amount of butter they give you topped off what was one of the worst breakfast experiences I have had in a long time. The bacon and egg cart at Meredith Music Festival had a better front of house team and edible food.

I think The Botanical needs to have a look at itself, after reading the rest of the reviews on Urban Spoon there have been a lot of unhappy customers. Although it will most likely always be busy because of the spot it's in that doesn't mean its ok to have shitty wait staff and even shittier food and drink.

To yum things up: won't be returning EVER

The Botanical on Urbanspoon

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