Restaurant Botanic — Restaurant in Adelaide

It’s hard to put words on what we lived last Saturday.

We were in Adelaide for the weekend, discovering the vineyards of the surrounding, as well as the city. We had an amazing experience about everywhere we’ve been: vineyards, restaurants, cafes… South Australia really takes seriously the word “hospitality” and it’s good to see and experience, as disappointments often happen in Australian hospitality places (either the food or the service is bad, when not both).

Spoiler Alert! The way to enter at Botanic is actually by the Botanical Garden, where the restaurant is located. No red carpet here, but an alley of majestic trees that makes the entrance theatrical. It’s like entering the restaurant by the kitchen, the food being mostly foraged in this same garden. No time to arrive at the front door that the door opens, with someone welcoming us warmly. Then, like at the opera, we are being shown our seats at the chef’s table. Speaking about opera, the restaurant is a garden pavilion: a beautiful kiosk nestled in the middle of the Botanical Garden. No golden leaves at the ceiling, but a feeling of beauty and elegance with a minimalist decoration that bring on us serenity.

In the kitchen, the team is getting ready for a show that we are not ready to forget, that we will maybe never forget. Like a conductor, the main Chef directs his team with a firm but respectful voice. Everyone is in place, and knows what they have to do. One after the other, for more than four hours, the 26 dishes will follow one another in a crescendo, going from marvels to surprises. "Oh" and "wow" will regularly escape from our mouths, with even tears, from emotions and joy of course.

Chef Justin James is a genius virtuoso. Like a musician, he manages to create a menu with various and varied ingredients, sometimes even unknown, even incongruous, which turns out to be an incredible symphony. Beethoven’s Ode to Joy on our plates. But it does not stop there. Because if the menu seems musical, the plates are theatrical. And not just the type of plate that influencers are looking for today to post on their Instagram account. I mean the type of plate that would easily rival Claude Monet's Garden in Giverny. Pointillism seen from afar, which becomes very real when approaching the table, giving way to an opera scene in the mouth.

The experience is complete when all put together, with an incredible waitstaffs (the best services we had in years in Australia!!), a great wine menu with local and international wines for every taste and budget… even going to the toilet here becomes a meditative show!

Tv revealed Chefs and restaurants today with shows like Chef’s Table. The world’s best 50 reveals each year restaurants and chefs all over the world. Michelin guide celebrates each year the best restaurants in Europe, Asia and America… So many chefs are known, awarded and mediatised because they know how to cook well. Well, it’s what we expect today from chefs, and each of them should know how to cook beef, fish and seafood at perfection. And thank God, they do. But let’s be clear, go to Quay Restaurant, Vue de Monde, Gimlet, Montrachet and all these restaurants that people speak about in Australia, and no surprise will come but a good restaurant experience. Luxurious products cooked perfectly. Go to Jules Vernes at the Eiffel Tower, and the view will blow your mind. Go to Arpège in Paris, and Alain Passard’s egg will blow your mind. But none of them today blew our mind like Botanic Restaurant did. We thought Attica had no competitor. It definitely has.

It’s not a 3 Michelin stars, the chef is not Frederic Anton or Rene Redzepi. But Restaurant Botanic is a monster created by a Virtuoso, drawing master pieces on the plate and telling the story of its culture, through native food of Australia.

Long story short, it was the Dreamtime. Thank you Chef Justin James and all of your team members for this unforgettable and emotional dinner you...

RESTAURANT BOTANIC Sunday 19th May 2024. Collaboration with Sydney’s 3 hatted SIXPENNY PART 1 is in a PHOTO Part 2. I have to do the review in 2 parts as I love it so much. A very prestigious and exciting night ahead.

Marion tail. Marion torso cream. Marion oil Each sauce Is sublime separately Together its heavenly Then you eat the Marion Oh my gosh goodness this is so beautiful and such a delicious delicacy Look at the small pita bread that’s caramelised butter on the top. Caramelised whilst on the bread. It’s delicious on its own. These are the lengths chefs go to. Butter care for it slowly roasting it so the butter stays sweet then drive home the flavours by intensely charcoal the butter. It is awesome. Then use to mop up. A world of wonderful wonderment of deliciousness This could be one of the best dishes ever. Or was it the squid or was it the kangaroo. I’m in heavenly confusion.

I mean really. The menu It’s a Crushendo of increasing flavours that are so so dam delicious and good.

Wagyu steak potatoes Rosti & Wagyu tartar on cracker with pickled apples First the tartar straight down one crunch. But what a crunch. Glorious Wagyu taste balanced with delicious pickles. Just wonderful. Not just a Rosti a ferment potato Rosti Then with the “whey” left over they make this stuff. Mix it with Roasted Garlic chives peppers cheese. Into one of the most amazing delicious sauces ever. Just beautiful created by a culinary genius. I mopped it up with more Rosti amazing. The steak cooked to perfection melting away in my mouth. DESERT Raspberry with a light Colli Raspberry blended then dropped into nitro to make little rice like dollops now with amazing intensified flavour.

Okay number 2 takes some explaining.

Black banana What. Like black garlic. It’s slow cooked in its skin for wait it 6 MOUTHS yes 6. Turning it into an intense brown syrup like buttery banana jam. Together with a banana custard light coffee sauce. This delicious and difficult to explain. It’s jammy deliciousness with creamy rich well balanced sweetness. It is so amazing delicate fantastic This is easily one of the best desserts I have ever tasted. Sublime so g darn good tasty. It’s that good I passed on my compliments to the chef My mistake. Another appeared together with more amazing Madeira sweet wine. A mistake because I had to finish it not an easy task with my stomach already exploding At the end I was so full so delightfully full LAST (Finally)

Mushrooms fudge dust with mushroom powder topped caviar. What who thinks of these things. The brilliant chef that’s. Who. I so glad they did. A light fluffy mushroom delight with sea taste of delicious caviar. Brilliant way to finish. This was a night to remember a night of some of the best food I’ve ever tasted.

I didn’t get to taste some of Botanic’s & Justin’s dishes. Though I did last week at Tasting Australia. What I did taste was the brilliance of Daniel & Tony from Sixpenny. A brilliance I am glad to have seen and eaten. I might just go to Sydney to do it again.

WHAT A SENSATIONAL NIGHT.

So after I walk for 30 minutes to a favourite bar. Taste 1/2 glass red. Nope body is so full of food I can’t even drink. Go...

The evening started off strong with the first few courses having the ‘wow’ factor. Flavours were not for everyone though. The menu is polarising - you either like the flavours or you don’t. It is not what I would expect from a restaurant where you are paying so much for the experience. I want to enjoy everything that is put down in front of me not less than half of it. I feel that there was too much emphasis on frivolous methods of having the food (foraging through piles of leaves to find your lobster, licking flavours off a rock, scooping up your dessert with bunches of flowers and sucking the dessert off) It was all a bit ridiculous by the end. I would prefer the emphasis was on ensuring the flavours were spot on. However, the flavours were extreme and it seemed that the flowers/herbs/leaves that came from the surrounding garden made everything taste very similar. Many of the meats I was looking forward to trying (kangaroo, crocodile, seafood) were minced and mixed with other flavours that were sometimes good but sometimes not. The ‘desserts’ were very, very disappointing. There was a lost opportunity to really showcase berries or fruits or something that was dessert-like, but these were largely horribly disappointing - a leaf covered with chocolate (not sweet at all), mushroom fudge (shiitake), kangaroo tendon???? Drinking an egg yolk?? And those were the good ones. Honestly, if you are looking for a special evening that you will enjoy, think about going somewhere else. If you are looking for food that you will enjoy, think about going somewhere else. If you are just looking for the experience, and are willing to pay through though the nose for it, then knock yourself out. I, personally, would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. By the way, I am not normally one to leave reviews - positive or negative - but I feel if a restaurant is holding itself up to this standard then it ought to deliver for everyone. You would be much better off spending the same money on three or four really nice restaurants and actually enjoying your food. All in all,...