Restaurant Botanica — Restaurant in Pokolbin

My partner and I decided to come to Restaurant Botanica on our final night stay in the Hunter Valley, as the online reviews praised the food highly. We were very much looking forward to our experience but were left underwhelmed and disappointed.

We arrived at the restaurant for our 8pm booking and were swiftly seated in the terrace area. We were left with the menus and wine list to decide what we might like to order. I must emphasise, we were left to peruse the menu for 40 MINUTES. I can confidently say that I have NEVER been made to wait 40 minutes to order, especially not at a high end restaurant. I am from the inner city of Sydney so it is not uncommon for me to dine in highly rated high demand restaurants and I can assure you I have never had an experience quite like Restaurant Botanica.

Perhaps I’d have been understanding if the restaurant was extremely busy and the servers were run off their feet, alas none of the servers seemed to be in much of a hurry and all the other diners seemed content. It was just my partner and I who, for some unknown reason, were deemed unworthy of any attention or service. It was so bad that my partner mused the idea that we just walk out and take our chances with the restaurant at our hotel, hoping they were still doing table service at quarter to 9pm on a Sunday.

What made this experience especially annoying was that another couple who entered the restaurant at the same time, and were seated 2 tables over, were given the best service! The waitress took them through the wine list and happily discussed their pairing and food choices. This couple had their entree and main come out BEFORE our order was even taken and we have entered the restaurant AT THE SAME TIME. I felt invisible and as though the servers thought we were unworthy of service.

I literally had to walk up to a server and let her know we were ready to order. She said she would be right with us but again went to another table to help them. I then had to stop the server clearing the table next to us and remind her that I was ready to order to which she retorted “yepp I was just coming back to serve you guys” which would’ve been great 40 minutes earlier! As we were only given attention at 8:45pm, my partner and I decided we weren’t going to have an entree and were just happy to get onto mains. I was so enraged that I didn’t even want to order a drink as I thought “let’s give them as little money as possible as this is THE WORST dining experience I had ever had”.

The food was good but not worth the wait, we ordered the fish of the day which was Ling, a bit disappointing considering how inexpensive that fish is. My favourite part of the evening was when we got the bill and the servers had the hide to deliver it with the option of a tip. There was no way we were tipping and my partner and I are usually very generous with our tip.

It felt good finally leaving so we could laugh about the terrible excuse of a waiter we were given. I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone which is really disappointing as the food and atmosphere were great. I don’t ever leave any reviews but I couldn’t stop myself in this situation. People need to be warned that they won’t be given any attention for...

WORST MOST INFURIATING DINING EXPERIENCE EVER. 1. The main dish of lamb is cold, and the restaurant manager said it was because we spent time taking pictures, so why are the other main dishes of fish hot? The accusations of arrogance and rudeness made by the restaurant manager against us from the beginning were ridiculous and infuriating 2. The food was terrible, from the duck liver as an appetizer to the lamb and fish as the main course, they were all tasteless and unpalatable, and I don't even feel that there is any salt. 3. The service staff did not provide service. I finished drinking the water and no one came to refill it for me. They did not care about our dining experience at all. Ask about service the staff replied that he didn't know the WiFi password and the price of bread; 5. As soon as the dessert was served, we found bugs in it, but the restaurant manager only said that the bugs flew in because the door was open. Usually the door is not open. He can only make a new one for me. So why is the door open today? 6. The most outrageous thing is that the manager of the restaurant is extremely arrogant and even feels racial discrimination. We asked him what happened to such service, and he answered us that their service has always been like this. If we don't like it, that's our problem, and Threatened to call the police. I think we should be the first to call the police. This is an unprecedented and unbelievably painful memory. I have never suffered such grievances in my life. This is not the first time I have had such fine dining. There has never been a time when a service staff dared to talk to customers like this. He said: that's how this restaurant is, if we don't like it we can just pay and leave. This is unreasonable. MOREOVER, 1. The restaurant manager had the audacity to call us the day after receiving the complaint review and ask us to retract what he called “untrue” customer feelings, and accused us of lying. However, every photo we take is not photoshopped but comes from real customer experiences. 2. He keeps saying that our feelings are faked. As a customer for more than 20 years, I don’t understand what it means to fake feelings. If you serve well, customers will naturally be happy. If you serve poorly, customers will be unhappy. This is natural and normal. matter. His ignorance and absurdity made the dining experience continue the next day. 3. We had given the restaurant the opportunity to do something to make the customers happy on the day of our meal, however the restaurant manager just stared at us and asked what we wanted. I have never experienced such service. As a restaurant manager, managing customer relationships is your basic professional quality, and satisfying customers is your work goal. 5. An apology or discount will make your customers feel much better, but you threatening us to call the police and accuse us of lying is unexpected. 6. If you have the opportunity, you should leave Hunter Valley to see the outside world, open your eyes, and learn how a real restaurant manager should treat their customers and manage customer relationships instead of just making threatening phone calls and requests. We retract the review and blame...

We had been looking forward to this tremendously and we were extraordinarily disappointed.

The good things first: The setting is spectacular, the restaurant is beautiful, the views are amazing, and the vibe of the place, in terms of ambiance, is perfect.

Now, the not so good: We were ushered to our table and provided with an extensive wine list. Initially impressed, we choose a bottle of sparking Semillon from the region to begin with. After some confusion and a trip to the wine room, our server told us that they did not have that wine. We asked what sparking they did have and again we were met with confusion. After a trip back to the wine room, the server returned and said that they had a Prosecco. I asked to taste it and was, again, met with confusion. The server disappeared and returned 15 minutes later with the wine. As I was tasting it my husband asked about the other Semillon wines on the wine list. He asked the server to explain some of the differences between the wines and was met with, I kid you not, "They must be made with some different processes or something." We told the server we would need a minute with the list. It turns out that the extensive wine list is a kind of mirage which hides the fact that MANY of the listed wines at a reasonable price point are not available. We had a nice bottle of Semillon that cost 70$ that is 35$ at the local cellar door. This is an issue to my mind - over charging for local wine.

Once the wine was finally ordered we turned to the menu. The restaurant offers pre fix menus (5 course tasting and 3 course tasting for both meat eaters and vegetarians). We decided on the 3 course vegetarian menu. This menu has two choices for each course - so between the two of us we had each item on the menu. They were all terrible. And I mean awful. We are both vegetarians so this is not someone new to eating this way complaining. The food was, quite simply, bad.

First, it was all served lukewarm. The tomato salad entree was the same temperature as my squash-based main. And the main I ordered, the butternut squash, was raw in the middle. The tempura my husband ordered was bland beyond reason.

Even with all of this we were unfailingly polite to our server. We decide to treat the whole thing as a hilarious commentary on how excited I had been to try the place. Our server, however, seemed to have grown frustrated because of our initial questions about the wine list and they. were, frankly, rude and unprofessional for the rest of the night. It was like having your sullen teenager serve you a meal and then charge you...