Botanic House — Restaurant in Sydney

I enquired to have my wedding at this venue and was poorly taken care of by Sonja (event co ordinator). I left feeling really upset. She made a few racist remarks (whether she was aware or not, this woman needs to know how to speak to a range of customers). I’m of Asian background, Chinese to be exact. And I was quite taken back with some of the comments made by her. Here are some of the main ones:

We were set on having 120 guests (I have a big family) at the wedding. Her response? “Personally I would only like 80 max.” This is NOT your wedding (fortunately), and you’re trying to sell this venue to a customer. Your “personal” preference is not warranted.

Whilst showing us the menu, She went on about how her “white dad” doesn’t usually like Asian food but he loved the food at botanic house (really unsure of how saying your dad who doesn’t like or appreciate Asian flavours, somehow miraculously liking botanic house food is meant to sway me?).

continued to show us the dessert section and said “you know what they say about Asian desserts, they’re a bit offensive. But Luke does an amazing job at making them likeable.” You have got to be kidding me with this comment. My decision was already made at this point.

Sonja said “you could have the banh mi as canapés or snacks if you wanted.. to be honest they’re not something you’d want at a wedding. If I saw that, I’d be disappointed.” Again, pushing her PERSONAL preferences on us.

and lastly, her selling point was saying that Botanic House is a lovely venue to pay homepage to my background. She didn’t even bother to confirm what my background was.. I’m Aussie/Chinese. Botanic House is Modern Vietnamese.

To conclude, I never went with this venue for my wedding, but her comments really stuck out to me. So much so I had to make this review. Sonja, I think it would be of benefit if you were able to get some lessons on how to be culturally sensitive to your customers and to not push your personal preferences on excited couples wanting to choose such a beautiful venue. If we were spoken to differently, we would have chosen Botanic House. Absolutely disgusted and disappointed with some of the remarks made. What I shared were just a few of the many shared during our...

(3.5 stars)

Schlepping our way into the The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney cursing the taxi rank being so far away, we stumbled into a wildflower meadow. Wandering through a winding path of brightly-coloured, waist-high blooms was enough to convince even the most committed of cynics, that gardens are actually nice places to visit.

With a much better attitude we entered Botanic House, celebrity chef, Luke Nguyen’s latest digs. Ringed by green, the open-air pavilion relies on the canopy’s natural cooling, aided by ceiling fans. With a full house of large tables, mostly women, all pushed onto $69/head set menus, it’s a license to print money, especially with all the wine being consumed. Nguyen helps it to pull up short of a tourist trap with a pleasant, please-all collection of dishes, kicking off with Hokkaido scallops served on the shell with roe pearls, green mango and Vietnamese herbs.

The 2016 Domaine Schlumberger Riesling ($78) is a reasonable match, extending through sesame rice crackers with edamame and avocado dip, and salt and pepper squid with lemon dressing. The fifteen buck crab and scallop dumpling upsell looked pretty in bright pink and ate nicely. Ka-ching!

Lively chilli made the kingfish carpaccio an easy favourite, dressed with native finger lime, miso and sesame oil. We notched down to the 2018 Kilikanoon Morts Block Riesling ($60) with the roast duck salad—sadly quite low on bird—while the table was populated with shared mains and rice. Caramelised market fish fillets—salmon on the day I dined—with tempura saltbush edged out crisp skin master stock chicken in chilli satay, mostly because the bird wasn’t cooked in the sauce, leaving it all a bit hollow in the middle for my liking.

Bring your beau because dessert—a creme caramel and a dry Vietnamese coffee-spiked three milk cake—is served one between two. No need to tip when they helpfully add a ten percent service surcharge...

Average. Standard. Normal.

Parking: Easy to find on Mrs macquarie Rd. Toll parking. Lots of entrances to enter the gardens and walk to the restaurant Customer service: Standard. Saw someone shatter a drink on the floor accidently. Atmosphere: Even though we're in the middle of the Botanic Gardens, I didn't feel a special vibe. It just feels like an ordinary restaurant Toilets: Clean and pretty good toilets

Menu & Food review: Entrees Crackers and salsa - crackers soft. Salsa is nice Skewers - do not think it should be on the menu. Tastes ordinary Scallop - not bad.

Mains Tuna - very good - lots of different flavours hitting you one after another in a good way Salad + pork belly - quite refreshing Fish - Even though it was soft and tender, the flavours didn’t sit right. Something feels missing Crispy chicken - sauce is nice, but you can find this dish anywhere and for much cheaper too - should also be off the menu.

Dessert 1.. Mango pudding + coconut cake - They combined the 2 desserts into one dish. The ice cream saves the day - but very standard dessert.

Improvements/recommendations: Nowadays, I find it quite annoying when people always come up to you and ask how your food is going. What else are you going to say most of the time other than "Yeah, it's good."? Especially when there are 2-3 different staff asking you within the span of 10 minutes. Please let us enjoy our meal. Each table has a specified person designated to look after our table. Only they should ask and only after they take the finished meals would be smooth and not as noticeable or be seen as annoying.

Consider replacing the chicken skewer with other meat skewers like Japanese Yakitori.

Consider replacing the crispy chicken with lots of grilled beef or pork with lime, a bit of spice, veggies, nuts. And if you can't do that, I would be happy with...