Botanist — Restaurant in Vancouver

A group of 3 of my friends and I came to the Botanist last night as a treat from one of my friends to the rest of us. We arrived excited for a nice meal and good drinks, recommended by a chef friend of ours.

I'll start here. we were greeted and seated by some very friendly front-of-house staff and were quickly attended to by our main waiter for the night; Chris. Chris was friendly, personable, engaged with us and the restaurant, and was ready to tell us a bit of the history and background of Botanist if we were curious. One little thing I noticed is when our main course arrived, Chris initially approached the table to greet us again, and two additional wait stuff (sorry guys, I didn't get your names!) were waiting off to the side. When Chris stepped away after filling our water glasses, he left to attend to another table and left us in the care of these two wait staff who then simultaneously approached the table and placed our plates down from opposing sides of the table in a clockwise fashion. It was like a little ballet! We began discussing getting dessert at Botanist because we were all blown away. We had never mentioned this to any of the waitstaff, but I imagine one of them must've overheard that we eventually decided that we would get dessert there because after we finished our main course and had a bit of time to digest and finish our drinks, and for the wait staff to gather our plates and quickly wipe the table, Chris brought over the dessert menus. We didn't ask for these, there was no question of if we wanted them, he/the staff just knew at that point that we had decided. At the end of the night we had a TON of questions. Every question we had, Chris had an answer, down to specific things about ingredients in a dish or how a protein was prepared. He also told us about the head chef's history, and the specific location's history.

The drinks were amazing. Every single one was just the right strength, well balanced, floral, and allowed for the natural tastes of all the components to shine. Additionally, if you don't drink, the non-alcoholic drinks here are AMAZING!

Every dish was well balanced, complex, and thoughtful. I gained a view of flavour that made me realize there are dimensions to it than I initially thought. I was talking to one of my friends at the table who also has experience with music and audio, and we likened it to listening to music live, or on a stellar sound system -- you don't really realize how much more vertical space there is in "taste" until you have something that shows you the presence of that space. The dishes that we at had us discussing the food the entire night, picking out bits and pieces of what we were tasting, all the layers, how they changed over time in the mouth and after swallowing. I think that carpaccio changed me, hahaha. Every one of our dishes we shared bites because we all wanted one another to experience what we were experienced. I ordered the strip loin and I believe that is the best piece of meat I have ever eaten in my life, and it was balanced perfectly with the ratatouille that it came with. I have more thoughts on the food but seeing as I'll be character limited I'm running out of steam on turning a lot of these feelings into words.

CONCLUSION:

If you like food, if you like art, if you have the funds to come here, absolutely do.

This is more than just a good meal, it's performance art, a sensory experience that left the four of us talking about it all the way home and into today. Yes, of course the food was amazing, but the attention to detail that permeated every part of our night here made this akin to going to, like, an art show or a play. I don't really know how else to explain this, but we were amazed and plan on coming back in the future, booking one of the more quiet rooms, and getting the tasting menu.

Please pass along my appreciation to all the people who helped make our night special (we were the table who were underdressed, hahah!) and know that we loved and took note of all the work you guys put into making...

Before coming here, my impression was that it’d be a fancy date night spot, but that’s not the case. It definitely has an upscale feel, but I felt most of the people were families and groups, over couples. The interior has a clean white look with plants hanging and an open kitchen concept. I found lighting to be a good level and it wasn’t too loud considering how busy it was. They also have a bar and “fake patio” area for more casual seating, but I’d definitely recommend booking reso’s in advance.

My mom and I opted for the 7 course tasting menu, which was $178 pp. All the items were off menu which made it seem like a surprise, but I do wish they had a small sheet to describe what we were going to eat ahead of time - I like to reach what I’m eating as the course arrives. We started off with sourdough bread from Fife Bakery served with a yogurt butter - I’d recommend asking for olive oil and balsamic over this. Being that I can’t remember all the details to the items, I’ll grave over key highlights. Once thing I enjoyed was how their meat was kept simple and they used veggies to enhance the dish. The waiter did a very good job of describing how the chef makes dishes veggie up, rather than meat down - it makes the dishes more veggie forward. Every dish served was very aesthetically pleasing, and they used ingredients in ways we hadn’t had before. For example, they brined the beets and turnips so that they were very flavourful and kept their crunch in their rose looking appetizer and the tomato water paired really well together - this was the prettiest and most refreshing dish. However, I would say the biggest highlight was the main dishes - the sea bass and duck breast. The sea bass had crunchy skin, which makes me think it was shallow fried, but the meat was also cooked to perfection where it was very tender and moist. It also came a side of green mole, which was satisfyingly smooth. They also pair it with a fried sweet potato, which balanced the salty from the fish well. Next up was the dry aged duck breast - apparently one of his specialties. I think it was sous-vide, or at least tender enough when tasting it. The duck was very flavourful and almost had a smokey taste to it. The sides was a fried onion (pretty meh) and a tart with wild mushrooms which added good texture to the dish. They also brought this unique hedgehog mushroom marinated marshmallow before the dessert. It’s hard to describe the flavour but I will say a very cool concept, although not my favourite. Lastly, dessert - they did a good job of balance the sweet with slightly tart mandarin oranges, ice cream that tasted like it had alcohol infused, scorched marshmallow and a crunchy biscuit at the bottom. However, being that it was my also my birthday, our waiter was kind enough to give us a compliment roasted pear mille-feuille. This was definitely a sweeter treat, which I enjoyed because the layers of pastry gave me buttery croissant vibes, which paired nicely with the vanilla ce cream and pears. I did appreciate how I didn’t find any of the desserts overwhelmingly sweet. Other wishes I didn’t mention was the dungeness crab chorizo risotto and potato croquette (pictures will be below). The crab was really good, but I felt the risotto had a weird texture, rather than pasta, tasted more like rice.

Overall, I had a great dining experience. The dishes were unique, pretty and we had great service. My only thing was that the pacing of the food could’ve been quicker - there were periods of 15-20 minutes were we waited for our food which led to us having a 3 hour dining experience. The price was also quite hefty compared to other restaurant tasting menu’s. I would say if you truly love and enjoy food, the price tag could be worth it for a special occasion. However, it you’re just going for girls night type thing, there are better places where you can have an equally great dining experience for a...

The Botanist is a high-end restaurant located in the Fairmont hotel at Waterfront. Aesthetic-wise, the restaurant has a really nice ambience and a huge open kitchen. My girlfriend and I ordered the Valentines Day 6 course Chef’s Tasting Menu. For starters, we were given a small foie crepe with cured egg topped with crème fraiche, nuts and caviar. The foie crepe had a nice soft bite and was enriched by the shaved cured egg. The caviar and nuts collectively gave the crepe a creamy and crunchy texture and the crème fraiche binded all the components together. The saltiness from the caviar and the cured egg along with the nuttiness from the nuts and the tanginess from the crème fraiche created a mouth bursting melody of flavors that accompanied one another. For the second course, we had a fermented tomato water, koji oil, and salted roasted root vegetables salad. It was fruity, light, refreshing, citrusy, aesthetic and vibrant in color, the perfect balance to a rich and creamy first course. For the third course, we had a buffalo burrata ravioli with parmesan stock, celeriac, beef tendon, and freshly shaved Italian black truffles. The ravioli was handmade egg pasta and was filled with cheesy goodness. The smell and flavor of the freshly shaved black truffles were not as strong as I’d like it to be, but overall, the ravioli was a good dish. For the fourth course, we had a charred sea bass with sunchokes, cilantro, jalapeno, and a parmesan emulsion. In my opinion, the parmesan emulsion did not work. I found that its sharpness and richness counteracted and overpowered the freshness of the fish. However, the fish was cooked beautifully. For the fifth course, we had a roasted lamb saddle with a smoked beet caramelized salsify and truffle jus. The caramelized beet salsify added sweetness while wine in the truffle jus added tanginess and aroma to the dish. However, I found the lamb extremely rare and undercooked for my liking, and I am a person who enjoys both rare and medium rare steak. The fibers of the saddle were still intact, making the lamb extremely chewy and unable to dissolve or break down into pieces in my mouth. For that reason, I did not fancy the lamb too much and did not finish it. After the lamb, we were given a ricotta with wildflower honey palette cleanser. There is nothing better than fresh ricotta, so creamy and rich, melting in my mouth. The honey was sweet and made the ricotta more dessert-like, preparing the way for the last course. For the last course, that being dessert, we had a passionfruit white chocolate marquise with passionfruit curd, sparkling wine gelée, white chocolate coconut crumble, and a tropical sorbet. It was more or less a deconstructed dessert. I felt like the marquise together with the passionfruit curd were sour and not sweet enough for my liking. The white chocolate coconut crumble somewhat makes up for it, but there was not enough of it on my plate. Overall, dining at the botanist was a good meal with a few flaws. However, its location by the waterfront, aesthetics of the restaurant along with a pianist throughout the night does make for a perfect...