Botanical House — Restaurant in Osaka

Nice location in the botanical gardens and right next to the lake.

I gave this rating based on having a lunch here, if I came here just for coffee and cake I would have given the food an extra star.

While nicely set out the restaurant seems pretty understaffed with only 3 waitresses for the lunch time rush. We had to wait about 40 minutes to get an outside counter table overlooking the pond on a Monday.

The wait to be served and to get the food was also considerable. As others have mentioned the food could be improved to match the price and the surroundings. I had the crab and porcini ragu and it was pretty watery and lukewarm. The crab was nice but there was no porcini, maybe blended into the ragu? The carbonara gratin was also ok, but nothing special, the same you could get in many Cafés. The portion size is also quite small for the price. The Cesar salad was good though, nice fresh, cool and crispy salad and a good dressing.

The deserts and coffee were nice. The cheesecake was creamy and rich but it didn't taste like Mascarpone in the tiramisu, instead more like whipped cream.

Overall, a nice place to relax if you are happy to take it slowly. I hope they keep working hard to improve the lunch...

Bad service! Request to change seat as we haven’t ordered but their statement is once seated cannot change seat with no reasoning. Did the request twice thinking it is language barrier and the same rejection. Not a place for tourist with a preference for locals. A complete disappointment especially when we travel far to go there.

The food taste is so-so. Rice is hard in the middle as they use microwave to heat up.

The dog parfait dessert is only good in appearance but not in the taste.

Overall not worth the...

Visited the park and was hungry and looking for a place for lunch. Comes across this restaurant by the pond and it turns out to be a pretty good choice. We got a seat by the pond with a great view. There is a nice selection of food. Food is nice with good price point and comes with fantastic view. There is also indoor seating of u prefer a warmer environment. Outdoor Seating comes with blankets during our autumn visit. Definitely recommended for a meal experience by the pond if u...