Botanico — Restaurant in Göteborgs Stad

The market for rather fine dining for vegans is very limited in Gothenburg, so it’s a nice change to visit a place that offers a fully vegan seven-dish menu with a variety of interesting compositions. Sure, Botanico is not a vegan-only place, but beggars can’t be choosers. How does the urban jungle dining hold up?

Botanico has a reputation of being picky with reservations, so obviously we went with a booking into it. The interesting thing hereby: you need your credit card information for the booking, as Botanico debits you for late cancellations. A first in my experience booking tables. Not too big of a deal, but not a good start and worth mentioning. When you enter Botanico though, the atmosphere will kick in right away. Everything is dark, lush and green, full with plants. The music is your typical big city restaurant deep house, but I like that kind of stuff. It’s nothing too special and you can find a place like this almost anywhere in the world in bigger cities, but it’s still executed well.

The menu itself prominently displays the menu options, so we opted for the 7-dish vegan menu at a whopping 475 SEK/person.

Starting with Edamame, a classic, the first disappointment kicked in. They were rather cold, dressed in chili salt and drenched in oil. Okay and not the worst, but by far not the best. The second course was mango ceviche with tostadas, and chili mayo, and that was quite the banger. The mix of chili mayo, fresh mango and deep fried tortilla worked great. The journey continued to 4 (!) asparagus broccoli covered in panko, green onion and…mayonnaise? Okay, but nothing more. Then, rice noodle stir fry. Average at best. Some carrots, some cabbage, some more broccoli and cashews in a sauce full of acid flavours. After that, bao buns filled with aubergine and…more mayonnaise. Finally, some dumplings filled with mushrooms on a creamy corn sauce.

They were quite good. And that was it for the main dishes. All of them served in tiny portions barely enough to feed one person, and this was the two-person size. Lastly, we received coconut sorbet with berries. That was quite alright as well, but nothing to die for. All in all quite okay, but we need to talk about the prices. While I have no problem paying for good food, Botanico struggles to justify the price-setting - at least on the vegan side of things. Cheap ingredients, small portions and overpriced drinks prices (94 SEK for a glass of alcohol free (!) champagne) as well as charging for (sparkling) water. It’s just not worth it.

Botanico is a mixed bag. While the atmosphere is great, even though nothing you can’t see in any big city, and the service is attentive and fast, the food ends up being a disappointment. Repetitive use of sauces (chili mayo), unbalanced compositions, cheap raw ingredients, tiny portions and a lack of nutrition will leave you hungry even after indulging in all 7 dishes in a row. And that to a price tag that is insultingly high for the quality. Botanico is a one-time experience, but there are many restaurants out there that provide better food to a much more...

The interior was really chic and colourful. Great atmosphere, music volume just perfect.

The staff were attentive, could accommodate all our needs and were just great!

FRITERADE KIKÄRTOR, a nice snack to have whiles waiting. WASABIÄRTOR, nice earthy flavour with a tiny kick to it. ÅNGADE EDAMAMEBÖNOR, was nice with the chilli and soy sauce. HÄLLEFLUNDRA SASHIMI, good and tasted fresh. TONFISK TARTAR, loved the marinade of the tuna. The sweetness of the watermelon added more flavour and a different texture to the dish. BIFFTARTAR, really flavourful and a well balanced dish. BIFFTATAKI, flavourful dish, unlike the beef tartare it tasted a bit more smokey and was thinly sliced. MANGO- & PILGRIMSCEVICHE, flavourful fish and well balanced, the sweetness of the mango added to the dish. The texture was nice, firm scallops and soft mango. HUMMERSALLAD, fresh and flavourful sallad. TEMPURA VANNAMEIRÄKOR, the shrimps were soft and juicy. The portion size was good, definitely recommend. SOFT BUN FLÄSKSIDA, flavourful and tasty. SOFT BUN GRILLAD AUBERGINE, was an alright dish. Something odd is one of us getting it and it not being spicy while the other one thinking it’s really spicy. So a bit odd, except the unexpected? RISNUDLAR VANNAMEIRÄKOR, the noodles were hard and the sauce tasted like tomato sauce. Very bland and tasted sour. DUMPLING MED PORTABELLA, no flavour at all, despite it tasting like there were a lot of spices in there, was spicy and not pleasant. PASSIONSFRUKTSGLASS, a nice passion fruit ice cream. It was sweet and had a hint of sour to it.

They had a great drink selection and if what you want isn’t on the menu they can accommodate and fix it for you.

Definitely recommend to go here as a large group. You can shear a lot of...

I'm conflicted reviewing this one. The food is absolutely outstanding. We had the vegan sharing menu for two and every single dish was fantastic, although one or two were slightly on the salty side. I could have eaten any of them as a main course and been delighted. The cocktail menu was extensive and quite original, if not slightly overpriced (but then I haven't been anywhere in two years so maybe this is how much things cost now).

But what kind of restaurant has music blasting in your ears while you're eating? At the risk of sounding like old man shouting at clouds, since when was it fashionable to not be able to hear your friends talk at the table? As soon as we were seated (which itself was a chaotic experience, featuring queuing halfway up a spiral staircase, and getting to a table with one fewer places than we booked) we asked if the music could be turned down a little, as it was immediately apparent it was uncomfortably loud, only to be told it wasn't possible and "this is the concept". I'm not sure I buy this as we were sat directly under a speaker and others weren't. I know because I recall longing to be sat at their table, I could see them chatting and hearing each other. I was very jealous.

Other than that exchange the staff were incredibly helpful and quick to respond. The place seemed clean and the decor was nice enough. But the music, I can't get over it. My ears are still ringing.

Go for the food,...