The Botanist Cardiff Bay — Restaurant in Butetown

I popped in here with a friend for a pint last week. The place looked great and the service was fab giving an all round positive experience (5 stars given from this visit). Today I was walking past with the family (2 adults 2 small children) so encouraged them in to chance a walk in table for food. I wasn’t overly optimistic as it is a bank holiday but thought let’s give it a try. We climbed the stairs and was greeted by a friendly gentleman who advised he would be right back. A few moments later the gentleman was discussing our table options with us when a female colleague walked over (appeared to be more senior), she didn’t acknowledge us but spoke to the gentleman seating us advising him no walk ins until 15:00. It was 14:45 so we thought no bother. Having two small children we didn’t fancy the steps again so attempted to sit on one of the many vacant tables upstairs by the staff booth. The lady once again told the server they can’t sit there and asked him to tell us to go downstairs (Something I sensed he didn’t feel totally comfortable with). Slightly annoyed this lady hadn’t acknowledged us but was clearly calling the shots I walked toward her politely pointing out it was only 12 minutes until 15:00 (Hoping to appeal to her better nature). In a rather unfriendly abrupt tone she informed me “I have a 30 minute wait on food anyway”. No further discussion was to be had, she shut the conversation down. I’m not a difficult person, further dialogue with a polite explanation would have sufficed and I would have left as happy as I entered. It’s a shame as one poor interaction with a senior member of staff has completely changed my impression of the place. I appreciate people are busy and understand she has a demanding job but as an ambassador of the establishment I expected better communication especially if she is a more senior...

Unfortunately we didn’t even get to eat here as the whole set up was a farce! We arrived for a lovely birthday meal, sat in a beautiful light airy table overlooking the bay and that was the highlight; despite there being a lot of staff it took ages for anyone to come over to take our drinks order. That was only the start of the issues, there was already a smaller normal menu alongside the Sunday lunch menu but being a warm day we didn’t really want a cooked dinner, we preceded to order our food only to be told there was no cous cous, the next person ordered, no lamb kofta kebabs or prawn kebabs, then no bang bang noodle salad, and then after we’d all thought we’d managed to order something, no sweet potato katsu. At this point when no one was actually able to have what they wanted we decided to leave. No one seemed particularly bothered that they couldn’t serve us anything from the menu, didn’t pre-warn us before we ordered and weren’t particularly apologetic, the excuse being that they were changing the menu the next day, I could understand that with some of the items but the hanging kebabs are what the Botanist is known for, so I can’t imagine there would be a menu change involving those and their side dishes. I was so disappointed, I’ve always had lovely meals in other Botanist restaurants and was embarrassed to have raved about it to my friends and then for their first visits to have been...

STAY AWAY. Actually gutted. I booked a drinks table for 12 people to celebrate my birthday. First of all the place was loud. I understand the concept of live music but it was incredibly loud, you couldn't hold a conversation with anyone. Second of all, I was given 2 split tables for 12 people? Sorry how silly is that? You really couldn't give me a 1 table so we could all sit together and try to have a conversation even though we couldn't anyways because of the loud music. Thirdly, I had called in advance and was comfirmed by whoever answered the phone that we could order small plates even though we had a drinks table, to only be told at the bar we couldn't because it was busy. Luckily, after "arguing" my point with the worker we were allowed order. 4th and last point. I brought a cake with candles and a topper. You would EXPECT the restaurant to be able to bring the cake to you. Nope. They said we had to do it ourselves so my partner and I had to go somewhere at the back and get the cake ready for me to go back to the 2 tables and him bringing the cake to us. We have never experienced this. Actually so bad. I am very tempted to bring this to social media as I have a following. None of my guests were impressed and none of us wish to come back. I really wish I didn't WASTE my money here. The Botanist in cardiff central is way better. This was everybody's first and...