The Botanist Cheltenham — Restaurant in Cheltenham

What an amazing restaurant & bar!! Perfect for a lunchtime/evening meal, a great night out or both. There's something very special about this place, it really drew me in, it's inclusive for everyone & it's big yet cosy all at the same time. As a 'lone' female diner I felt totally at ease & very comfortable. The atmosphere was so warm & I received such a lovely welcome from the host Elysia. The menu is brilliant & has something for everyone; meat & fish eaters, people with allergies i.e Dairy & nuts etc & vegetarians & vegans are extremely well cared for too. There's a pdf file that lists the ingredients of everything, really useful for anyone that wants to take a look before they order or anyone that wants to plan ahead. You can download the file using the QR code on the menus & there's also one available on the website. The vegan options I chose from the deli menu were amazing & the vegan apple & Cherry crumble & icecream I had for dessert was out of this World!! Congratulations to the chefs for the truly outstanding food!! Andrew, the assistant manager was really attentive to me & all of the other diners where I was seated. He was helpful & personable & answered all of the questions I had about the vegan options on the menu. The bar men, the waiters & waitresses were all superb & literally nothing was too much trouble. The whole restaurant is beautifully decorated & dressed & it was immaculately clean. There were even nappies and wet wipes provided in the bathroom for Mums with young children which, for me, showed the depth of the attention to detail in providing a first class customer experience. There was some light music entertainment which was really good & just right for a Sunday lunchtime / afternoon meal. The drinks menus are fantastic & once again offered something for everyone, whether it was a non alcoholic cocktail, a Unicorn Hot Chocolate, a Black Forest Mojito, a pint of ale/lager/cider, a bottle of wine or a simple latte or a cup of tea. There's even an Ale Inventory, it was fascinating to see what was on offer in there! I really appreciated the fact that decaffeinated tea & coffee with soya milk & unrefined sugar were on offer too. Water is 'freely' available & I noticed that the option of free water was offered to all of the diners in my seating area. The restaurant caters for people with disabilities, I could see that wheelchairs were easy to manoeuvre around the bar & restaurant area's. There is an NCP car park right opposite so parking was easy. The Botanist is extremely well located in the Brewery Quarter in Cheltenham, the Brewery Quarter itself also offers a cinema, shops & lots of other things to do & see. I spoke to Mark, the General Manager after my meal, he was so down to earth & delighted with the fact that I had such an enjoyable experience. I noticed that The Botanist support a Charity called Winston's Wish (an inspiring & incredible charity) & there were also Rememberance Poppies available. This restaurant & Bar seem to have thought of everything & I will be going back regularly. Honestly I could write an essay on all of the things that impressed me about this restaurant, it's no surprise that they have the highest hygiene rating available & have been voted as one of The Times top 100 companies to work for!! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND a visit to this truly...

I don’t like to write bad reviews but I was so frustrated by our experience. We were walk ins after checking the menu outside which had GF by lots of choices- note to self- if it seems too good to be true, it usually is! The first thing I queried going in was could they cater to Coeliac (no gluten and must be cooked prepped separately etc). Was told no problems, seated etc. Was given no allergy menu so Mr went with the GF options on the menu (burger)- went to order and the waitress says have you checked with the QR code (which turned out to be 1inch on the back of the menu no one pointed out). We said no but Mr wanted the burger, she said I am sure that will be fine, I think the bun is potato anyway (?!). She went to the kitchen who confirmed it wasn’t GF and when Mr pointed the menu said GF we were told oh that means the bacon and cheese in it ?!? 🤣) So he said it’s fine, il have it without the bun. Waitress goes back to the kitchen who said they have a policy to make no changes to meals. Mr goes to chose something else and says il have the Schnitzel (also marked GF which seemed odd). When I finally manage to access the allergy menu through the QR code I point out Schnitzel isn’t on there and in fact what is on there was limited to I think 2 main meal items. The waitress goes and gets her manager who comes over and confirms that it really is only those very limited options. I advised I felt that the menu was very misleading with GF all over it when it’s actually referring to things in meals (such as bacon and cheese?!) but not the meal itself .. She advised the GF tags had been taken off the menus but for some reason she didn’t know, they had been put back on the current menus. Both ladies very polite and it’s not their fault but this is false advertising in my mind. It then comes to the food coming to the table- which is brought together with the dishes next to each other. I had ordered food with gluten and the allergy flag was stuck in one of my dishes. I raised this and was told oh it’s just to note there’s an allergy in this order- I find that very odd the fact they have stuck the allergy flag in something that had the allergen in… The food itself was also very disappointing and we left most of it. The best way to describe it is a false taste - the pork belly was little shards of pork that was like cardboard to eat drowned in a sauce that was so sweet it had no flavour. The Korean chicken was the same, a sauce which just tasted of sugar no other flavour. My husband was already over it after the faff with the menu and we opted to just pay and leave rather than make a fuss. I didn’t feel my earlier comments went down well (I was polite and highlighted I knew it wasn’t the staffs fault) and I found their whole approach to allergies poor. Staff friendly and drinks were very nice, but be warned if any one in your party...

Having booked the theatre in Cheltenham I decided to book a dinner table at the Botanist, a safe bet I thought, arrived 30 minutes early but was made very welcome by a member of staff from behind the bar and shown to a table. A lovely young lady came with menus and asked if we would like any drinks, we ordered a bottle of Shiraz. Moments later she arrived back to tell us that there was no Shiraz, so we chose an alternative. She was very apologetic, chatted very nicely and explained that she was a trainee, very nice and helpful young lady. Our second choice bottle arrived and an order was taken for a lamb, and a beef dinner. They arrived nicely presented well within 5 minutes, were both tasty, but 40% of the beef was loose fat making the dish feel a little short of edible quantity, some of the lamb a little tough too. All acceptable, although far from amazing! Then the desert order to the third waiter dealing with us, he having asked about our dinner experience in a way which was obviously a text book request, not one of genuine concern, no comment of reaction appeared to be made in response. We ordered one caramel and one chocolate cookie doh, a spoon was place in front of each of us. 30 plus minutes later the chocolate one arrived, we asked about the second and got very vague response. About 15 to 20 minutes later the second arrived, by which time my partner had long finished hers. A muffled explanation of only one was ordered, despite the separated spoons being placed by the waiter who took the order at the time. Both deserts were very tasty and enjoyed at there separate sittings! Because I felt that we had not had a suitable explanation or apology I asked to see the duty Manager, who after a walk to the kitchen and a chat to a staff member came over to see why I had made the request to speak to him, introducing himself as Harry. He came across very well, but still didn't really give the explanation we hoped for, but was keen to tell us that the night before had been exceptionally busy. He almost immediately halved to the bill price, which was very welcome, and I pointed out the poor strategy of 4 different waiters serving the same table in a very quiet, that day, establishment as not being good for customer relations or continuity of service, and that had we not arrived early we would have been late for our theatre. I also pointed out that I am not a person who enjoys complaining, quite the reverse, I have empathy for such business establishment and their employees, but this had just been exceptionally poor. I thanked Harry for his financial response, paid the bill, but we both left feeling rather sad in that the experience was far from our...