The Botany Bay Inne — Restaurant in England

Tried the Botany Bay for the first time.

We had baked brie, white bait and mushrooms for starters and burger and chips for main. Presentation of all the food was good, colourful and appealing to the eye. Service from the staff faultless. The only thing that got annoying was the ding dong of door bells. Not sure what it was all about, but it's quite loud.

Baked Brie - There was no crackers/bread with the baked brie and chutney. it's hot and runny, so having something to scoop it onto other than a lettuce leaf or piece of apricot from the chutney would have been nice. Needs toast/cracker/roll

White bait - literally no flesh, just literally skin and bones. I've literally given bigger fish treats to my cat from a packet that were fleshly and bigger! As well as putting fatter sand eels as live bait when fishing! Tiny portion for the price, quite disappointing out of all of the starters.

Mushrooms - Were OK but nothing to write home about.

For mains, we all choose beef burger and chips If you like salty food this is for you!

Pre salted skinny, skins on fries which were warm and hard getting crunchier as they cooled. Beef pattie nice, firm not mushy, again salty. 3 tiny cocktail gerkins, bacon (not mentioned on the description) added to the salty taste as did the cheese. Coleslaw and salsa.. salsa was sweet not smoky to the taste, and the apple and celeriac slaw, not even a fork fill to get a taste.

Would rather have the choice to add salt than have it added for us. Good job one of us tasted the food first.

Chef/kitchen staff came out and was very grumpy to the bar staff. Not really the place to be grumpy front house. At least take them to one side and have a quiet word. Was surprised to see kitchen staff front of house.

We didn't complain about the salt as it looked and sounded like the kitchen staff was already having a tough day without us adding to it!

The 3 of us will try it again, as the Sunday Roast was...

Revamp has done this place wonders.

Came in here with my old man who I don’t get to spend a lot of time with anymore as life gets in the way so when somewhere allows you to have a decent time it really shows.

All bar staff are clearly trained, very polite, even had a young girl in training who was very confident which is great to see as someone who’s been in the industry for a few years now, as it was hard to get my footing and needs younger people who are trained properly and passionate.

Roast services can be a nightmare for staff but everyone was calm and collective, food came out quick and they even dealt with my father’s awful humour.

Roasts were beautifully cooked, great portion sizes, everything seasoned properly and accordingly. I find a lot of places tend pre-slice their meats before service and then over-do it when reheating them and they can dry out but didn’t seem to be the case here. Personally had the steak but the pork was where it was at, melt in your mouth with good cracking, all reasonably priced as well; I’ve paid a lot more for a lot worse.

I’ve been sober for 6 months and going out can be difficult sometimes around alcohol but they had a lovely 0.5% on draft which even my Dad enjoyed and managed to stave him off a regular pint. Really think more places should take the risk with no/lo alc stuff on draught as it’s much better.

Definitely will be...

Went to the Botany Bay today, with friends, for a Sunday carvery. Arrived to find the table for 6 I'd booked was a table for 5. They brought extra cutlery but it still meant 3 of us sharing a bench seat designed for 2. Bright sunshine meant the bench seat occupants had it straight in their eyes, and apparently the window blinds are only cosmetic, they can't be lowered at all. Ordered a white wine and soda in a tall glass topped up, and got a regular one in a small glass. Asked if we had to pre-order the nut roast and was told no. When the waitress took our order and we said nut roast, we were told there would be a wait and they'd let us know when it was ready. A different waitress then turned up to ask how the food was before we had started eating, indeed 2 of the party were still in the queue for the carvery. Finally, after the meal we ordered coffees and I asked for a latte. It took ages, and it eventually arrived with a regular spoon which was too short to stir with. I asked for a longer one and was given a dessert spoon which was too wide to reach the bottom of a latte cup. Really?..... Also one of the white coffees we ordered turned up as a black one so we had to ask for some milk. Having said all this, the food was excellent, and a little more thought would have meant 5 stars...