The Botanist Exeter — Restaurant in Exeter

I’ve been to other Botanists before and had a good meal but sadly it wasn’t to be this time. We were seated at our booking time of 8.15pm and whilst the table was pleasant it was very crammed, had to squeeze in with other diners having to move their chairs to allow us to take ours. We ordered and had 2 very nice cocktails which I felt were reasonably priced. We order bang bang cauliflower and crust mushrooms as a starter. They arrived in a reasonable time but were very disappointing. In a blind tasting you would have been hard pushed to identify the filling amongst the huge amount of ‘batter’ coating both these dishes. There was little flavour, other than the taste of oil and batter. Our plates were cleared by our friendly waitress and we ordered 2 glasses of wine which arrived shortly after. Then a long wait ensued before I managed to ask a passing waitress if our food was on the way. By this point we had been there for over an hour and finished the wine we had ordered for our main course. Some confusion from the waitress followed and another, seemingly more senior waitress, attended to us to advise us that our meals were being rushed through now. So we had essentially been forgotten about. I suggested a complimentary glass of wine to accompany our meal and this was eventually provided. The main course arrived after another 10 minutes. The chicken katsu curry was pleasant and the house salad was excellent. The lamb kebab was pretty underwhelming and the fries weren’t exactly hot… or particularly tasty. But by this point we just wanted to leave as we had spent a long day travelling to get to Exeter. At this point no staff seemed to be around, after another 15 minutes or so we did eventually manage to have our table cleared and I asked for the bill. Now comes the hilarious part! The bill was received and I advised I would not be paying it in full but felt 50% was reasonable given the lack of service, poor food and being forgotten about. The waitress disappeared again and about 10 minutes later a chap came over and sat down at our table, seemingly to ‘negotiate’ about how much we were wiling to pay!!!! He turned out to be the Manager and whilst he was pleasant and friendly he blamed the issues on having new chefs and also on the fact that ‘everyone books a table for dinner between 8 and 9pm’. Fancy that!!! Wanting to book a table on a restaurant at dinner time!!! I was quite taken aback by the implication that this was somehow the customers fault! I advised what I would be paying and he left our table, rather disgruntled, and send the waitress back with the card machine so we could finally be released from this place!!! What made it extra funny is that the same chap was also doing an excellent job or negotiating bills with the 2 other tables remaining around us who had had a similar experience!!!!! One lady was actually getting quite heated in her discussions with him about just how terrible the whole experience had been!

I don’t like to berate waiting staff as I don’t believe poor service is always down to them…. It’s often down to training and working together as a team, clearly something that isn’t happening given how quickly the Manger blamed his chefs for the issue and the punters for daring to book a table at dinner time.

We were in Exeter for the weekend and ate in another few places and had pretty good service and delicious food. As is often the case, independents usually provide great service!

Would I go back to the Botanist… probably not based on...

The Botanist is my all time favourite restaurant and I used to visit the one in Marlow frequently, so I was delighted to hear there was one in Exeter, where I was moving. However, our visit to this location was more than disappointing. We were one of three other tables in the restaurant and we frequently saw staff stood around chatting so they clearly weren't busy, however we received one drink pretty quickly and the other was forgotten as we had to ask for this about 15 minutes after ordering. More people started to come in and numerous tables started receiving their food before us, despite coming and ordering quite a bit after us. We got our starters about 40 minutes later and it wasn't anything to celebrate either, the food was cold. We then waiting another 20 minutes for our main, by the time other tables who came after us were finishing up and paying their bill. Again the food was cold and just disappointing. The waitresses seemed more interested in chatting and serving tables with groups around their own age and seems to forget about others. I don't know if it's international or they just need more training. Overall it was a very disappointing experience considering this used to be my favourite place to dine out when it was at a different location. If i'm honest, even visiting the toilets was a negative experience - I was the only one in there at the time apart from a cleaner and as soon as I came out of the cubical she was stood right outside waiting for me to leave so she could go in and clean. I appreciate she has a job but why does she have to stand outside the cubical and stare at me while I walk out! We definitely will not be returning to the Exeter restaurant. I hope these comments are...

Food: I ordered the Red Thai Prawn Hanging Kebab, and my fiance ordered the Roast pork belly. Both arrived cold. The Prawns were tough where they had been sitting getting cold. The roast pork was tiny, the gravy was thick and frozen cold, and the veg was cold. Portion size and quality were terrible for the £17-£20 per main course.

Service: The waiter, Edward, dropped his keys and kicked them across the room as we entered. Does not show a high appreciation or standard for his place of work. There were two waiters and one cook who clearly struggled with the restaurant half full. Edward did act quickly when we told him about our food, but it all came back microwaved. The gravy had boiled over the small jug, the veg had wilted down to nothing, and the glazed Carrots were shrivelled down to nothing. My fiance, who is a chef, refused to eat the dish. Edward was understanding and apologised profusely. We begrudgingly paid the bill even with 25% being taken off. The 25% did not cover the untouched roast pork that we still paid for. We would have argued it, but at this point, we did not want the fuss.

Atmosphere: The lift was out of service. The restaurant was half full, with everyone sitting on one end by the windows. When Edward tried to sit us amongst all the other customers, I requested we sit further away, which he had no problem accommodating for. The restaurant felt borderline uncomfortably cold.

Overall poor experience: We went to slim chickens after, spent half the money, had a much better customer experience with the staff and was served HOT food. Avoid the Botanist, go to...