The Botanist Liverpool Albert Dock — Restaurant in Liverpool

Went to the smugglers cove with my brother and a friend on 11/11/2019. Was served by a wonderful waitress named Lauren (The best waitress I've ever had).

Smugglers cove is an amazing pirate-themed bar/restaurant. It has extraordinary atmosphere and feels very warm and cosy. My friend is a vegan/vegetarian and I can guarantee this restaurant has great options for even customers with dietary requirements.

Pictures included show pics of the food, the drinks, the decor, the bar & seating areas, and the male toilets. Overall there are several areas of seating in different lighting with different ambiences. There are 2 entrances/exits and there is a male and female toilet (upstairs) and a disabled toilets (downstairs).

The starters we ordered were the crispy gnocci, pork cracklings, calamari, chicken wings, and the scotch eggs. I highly recommend the crispy gnocci (coupled with the truffle mayo), the calamari, and the scotch eggs. These starters were by far the best out the 5 and each have their own amazing flavour profile.

My friend ordered the beetroot burger (Vegan) with a side of homemade coleslaw. The burger coupled with fries was great! the flavour tasted like a normal burger off the grill (maybe more on the crisp burnt side) but it was good!. The home made coleslaw I wouldn't recommend as i feel it lacked any sort of flavour.

My brother got the crispy halloumi and I can highly recommend this option. The halloumi isn't too salty like you can usually get at other places (or christmas markets) and has a nice outerior, interior texture with flavour to match.. coupling with a great sweet chilli sauce.

I got a medium rare sirloin steak with smoked paprika butter, sage, and upgraded to salt & pepper chips. I can greatfully say i don't regret my purchase even with the upgrade of my chips. usually I don't like salt & pepper foods from other places (as they never make it as good/how I like/used to) and I can say that this place is an exception in that they make a great salt & pepper.

We ordered a ton of drinks, i recommend the solero (yes like the ice cream) for none alcoholic choices as this literally tastes like the ice cream, it's not overly sweet and has a great amount of flavour. For cocktails I recommend the mixed berry mojito (you can really taste the alcohol in this opposed to other mojito's i've tasted) or the drink that comes in a Tiki cup (forgot the name but the picture will be by the name inside the menu in the restaurant).

Desserts ordered were the bananaoffi (a caramellised banana sundae coming with 3+ scoops of icecream, popcorn pieces, and caramellised bananas). The bananas tasted like normal bananas honestly (not saying it's bad) but the portion was massive and was really nice. I personally got the Lemon Tart and I highly recommend this dessert, it was coupled with a raspberry sorbet, crushed honeycomb (I say this was EXQUISITE AND I WOULDVE LOVED MORE), the dessert is on the sour side (i love sour things) and is not overly sweet (i usually never get dessert but this place changed my mind).

Overall i think this place is worth every penny from the staff, to the customer service, to the food, to the drinks! I give this restaurant an overall 5/5 and this was the second time i went back within 3 days as I HAD to have more of their food. I would HIGHLY recommend anyone go to this restaurant and of course if you meet Lauren, say Hi from me :) (but no in all honesty she was SUCH an amazing waitress we had to give her a huge tip). Any tips given I do advise paying in cash as with tip by card, not the entire amount is given...

What a shambles, informed server I am intolerant to gluten, dairy, garlic & onion, checked menu online and asked if the hanging chicken kebab had garlic marinade on it. Server checked and said chef will make me a fresh one free from intolerances. Sat making my mind up as fancied fish and chips but server said no it has onion and garlic….. I said I doubt it and he said chef said he can do the kebab so felt obligated to go for kebab with salad and chips. Meal didn’t turn up for 1 hour, manageress came over and apologised and said next round of drinks on her. Unfortunately when food came out the result was unbelievable, mine and my friend chicken both over cooked and no knife could cut it, manageress came over and told my friend hers was dry as no garlic marinade on it, we correct her that it was mine with out marinade which is not an excuse for dry over cooked chicken. Was offered a chicken breast to replace it which I declined as the chef obviously can’t cook chicken, was told I couldn’t have anything else basically but my friend was offered steak but again was marinaded in garlic and no fresh so was left without main just some chips, even when I requested the fish and chips I was told no the chef said he can only do chicken. On payment we requested the manageress who said how can I make you feel happy leaving here, I replied feeding me as 10pm at night there will be no where for me to eat and I chose this restaurant as menu showed options. I was asked if I wanted a dessert to make up for it but they don’t do gluten or dairy free desserts, I was told the chef said all I could have was chicken due to my allergies which I corrected her and said I have intolerances not an allergy or coeliac so cross contamination isn’t an issue but wasn’t given the chance to order. The staff need training on the difference , as I was told the gluten free fish is cooked with onions apparently but then the story changed to separate fryer for coeliacs, the fish wouldn’t have been an issue for me. I was then told mine and my friends meal and one round of drinks would be removed from bill and could she take my number to offer me a gym session…….. I was going home the next day as a weekend break. I said I would have liked to be listened too as I know what I can eat and you all need educating on dietary requirements and given food and not given stupid excuses . I left frustrated and starving and paid £40 for my husband’s steak and drinks. This totally spoilt the evening and we returned...

Went around a week ago having heard good things from other people previously but was incredibly let down. I’d booked a table and we were seated no problem however the area hadn’t seemed to have been cleaned, glancing around it looked like the staff were just aiming to get people in and out as quick as possible - crumbs everywhere on seating, cutlery left on floor nearby where people had been dining and tables a mess not being wiped down or cutlery replenished after people had left.

After ordering food was relatively quick but it felt like we were being pressured to eat and get out as quick as possible. Twice while we were visibly still eating the server came and asked if he should take the plates away! Literally as I had a forkful of food in my mouth! This was within around 10 minutes of us getting the starter and the main. This was asked instead of if everything was ok with the meal which I guess in retrospect I now understand….. Food itself felt massively overpriced for what we got, starting with a sharing Camembert which arrived on a small board and no extra plates were given. A mess was made trying to eat due to this as it came in a tiny bread bowl that was so hard/solid I could have hammered a nail with it. I then followed with a chicken burger which while I will say came with a generous amount of fries on the side was the driest blandest thing I’ve ever consumed - a bare trace of the condiments described on the menu on it and a tiny slither of bacon cooked to oblivion. The server didn’t ask if I wanted any condiments for the mass of dry unseasoned fries on the side food was just plonked down and left as apparently it seemed he was too focused on getting us out the door again. My friend had a hanging kebab which he very politely described as ok at best stating the best bit for him was the fries which he had paid to upgrade so at least those had some flavour to it. At least we got the bill quickly due to the servers seeming want to just turnover the table as quick as possible. (Service is automatically included on the bill and the soft drinks are the most expensive out of any restaurant in the area which I suggest owners may want to rethink both of those points given lots of people’s recent negative experiences)

All in all extremely disappointing and I shan’t recommend it or return myself unless there are some...