The Botanist Sheffield — Restaurant in Sheffield

I would give it one star had it not been for the polite and apologetic staff.

So what happened.

I booked via the website for a 7-8.30 slot. I had plans for a film afterwards starting at 8.30.

I admit I was 15 mins late, but I was ok with that as it was within both mine and the Botanists accepted window for tardiness.

Anyway, my initial thoughts were it was a unique venue, albeit basic in its décor and possibly a little tired. But hey ho, it was a new place to try. It wasn't busy at all (as I had anticipated), so we should be served quickly, or so I thought.

Sadly I didn't check the online menu before booking so I was a bit let down by how basic the menu was. But I ordered a steak after discussing with the waiter that I wanted it rare. I ordered a starter of crispy mushrooms. My wife had some pasta salad.

Scroll on 20 mins and the starter arrived. They weren't joking about it being crispy! I would have said tough, but it tasted ok so I let it slide.

When the starter plates were collected the waiter said "I will tell the kitchen to start your mains" which took me a back a bit as I would have hoped they would have started them already. Again I let it slide, it was only steak and veg for me and pasta for my wife, so 15-20 mins tops.

After what approached and hour I was fed up waiting. I went to find some Staff so they could chase up the kitchen. No one was around. No one greeting people nor anyone behind the bar. I went hunting again, even peering around the corner of the bar in the hope someone was hiding in the back. No one. Third time I found a young lady who I assumed was the hostess. I explained the situation and I said that I was getting annoyed and that this wasn't a good first impression. She was apologetic and went to find out what was happening. Magically the food turned up at the same time she returned to update me. I told her unless she had a time machine there was no way I could get to the film on time and that this steak ought to be the best steak I ever tasted (half joking as I was happy at least the food had turned up).

The steak looked disappointing sitting on the plate, as did the veg , which was disappointingly small. Certainly not worth the £35+ I was due to be charged.

Bearing in mind I asked for it rare, when I cut into it I found it was fully cooked. I called her over, told her I had had enough and wasn't going to eat it and could I get the bill. To her credit she offered to waive the bill, but for me it was too little too late. She even offered to remake it and waive the bill after I told her we were Leaving. I had had enough, it had spoilt an evening out (my first in almost a year).

I never have anyone remake food. I worked in a restaurant in my youth and I know what chefs are capable of when people complain about food and return it (not that I am saying theirs would, just that I have seen revenge cooking enough times in real life and on TV not to take the risk).

She explained there was an event on downstairs and the kitchen was busy. If they had told me that at the beginning I would have been clearer about my need to be away for 8.30. But the area we were in was dead quiet and I know how long a restaurant takes to make steak, especially when it is not busy. And it isn't an hour.

We left after explaining to the lady it wasn't personal and I wasn't mad at her, and thanked her for waiving the bill.

Anyway. Long story short. I won't be going back. It was disappointing on so many levels, it was a cascading set of problems and I don't blame the staff per say.

I still needed food, we would miss the bulk film even if we went for a McDonald's, so my wife and I walked to Ego's next to the winter gardens (which was absolutely rammed!!) And asked if there was anyway to fit us in.

They were happy to help.

Even longer story short. I got my steak, done rare, as I asked for, in just 15 mins from arriving, and even better, I had finished my dessert and coffee and paid the bill, with a nice tip for the waitress, in a little over 45 mins from walking...

Overall thoughts - really disappointing, honestly.

A group of 8 adults and 2 children (were eating) advised to chose from the set menu. Food was ordered in advance and the table booked in advance. Set menu was 32.50 per adult (drink, starter, main and desert) and 7.00 per child (main and desert).

On arrival we were seated into a corner, with very little room if sat against the back wall. We had someone elderly with us and found the space very restricting as there were some weird ornamental poles dotted around, some again obstructing the ability to sit comfortably with enough room for the servers to serve and clear the table easily. Whilst I'm on the topic of comfort, the chairs are utterly rubbish. They look the part but they certainly don't feel the part.

So, the set menu. Very restrictive for a veggie and even more so for a vegan, but there is no way to order off the regular menu if you're in a group. So... here we go 4 courses, of which 1 is a drink. As a vegetarian it is just not worth it. Let's tot this up then, main meals for a vegetarian off the regular menu are around 12, deserts 6, starters 6 - so that 24. So the drink.. even the non alcohol option is 8.50 to make it up to 32.50? Seriously... very disappointed and the food was not worth the money at all.

Humous was flavourful but you got 3 sticks of overly greasy garlic "bread" with it. Am I supose to drink the humous?

Kebab Halloumi was greasy again and the Halloumi was over cooked had totally lost its "bounce" and "squeak". Pepper were sweet and tasty but its fairly difficult to get cooking peppers wrong.

Desert, the sorbet was delicious but the cheesecake was bland sadly, very little flavour. Seems as though more effort had gone into blowtorching the top than actually making the cheesecake itself.

The service was long... almost 3 hours... Table booked for and arrived to eat at 17.15. Drink arrived 17.30 (these were prebooked remember) Starter arrived 18.00. Mains food arrived 18:40. Dessert arrived 19.40.

The servers were polite enough but even they didn't clear up all the main dishes before desert was served, so sat there with hanging kebab skewers during desert.

Kids food was honestly boring, orderd Gnocchi and it was in a tiny bowl (plenty of it) but no veg, it was plain and it was over cooked, we cook Gnocchi a lot at home and usually it would be enjoyed but not this time sadly.

Chips were over seasoned, far too much salt - there should be an option to add salt if you want but most of the table even agreed with me about the saltiness of the chips.

Final thoughts - food below average, service was average, decoration looked good but was extremely uncomfortable. High chairs were not suitable for under 1 year old. Would never go back, feels like it's a one time...

To be honest our experience was very poor. We enjoyed our starters but the mains were really disappointing (apart from the vegan burger one of our party of 4 had). The lack-lustre hanging kebab with macdonalds style skinny fries and the cold noodle salad were particularly drab as dishes go. We weren't sure what the point of the large tasteless crackers (like eating chewy polystyrene) was with the noodle dish except to make it look bigger, cold noodles with a couple of veg and abhorrently salty vegan "chicken" nuggets was not a hit with the birthday guest! The kebabs would do better with a flavoursome rice and maybe some sweet chilli sauce or anything to pep it up from being just a few dry chicken cubes, pepper and mushroom on a side-plate, it was the most basic food offering ever (but not at a basic price). I had to get help from staff with finding a GF and nut free dish as, according to the scan-the-code allergens menu, I could only have a starter, side or dessert (and I had to ditch my avoidance of soy or there would have been nothing available since I was told soy was literally "everywhere" in the kitchen). I still feel like I didn't have a great reaction to the food and the failure of the allergen menu did not instil confidence! Most chain restaurants such as Pizza Express have got this off pat now, it's time you did likewise.

We also asked for a special but quieter table as it was a birthday celebration...however, our table was in the dark due to 3 lightbulbs being blown in the spotlights above (we were moved from one dark table to another equally dark one as these were the only ones available even though I booked weeks in advance). Even where we were sat in the dark, we found the boom-box kiddy pop music utterly abhorrent, it forced everyone to shout talk and was not appropriate for the demographic eating there at all (mostly mature groups and families), it felt like eating in a nightclub and there was no sound buffering in the high ceiling room, so very stressful and not in the least relaxing, as vehemently agreed by the two young people with us, and we couldn't wait to leave. All in all a bit of a shame as we had all been meaning to try the botanist for ages and this was a special visit fora birthday celebration, only wish we had picked a...