The Botanist — Restaurant in Bakersfield

The food was okay, not really my cup of tea honestly. The atmosphere is nice, it’s on the classy side and I enjoyed looking at the art and live music they had, even if it was quite loud. But I won’t be going back here for the service. My friend and I had gone and originally we planned to only be there for an hour or two. Things happen, and so we were stuck there for at least another two hours. We intended to stay in the same spot, but one of the waitresses seemed to notice we weren’t going anywhere. She mentioned that they were going to need those seats for a reservation. She seemed to almost wait for us to say we were gonna leave, however we had no one available to pick us up at that time. Seeing us hesitate she offered to move us elsewhere, but one can tell when people don’t want you there anymore. After we sat down, she came up again and asked if we were waiting for someone or if we wanted to open our tab again. The air was tense for a moment, and to not make us awkward for ourselves my friend was practically forced to buy another drink. Another hour passes and our ride arrived but wanted to stay to eat themselves and went outside. My friend and I could tell they didn’t bother to ask us anything and basically did their best to ignore us. I asked the same waitress if we could go outside and she went to check and said yes, I stood for a moment seeing if she would guide us as the restaurant was filling up and so I didn’t know if we had to sit somewhere specifically, she gave me a weird look and said I could go ahead. While the drink and food was okay, the service was extremely awkward for me and I was hoping my one time out in half a year would have been more joyful and less judgmental. I know they loose nothing without my patronage, but it would have been nice to leave with a...

Visiting from San Diego, I was invited to join 3 of my Bakersfield foodie friends for dinner at The Botanist. This was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had, and it had little to do with the food and drinks but everything to do with the service and management. Three of us arrived at 6pm with only a few tables occupied, but it took 10 minutes to place our drink order. Our fourth friend arrived at 6:15. The drinks, 2 glasses of Pinot and a soda water, not exactly taxing orders, arrived at 6:20. We immediately put in the order for the 4th drink. As we waited for another 20 minutes for that final drink to arrive. we saw The Botanist owner walking around chatting but not taking drinks to tables or bringing out food. As we continued to wait, we saw him sitting at the bar with his own drink chatting up the bartenders and even exchanging photos with them from their phones. Our final drink arrived after only we called the owner over from the bar to let him know that we’d been now waiting over 30 min for our drink order to be complete and when it was suggested the final cocktail should be comped said, “I’ll try my best”. The Sapphire martini arrived shortly after and it was delicious. The house chips and olives a nice compliment to the martini and wine. The Smash Burger, Chicken Sandwich, and Botanist Salad all yummy, but the unprofessional attitude from the owner left a very bad taste in our mouths. We collectively agreed to tip fairly (no comp was offered) since this terrible service experience was clearly a reflection of the owner who is definitely not “trying his best”. If you do try The Botanist, go on the owners night off and give yourself plenty of...

Food was great! We had the mezze plate which was a hummus appetizer plate with veggies. Our drinks tasted amazing! We had an old fashion and a couple other fruity cocktails that were more sweet than alcohol forward. For service: The hostess was so friendly, the manager was very kind, however….the bartender left me w no drink for so long meaning no water or cocktail after my first! When the hostess tried seating us we were the only other couple at the bar. The bartender was very friendly and tentative to the other couple but did not seem to want to walk down the bar to us. I had no water and no cocktail for so long! Originally the hostess tried seating us in the middle of the bar and the bartender told her no and suggested she seat us further down towards the end so she could “clean the bar” but I never saw her clean it. The bartender service made me feel like she maybe thought I was someone else. I’m from out of town and don’t know her. Her service made us decide to go have dinner somewhere else. It was New Year’s Day and we just wanted to have a nice date night dinner but she made the vibe feel as though we were not welcomed to her service. The bartender really was the only disappointment. The restaurant ambiance was really nice, we loved it. Prob would have had a great experience had we sat at a table instead of the bar that day. There is also...