The Botanist - Cheltenham

We visited for Sunday lunch which was £19.95. Opted for lamb. Obviously frozen precooked as same cut of lamb came out on both orders. Yorkshire’s cold and burnt. Frozen veg barely warm, only hot thing was frozen roasties. We called the waiter over about the Yorkshire’s as they were inedible. Manager came over. I explained only hit item was potatoes. Waiter returned with hotter veg, still hard and poorly cooked, and hot Yorkshire’s. The manager kindly took money off the bill but I was looking forward to a good roast dinner. Sadly we could not return again and would advice others reading this to give it a miss for a roast dinner. Can’t comment on other dishes. Shame because service was great. Manager/s need to address what is happening in kitchen! Poor quality food can be cooked well!

Visited Sunday after playing crazy golf nearby. We opted for here as we had read the menu outside looked like it had a wide variety of dishes. Inside was pretty Empty with staff not really seeming to know what they were doing. Ordered two drinks two beef roast dinners which were priced at 19.95 per roast. What came out wouldnt feed a child. 3tiny slices of meat which were cold. Undercooked frozen roast potatoes a burnt Yorkshire. Whilst eating I had to ask where our drinks were which we were told they were on there Way. They never came... I had to ask again as we were getting up to pay the bill the drinks came. We turned them down as we wanted them before our meal. Was left hungry underwhelmed when you can get a hearty pub roast for under that price

Excited to visit Cheltenham with friends and the Botanist seemed a good option as we have been to the ones in Cardiff and Marlow and have had great food and service. What went well: The decor was nice and some of the team gave great service. They were flexible in moving the time of our table back a bit as we were running late. We later realised that the moving of the table time was fine as the restaurant was about 80% empty, odd as a Sunday in the run up to Christmas. What wasn’t so good: The service was slow and when the food arrived it was fairly cold. The shared pot of veg for the Sunday roast was small and lots of us left hungry. The waitress tried to guess about gluten free options and we had to ask her to check with the manager so not the leave one of the guests in discomfort. The children’s meal was served in a trowel which was impractical for a young diner and the children were served after the adults. No one came to see how the meal was and the Yorkshire pudding that was removed from the gluten free roast and was to be served separately never appeared. Such a shame as other Botanists we have been to were far better. Some simple training for the waiting staff would be beneficial.

We had a large booking of 22 people, we were asked to preorder our meals. The meals took in excess of 45 minutes to arrive and then I had to wait another 20 for my kebab, meaning I waited over an hour for my meal. After this, we had to wait another 45 mins for the desserts, to be told that the pornstar cookie dough many of us had ordered was unavailable. We were disappointed, as the preorder was not able to be met. I received a 10% discount on my bill which I was thankful for, but will not be returning on a Saturday night. I certainly wouldn’t recommend booking a large table here they can’t cope.

Disappointed sadly. Booked a table at lunchtime on a Sunday. We arrived and it was 80% empty only 9 tables occupied. No atmosphere at all. The staff were very pleasant and helpful but there was so many of them compared to customers. A lot of menu items weren’t available. The dishes we ultimately ordered were okay but it just wasn’t the experience we were expecting. We didn’t bother staying for another drink after lunch, we went elsewhere. Would I re visit? Probably not.