The Botanist

Press Reviews (5)

• Andy Lynes (4th September 2008)
  3/5 stars
  
  One of those nice reviews where the (stand-in) critic self-summarises nicely at the end: “There's lots to enjoy about The Botanist”, including the “impressive and original” décor, the “comfortable [and] handsome chairs”, and the service which is “on the whole, very welcoming and efficient”. Even so, he’s not sure he would go back. “The food, as good as it is, doesn't quite compensate for the cramped and noisy atmosphere. If you like buzz, you'll love The Botanist but I just couldn't take it seriously.”
• Gile Coren (28th July 2008)
  Meat/fish: 5, Cooking: 5, Smiling: 7, Score: 5.67
  
  The critic devotes most of his space to another journalist’s review of another Chelsea restaurant (Jimmy’s), which he doesn’t actually visit (which, for the record, gets a B+). He doesn’t actually have that much space left to summarise his views on the Martin brothers’ new Sloane Square brasserie, but the ratings suggest he wasn’t especially impressed.
• John Walsh (1st July 2008)
  Food 2/5 stars, Ambience 4/5 stars, Service 3/5 stars
  
  This Sloane Square newcomer ‘radiates heat” and “palpitates with excitement”, says the critic. “It is the hippest place in town since Sir Hippesley Hipman opened a hip-replacement clinic, to cries of hip-hip-hooray. It is, indeed, full of Hooray Henries and Henriettas.” He comes rather to the view we did that the “actual restaurant, though it's an attractive room… seems a secondary affair [to the bar]”, and the food “when it comes, has a decidedly perfunctory feel about it”.
• Sebastian Shakespeare (5th June 2008)
  2/5 stars
  
  The critic and his wife have a disastrous meal at the Martin (‘Gun’) brothers' new Sloane Square brasserie. “We both left the restaurant feeling so angry we walked most of the way home.”
• Guy Dimond (5th June 2008)
  5/6 stars
  
  Time Out’s head man seems to have been to a totally different place from the one the Standard reviewed so poorly (and, for what it’s worth, which we ourselves reviewed as being very ordinary and overpriced). He finds it simply “terrific”. “The service is well-drilled, the place is airy and attractively understated”, he raves. “At our lunchtime visit in the second week, the dining room was already packed but the staff didn't miss a trick, and the kitchen was already on top form”. “It seems the Martins are doing a brilliant job of trading up from their pedigree of running good gastropubs to fine dining… Let's hope they're able to sow more seeds in other parts of London.”