The Botanist

Good spot for a few pints and appetizers.
Mains are spotty at best.
Dinner meeting with a party of 5 and we were ALL disappointed so this is not coincidence.
Also extremely LOUD for a dinner venue.

Don’t bother, terrible service. Stood waiting for a hostess for 10 minutes. Wait staff is hurried and over worked. Not what you would expect service wise from a nice restaurant. They really need to work on their customer service.

I’ve done The Botanist for brunch and for dinner and I cannot recommend it enough for either, and both very different.
Brunch is casual elegance, it’s a really light and fun spot that feels like you could sit there and enjoy the morning turn to afternoon, really, all day. The drinks are strong, the menu is amazing and we relaxed a Sunday afternoon.
Dinner is a different story. Although the space is the same, somehow it feels completely different. Mood-​lit, chic, a perfect spot to take a date. In fact, when we were there, it was almost entirely dates sitting around us. And it’s easy to see why, the food is good, the drinks are strong, and the service is impeccable. Easily some of the best staff in the city.
It is, in no way, a cheap meal. But you will pay for quality, and quality you will have.

One of my favorite places for a classy after-​work drink near Sloane Square

The dinner menu is pretty good, however the main draw to this restaurant are the deserts that it offers. Everything I’ve tried there was rich and tastefully prepared. It’s worth coming back to especially if you have a sweet tooth.

I came here with my good friends mum and she treated me to a smoothie. I had the ‘Made in Chelsea’ one as I thought ‘when in Rome’ hahaa, it was good, downed it in one pretty much! Great view with the table we got outside, and it was a lovely day too!

In short: tasty food, pretty restaurant, attentive service… but missing the «x factor» for a 5^th star.
We were here for Sunday lunch, when the restaurant was surprisingly empty. I was initially disappointed that there was no brunch menu; it was unclear why (other reviews seem to indicate there used to be brunch available) and I think they’re missing a key market opportunity. Oh well, the rest of the menu looked tasty anyway!
And tasty it was. I had the mussels and fries while my friends both got Sunday roasts. We all kept raving about the food — it was fresh and cooked to perfection. It was nothing overly unique, but it didn’t need to be and wasn’t trying for that approach.
Likewise, the atmosphere was simple, bright and classy, and the service was attentive and gracious. Nothing about this place was trying to be trendy; it was clearly meant to be «just» a delicious meal in a nice setting.
The whole effect came across as enjoyable but a tad bit boring to this twenty-​something. It would be a great choice for lunch with mom or a business meal, but perhaps worth trying somewhere else for a lively «guess what I did last night» Sunday brunch.
Side note: Based on some other reviews, it seems like the place might be a lot livelier in the evening for drinks — I would definitely give that a try, especially if the cocktails are as good as the food was!

Lovely dining room and attentive service. The food was the highlight… mussels served in Staub cast iron were perfection, as were the crisp fries that accompanied. I plan to visit again soon to try more intriguing items from the menu.

One of the restaurants conveniently situated on Sloane Square, where my friend and I decided to have Sunday lunch as a change from his favorite, Colbert. I ordered the monkfish special and he ordered the crab linguini; they were more like dinner options but was either a lunch/​dinner menu or Sunday roast. The restaurant was half empty when we sat down at 12, but became relatively full over the next hour and a half. I think it’s more of a nice business lunch type of setting, relatively quiet and was nice with the windows open and natural sunlight, where people can relax and take their time. As for the food, the monkfish was well cooked and dressed with a few vegetables, but overall very much fine dining and I came away a bit hungry without an appetizer. The crab linguini, however, looked amazing and I would have definitely been happy with that. My friend told me that this place is also very popular for drinks, so will have to return to check that out.

The Botanist is very ‘young’ Chelsea, in the way that Colbert next door probably embraces their parents. The bright young things spill onto the pavements of Sloane Square in the summer, making this a lively and fun spot for a drink. The cocktails are also very good. The apple meringue pie martini is gloriously topped off with a mound of sweetened whipped egg white.
The décor is understated comfortable chic. I have eaten here several times, although not on this latest visit. It is an idea to book, but we usually just turn up around 8.30 or 9pm and get seated after a short wait. I must say that food is acceptably good, but not spectacular. Staff are charming, discrete, friendly, and unlike a previous reviewer mentioned, they did recognise us on a follow up visit. An easy choice when in the area, that has been worthy of return visits.

The food here is OK but I didn’t really order anything out of the ordinary. However, I went for a somewhat late lunch and some of the specials had run out.
Cocktails here are super A+ and extremely delicious. The pom collins had real pomegranate seeds and the Victoria Beckham gin cocktail I ordered was almost a piece of art as it contained a cucumber slice that wrapped around the entire inside of the glass.
Seating seems difficult and you should likely pre-​book though we hovered creepily by the bar for around 10 min and managed to scrounge up a table in the bar area.
What gets me about this place is actually the atmosphere. You’ll find plenty of the Chelsea crowd lingering about and bright young things with digital SLRs (Rag&Bone is almost next door FYI). I was also here during some runway show happening in Sloane Square so there were just lots of trendy gaunt youths milling about and Instagram portraits in the making.
It was a sunny day and between the navy, double-​breasted, gold button blazer wearing older man reading the paper to my left and the two American ladies-​who-​lunch to my right («OMG! My boyfriend went to business school with him!») who ordered virgin bloody marys (what are these? why would you have these? isn’t this just tomato juice with extra tabasco at this point???), I almost forgot that I just paid upwards of 20 quid for a salad.

Finally, I can get a proper dirty martini without someone looking at me like I have three heads or something when ordering. Needless to say the bar is good and always quite busy. On good weather days you’ll see folks gathered around the outside. The inside bar area is usually packed. The dining room is elegant and trendy with comfortable furnishings. I’ve always enjoyed the items I’ve ordered and most recently I got the cod which was as good as the presentation. (See photo) They have a nice wine selection as well and the staff is «usually good» however we’ve had a few that seemed to be unhappy to be at work.
Upon a previous visit my guest, a colleague ordered steak (medium) which arrived quite tough, over-​cooked and inedible for her. The server removed it then offered something else which she agreed however left her quite disappointed. It’s never good when your dinner guest doesn’t enjoy themselves. My colleague didn’t consume either meal however we were charged for one of them. I was surprised that our server didn’t recognize that this second meal was barely touched. As someone who worked in a restaurants years ago I understand the repercussion of an unhappy guest. She has yet to return and I hate she had a bad experience since I’d shared with her that it was a good restaurant.
On my most recent visit the meal was great and all went well aside from the fact they had run out of all features of the evening by 7:30 which my visiting friend found disappointing. He had his eye on one of the specials but settled on anther item and the starter feature which was the only available item on their list of the day. I asked the server how they had run out of the features so early in the evening. Her response was «You know we have a lunch too and it was quite busy today» — yeah, I let that go however she may not have intended that to sound rude but it did and my guests thought so too. Clearly we know now that if a special is good one must go for lunch to try it.
If The Botanist were a bit friendlier and recognized repeat customers it’d be nice. I’ve introduced four others to this place and dined there six times in the last six months and apparently their computers do not track repeat customers which is unfortunate. Other places where I’ve dined the same amount or less seems to recognize customers which is always appreciated. So this American Southerner in London has found a fabulous dirty martini and a good meal at The Botanist but says y’all could use some minor improvements on hospitaltiy.

The Botonist on Sloane Square enjoys a double life: posh Brasserie by day; swanky bar by night.
By day, it’s a Brasserie serving brunch, a variety of mains and afternoon tea. I found the service to be pretty decent: quick, attentive, polite. The food was also good too, with the roast beef I enjoyed falling second only to Hawksmoor’s outstanding effort.
By night, it’s a swanky bar where the moneyed Chelsea set congregate: the guys in suits and blazers; the women in glamorous dresses. The drinks menu and prices are reasonable: despite its prime location, there are plenty of more expensive bars to be found down Kings Road.
Overall, it’s a pretty solid bet whenever you happen to swing by.

This place is always crowded, so if you’re coming for a meal — book a table. If you’re coming for a drink in the evening, plan on standing.
The place is cosy (no, not small) and has a homey feel about it. The brunch was tasty, which I organised for my group & I actually like the look of the restaurant. The service is fine in here and prices are comparable to other places in Sloane Square.
I’d recommend the scrummy brunch for sure. Tasty sandwiches and scones with a wide selection of fresh cakes and pastries.

Such a spendy area deserves a nice place this eat for eats and drinks.
You might even see a celebrity, not too big a one, mind you, but a face from the telly or films, perhaps.
What you’ll also find is a clever spin on the Bloody Mary, and get the beefy one, you must, it’s better the second time and just quite tasty.
Sleek, stylish, trendy– and the setting is too. Not just the clientel.
Enjoy!

Best having a cocktail in the evening — before or after theatre. Nice in summer standing outside at the walkway and the cocktails are awesome!
(tip: sloane cooler for all who love gin-​cocktails!)

Typisches Londoner Bistro/​Café/​Restaurant. Guter Boxenstopp nach einem Shoppingtrip rund um Sloane Square. es gibt Plätze an der bar, im Restaurant und an niedrigen Kaffeetischchen mit Hockern. Im Sommer auch draussen.

Awful service– took 1 hour for us to get an incomplete round of cocktails. Food was just mediocre, similar to American fast food. Overall disappointing.