I love the Botanist. It’s a chain, but if anyone is after delicious cocktail recommendations in York, I always point them towards the Botanist.
I had the blackberry and rosemary fizz, which had fresh blackberries, rosemary, sugar syrup, lemon and apple juice shaken with Tanqueray gin and sloe gin, topped with soda. It’s one of my go-to drinks at the Botanist because I love it so much. Sweet without being too sweet and just a little bit of tartness. Sam had a beer. It came as a bit of a surprise to him later on that his beer was 8.2%.
For the starter I had the tempura fried tenderstem broccoli and kale manchurian with sweet and sour sesame dipping sauce. Which was delicious. The kale in tempura was a revelation. I’ve made kale chips before but this brought the crunchiness to a whole new level. The tempura tenderstem broccoli was equally delicious. Sam had the Cumberland scotch egg with piccalilli. He said the scotch egg was perfectly cooked and beautifully seasoned and the yolk was still nice and runny whilst the outside had a nice crunch.
For the mains, I had the houmous, roast sweet potato, and sun-dried tomato activated charcoal flatbread with charred baby gem with a side of salt and pepper fries. My flatbread was delicious. I was slightly afraid that all of those flavours wouldn’t work well together but they really did. I’d definitely order it again. Though I wish I had gone with an order of the properly seasoned chips instead of the salt and pepper fries. The salt and pepper sauce was a sticky sauce (which I wasn’t expecting) akin to a sweet chilli sauce. I like my fries to be super crunchy and whilst they were cooked with the perfect amount of crunch, the sauce made them a bit mushy for my liking. So I had chip envy because Sam’s perfectly seasoned chips, were, in fact, perfect. Sam had the pan-fried sea bass fillet with roast sweet potato quinoa, tenderstem broccoli and dressed with citrus and pomegranate dressing and a side of properly seasoned chips. Sam said his sea bass was very moist with nice crispy skin, but he said that most importantly there was loads of it. (I married a man with refined tastes.)
And then for dessert we split the banana donuts with caramel dipping sauce and peanut milkshake. The dessert was so rich and fantastic. We made the right decision because even though I easily could have eaten in all on my own, it was so rich that it was more enjoyable in a smaller portion. It was also the Botanist’s vegan dessert and I have to give them HUGE props for it. A lot of the time restaurants slap a granata or a bit of fruit on the menu and call it the vegan dessert but the Botanist has taken the time to come up with something interesting and incredibly tasty for the vegan dessert option. I’d order it again and again.
Once again, the Botanist was a delight to dine out at, and I was throroughly impressed by their spring menu.
The Botanist York is located at 15-19 Stonegate, York YO1 8ZW
Have you ever been to any of the Botanist locations before?
****I was a guest of The Botanist, but all opinions are forever my own.****
