-The Botanist-
Review:
Situated in the prime location of Stonegate, The Botanist arrived in late 2016 taking over the old Mulberry Hall shop to create an elaborately designed botanical themed bar and restaurant within the beautiful old building. It flows throughout in an organic blend of floral clutter, worn wood and faded signwriting. Oozing charisma and character and really settling into the old beams and low ceilings of the historical property. It does looks the business despite being part of a chain. Downstairs is the main bar area with a few window seats to either side of the entrance and stools at the bar. Upstairs is just as impressive, especially the Tool Shed room, but this area is exclusively for dining and private parties. The toilets are situated up there too and of course were just as smart as the rest of the décor. Unfortunately the real ale selection was more style over substance with very vague unbranded keg pumps and minimal information displayed on little chalkboards. As you might expect it was overpriced for beer and was pretty poorly kept too, quite a disappointment for such an expensive pint. But on the flip side if you love your cocktails then they’ve a wealth of inventive and complex botanical themed drinks on offer which looked very impressive, just a shame that beer was overlooked as this really knocked our final score down. Access to the ground floor is pretty good and we can imagine that it would be reasonably family friendly if you were dining. They do have frequent live acoustic music to keep you entertained as well which was very nice in the low lit ambience of the bar. All in all The Botanist is a nice addition as a restaurant and cocktail type venue, its worth visiting for the impressive interior alone, but maybe it’s more suited to date night with the missus than what we’d usually look for in a bar.
Situated in the prime location of Stonegate, The Botanist arrived in late 2016 taking over the old Mulberry Hall shop to create an elaborately designed botanical themed bar and restaurant within the beautiful old building. It flows throughout in an organic blend of floral clutter, worn wood and faded signwriting. Oozing charisma and character and really settling into the old beams and low ceilings of the historical property. It does looks the business despite being part of a chain. Downstairs is the main bar area with a few window seats to either side of the entrance and stools at the bar. Upstairs is just as impressive, especially the Tool Shed room, but this area is exclusively for dining and private parties. The toilets are situated up there too and of course were just as smart as the rest of the décor. Unfortunately the real ale selection was more style over substance with very vague unbranded keg pumps and minimal information displayed on little chalkboards. As you might expect it was overpriced for beer and was pretty poorly kept too, quite a disappointment for such an expensive pint. But on the flip side if you love your cocktails then they’ve a wealth of inventive and complex botanical themed drinks on offer which looked very impressive, just a shame that beer was overlooked as this really knocked our final score down. Access to the ground floor is pretty good and we can imagine that it would be reasonably family friendly if you were dining. They do have frequent live acoustic music to keep you entertained as well which was very nice in the low lit ambience of the bar. All in all The Botanist is a nice addition as a restaurant and cocktail type venue, its worth visiting for the impressive interior alone, but maybe it’s more suited to date night with the missus than what we’d usually look for in a bar.