No Gluten but all the Flavour at The Botanist, Chester* #Review

Briony Wilson
25th February 2019

The Botanist – a great feel

As you can imagine at Taste Cheshire, we love our food and going out to eat is a treat we get to enjoy more frequently than most, however when dining in a group this isn’t always easy navigating around various guests dietary and allergy needs. So last week we decided to give the Botanists Non- Gluten menu, a try and see if it was up to scratch against the standard options. Whilst not a vegetarian myself, I have always felt for those that are that way inclined at large functions as the choices are often plain dishes lacking imagination and with the increasing trends in gluten free, dairy free, meat free, I could go on… whether by choice or requirement, there is a demand that chefs need to step up and provide a new offering for these guests.

Firstly, we were pleasantly surprised by the size and variety of the Non gluten menu, whilst the dishes were mainly options that anyone could have off the standard menu rather than specially created, this menu put all the Non Gluten options in front of you making it easy to choose from. This was rather encouraging as you don’t always have to be the ‘picky’ diner of the group, but with the comfort of knowing that the food is ‘safe’.

Since it was a working lunch, we decided to be sensible and choose from the non-alcoholic drink options, a hard decision considering we are big fans of the Botanists cocktails and extensive gin selection. I went for the Botanist Lemonade; a zingy homemade lemonade made from thyme, fresh lemon juice, sugar and elderflower cordial topped with soda. This is so refreshing, with just the right kick and sharpness to it of a homemade lemonade. Tegan opted for the Tropical Crush; made from Seedlip Garden non-alcoholic spirit, pineapple juice, passion fruit syrup, orange juice and served with half a passion fruit. It was the kind of drink you expect to have sat around the pool on holiday in the sunshine. Again, it had a great flavour and in true botanist style looked the part.

It was time to order and we had hoped to start our meal off with some of the Polenta and Halloumi Chips, which we had heard great things about, but they had just served their last dish to another table, so we will have to save those for our next visit. Instead we skipped the starters and opted to get a side of the Seasoned Fries for us to share alongside our mains, I went for the Paella with chicken thighs, king prawn and chorizo. Tegan on the other hand went for the Duck leg served with gravy and sweet potato chips, off the Rotisserie section of the menu. Neither of these dishes I would have thought to go for normally, as I regularly opt for the Deli Board or hanging kebabs at the Botanist, as signature menu items. Both of which are still available on this Non-gluten menu, but in the spirit of trying something new we went for something completely different.

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Paella

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Duck leg and Fries

And there were no regrets for those decisions, the paella was delicious, the rice cooked perfectly with a great Smokey flavour, that despite the large portion I didn’t get bored of it, considering I usually prefer a dish with several elements. There were several large juicy king prawns, more than you would find in most dishes and the chicken and chorizo added great flavour to the dish, this is something I will now come back for over and over again. Tegan’s Duck leg was again on the large size of portions and was cooked beautifully on the rotisserie, she chose to have the dish without the gravy due to an allergy but said the meat was cooked so well it didn’t matter and it was accompanied wonderfully with the crunchy sweet potato fries.

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Bitter Mint Chocolate Mousse

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Ice Cream Selection

Since we had skipped the starters, we decided to treat ourselves and give the desert menu options ago, we soon realised this wasn’t the best idea and our eyes were bigger than your stomachs, and in fact we were rather full from our mains but we ploughed through. Everything at the Botanist is served beautifully with certain dishes like our dessert, that little extra bit of theatre – the Bitter Chocolate And Mint Mousse, comes served over a dish of mint essence and dry ice so looked truly fabulous and then is topped with candy floss and honeycomb. – a lovely combination and any kid or big kids dream dessert. It went really well with our Ice Cream selection, we chose the vanilla, salted caramel and pistachio, and even though we didn’t manage to finish them all it was a lovely end to a great meal.

We will be back soon, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone – particularly those willing to give the Non- Gluten Menu a try.

* Today’s lovely experience was gifted by the amazing team at The Botanist and we stand by all comments in the article, don’t believe us? Go give it a try for yourself, you wont regret it.