It’s that most wonderful time of the year again, which can only mean one thing…Christmas dinner and turkey galore.
It has been almost three years since The Botanist opened its doors to their highly anticipated restaurant in Cardiff, and now their hanging kebabs, cocktails and rooftop terrace are a must visit.
The new winter menu at The Botanist is now available, and there are many new additions to choose from. The new dishes include a delicious variety of starters, mains, side dishes and dessert. There’s truffle cheese fondue, a new hot board, burgers topped with giant pigs-in-blankets, their famous turkey hanging kebabs with all the trimmings, and a winter favourite three-cheese baked mac ‘n’ cheese side.
If you have a sweet tooth, the restaurant’s signature cookie dough has had a festive update too, new toppings include After Eight and Celebrations, and of course, you can’t forget the cocktails.
Here’s a preview of what to expect at The Botanist Cardiff this Christmas…
Getting there and arrival
If you’ve not been to The Botanist before and you’re thinking of going, we would highly recommend booking as it’s one of the most popular places to dine out in Cardiff. It gets especially busy at this time of year and it’s easy to see why with the restaurant catering for all sorts of food tastes.
The Botanist Cardiff is located on the corner of one of Cardiff’s foodie capitals, Church Street. It is also a stones throw away from this year’s Cardiff Christmas market, which makes it perfectly positioned to escape the hustle and bustle of xmas shopping.
If you have been before, you’ll know The Botanist is famous for its outside, inside, botanically themed decor. A clue is the name! However, at this time of year, they go one step further, sprinkling their Christmas magic across each floor with suitably and tastefully chosen Christmas decoration, complete with tree and bows to match.
Later in the evenings, local artists takeover the now famous Botanist band stand to play festive tunes, which is different to many of the restaurants in Cardiff.
The festive menu
Now, if you’re a ‘foodie’ like me, you’re going to find it extremely hard to choose from their menu this year.
But before we get to the food, the festivities begin before you even turn the page, as you attempt to find your evening’s cutlery. To our surprise, they’re actually hidden away inside eco friendly e-crackers, which turn into a little digital game that you can play with your guests and win prizes. We won’t spoil it, but it’s a novel idea and something that we’ve not seen before.
They also invite you to share a selfie and to share your experience on Instagram with the hashtag #BotanistChristmas, so here’s ours.
When we finally got around to looking at the food, you will notice that The Botanist’s Christmas menu is unlike anything that you’ve seen before. They offer a completely different spin on the ‘traditional’, and instead have a very modern approach to Christmas dinner.
Drinks
With a whole menu of cocktails, bursting with seasonal flavours we found it difficult to choose. We like to ask the staff their favourites and get some recommendations. We decided to try the Let it Glow (£9.25) and Grinch Grog (£8.75), but we’ll definitely be back to try the rest.
The Let it Glow cocktail is blue and boozy, a twist on a Ruku G&T with the addition of St Germain elderflower liqueur, Jasmine cordial and topped with elderflower tonic, tasty and an added festive touch with mini snowflakes floating inside.
Grinch Grog – named for the colour we would assume – is certain a different cocktail to what we’ve had before; made up of St Germain elderflower liqueur, Crisp Aspalls apple cider reduction, edible glitter and bubbles also served with a mini candy cane. Poured by the waitress at the table you’ll be in for a little show, with this cocktail you are also warned not to drink it whilst still bubbling.
Starters
For starters we tried the Scotch Bonnet Chicken Wings (£8.25) served with blue cheese dressing and Pigs and Blankets (£7.25) glazed with orange and cranberry.
The Scotch Bonnets wings had a nice crispy outside and a juicy centre with a slight spice to them, when dipped into the sauce it gives them quite a kick. So if you like spicy, go for these and you won’t be disappointed.
We can honestly say that we’ve never had pigs in blankets as good as these, with crispy ‘candied’ bacon wrapped around succulent mini sausages. They were bursting with flavour, especially the bacon, and when we say ‘you can eat a bowl of these’, we truly mean it. They also come with an orange and cranberry sauce dip, which is the perfect accompaniment to these.
Mains
For mains, how could we not try the famous turkey hanging kebabs (£15.75) with all the trimmings and the turkey and camembert burger (£14.95) topped with a giant pig in blanket.
The turkey burger comes served with maple bacon, camembert and cranberry sauce with skinny fries on the side, though these can be upgraded if you wish. The combined flavours of the camembert, maple and cranberry really add to the turkey making for a festive dish with lots to give; even better when dipped into the orange and cranberry sauce from the pigs in blankets.
You can’t visit and not try one of The Botanist’s famous Hanging Kebabs – which is trademarked if I’m not mistaken. This Christmas, they have a special Turkey Hanging Kebab, and to make it even better, it comes with all the trimmings you’d find on your Christmas dinner, sprouts and all.
With a great balance of turkey, pigs in blankets and stuffing on the skewer, you’ll find it more filling than what it looks. The turkey, usually a dry meat was not the case. It’s so tender, it’s almost like chicken. They are quite chunky pieces and cut in a different way to what you might have on your dinner (i.e. carved). The only thing that we were left disappointed by was the thickness of the gravy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious, but with the Hanging Kebabs, you can usually drip the sauce through tiny holes located at the top of skewer – which didn’t work, but we could still pour it over manually on our plate… so still a win.
Dessert
Even with the very generous portions we managed to keep some room for dessert. We opted for the white chocolate and peanut mousse (£6.95) and the ice cream coupe (£4.95), because who doesn’t love a good ice cream?
The mouth watering white chocolate and peanut mousse, with Oreo soil and cinnamon shortbread was a true delight. In keeping with the venue’s botany-inspired interiors, it comes served in a gardening trowel. It does come with a spoon, promise…
We were a little worried that the peanut might be too overpowering, however, we were delighted by the subtle flavours with a slight crunchy texture and overall lightness of this dessert.
For the perfect Christmas food with a twist The Botanist has really delivered a great early present.
Dishes start from £5.50 for starters, £11.95 for mains and £5.25 for desserts.
To find out more and to make a Christmas reservation at The Botanist Cardiff, click here.
