The Botanist in West Bridgford has been open on ‘our avenue’ for about 4 months now. This Gincentric chain moved into the space vacated by ‘Fire and Ice’ back in October and is to be honest exactly the sort of place that West Bridgford deserves.

I got older last week so as a reward for needing yet another meal my very kind mother took me to the Botanist for Sunday Lunch. It was actually a pretty good call as in this January they are doing a 40% off deal. Now then we have your attention so lets eat some food 🙂

We were here for Sunday Lunch and that is what this post will be all about 🙂

Roast Beef Dinner

The Roast Beef Dinner or “Rotisserie-Roasted Ridings Reserve Premium English Beef” as they call it on the menu (sounds a bit fancier) was a really rather decent Sunday Lunch. It started very well as I was pleasantly surprised to be asked how I liked my beef, ‘pink’ or ‘well done’ especially as often many places do not bother to enquire.

I asked for pink and was happy when it arrived on my plate with a nice reddish hue, hopefully cut from the centre of the joint. The meat was plentiful, and took up at least half of the plate just as it should do and be! After all it is supposed to be the star of the show, but don’t tell the Roast Potatoes that I said that 🙂

I was also very pleased to see a proper Yorkshire Pudding, one that has the decency to turn up a little misshapen, a little crusty here and a little soggy here, just like you get at home. It sat up on top of my pile of meat as if to say ‘I am the daddy’ and maybe it was.

The Menu lists that all the roasts are “served with honey-mustard glazed carrots, braised red cabbage, tenderstem broccoli, roast potatoes, homemade Yorkshire pudding and rotisserie gravy”

I really liked the carrots, the honey-mustard glaze was a nice touch, it was actually fairly balanced and not the sweet and hot car crash that I was anticipating. The carrots were well cooked, roasted really well, I could have eaten many more of them.

There were a lot more Roast potatoes that I had dreamed off, they were proper roasts as well, cooked in the pan, crispy skinned and slightly moist from the gravy, with plenty of proper potato filling. None of that bullshit duck fat hipster roasted stuff here man, nope just proper roast potatoes ‘like you mom does’

I am not a great fan of the braised red cabbage on a good day, and even though this was a good day I think I did not need as much as I had on the plate. I did like the broccoli stems, they were on the crunchy side, but that is just how I like my green veg to be served so I was a happy soul.

The Roast Pork Belly, or Outdoor-reared Slow Roast Pork Belly served with fresh Bramley Apple sauce was another winner of a dish.

It came with all the same vegetables, only my Mum swapped out the braised red cabbage and then somehow ended up with even more roast potatoes. I might have helped to consume some of the roast spud overflow 🙂

I think that the only slight criticism was that it would have been nice to have a crispier crackling on the Pork Belly. You could not complain about how much meat that you had though!

I quite liked having Sunday Lunch here at the Botanist in West Bridgford. We took full advantage of the January offers also having the 2 for 1 Gin deal too (I drank both Gins) and a couple of side dishes to go with the Roasts.

All in all the Bill was just under £25, and that meant basically that the Gin and the sides were free.

I would be interested to come back and try one of the other meals that the Botanist has to offer. I heard someone say that the Pie was one of the best that they had eaten for ages.

I would come back for Sunday Lunch as well 🙂

The Botanist in West Bridgford is located at