Botanist Restaurant in Fife

We visited Forgan’s St Andrews last week for a new year’s treat. We were a party of 8 adults, 2 babies and a 4 year old. We had paid a deposit of £120 to secure our booking beforehand. It took up to 15 minutes for someone to ask if we wanted a drink and on your menu it says to ask your server for cocktails that may be on your menu. I asked for a spicy margarita and was told ‘no chillies so can’t do it’ I asked for a Bloody Mary but was told you don’t have Tabasco. Two very basic ingredients for a kitchen so was a little disappointed in this. We ordered 2 alcoholic cocktails and 2 non alcoholic cocktails due to two members of the party being heavily pregnant. After waiting 40 minutes for drinks to arrive, 1 cocktail came out with two straws and 2 cocktails had one straw. The man seemed very confused and named the cocktail but didn’t specify whether this was alcoholic or not, after asking he nodded and put it down in front of me. I tried the cocktail and could taste alcohol. My two friends who both are pregnant were told that their cocktails were non alcoholic but they in fact had alcohol in them. I had to find someone to complain too. Meanwhile the last cocktail still had not arrived. We waited a significant amount of time for this mistake to be fixed. We still had not ordered our food. When our server came to take the order we were told that we couldn’t get so much of what was on the menu and the server could not actually tell us exactly what we could not order. It was a shambles. So we played it safe and a majority of us ordered a burger, one tagliatelle and one ox cheek dish plus starters. The bread was stale it was inedible. When the main meals eventually came out, a lot of the meals were cold as if they had been sitting for a long duration. My friend who is pregnant had a tagliatelle with prawns and refused to eat it as she tried a prawn and it tasted undercooked. A lot of plates were left untouched which is shocking at the prices of your restaurant. The server came over and did not ask us how are meal was, the plates were just being taken away. One of us said to the server ‘excuse me this tagliatelle is cold and the prawns are not cooked’ and he said ‘aw sorry’ and walked away with the plate? Just not good enough. A child’s dessert was ordered and this was not brought out at all. After complaining to what seemed like a manager, she did discount the meal and apologised. I feel so disheartened that this was always a place where myself and my partner would come every year for Christmas and summer holidays for good food and service. Sad to have had this experience as I do not feel as though I’d return now. Extremely disappointing. It’s a lot of money for poor service and poor food.

Please avoid this restaurant at all costs unless you enjoy food poisoning. My family of 3 were the ONLY people in the restaurant for the entire dinner which is never a good sign. We ordered some coley fish with potato gratin. You know when you are eating something that is not quite right, it tasted off but we ate it and did not mention anything to the server. Of course within about 7-8 hours after leaving the restaurant my daughter was violently ill, vomiting with fever. I have since contacted the restaurant but this has been a complete waste of time, the manager was non responsive. There are plenty of good options in St Andrews, this is most definitely not one of them.

Bathroom needs updating , the room i was in you could hear everything going on next door & the room above so maybe not ideal if your a light sleeper but the bed was comfy , full sky package & nice enough room

The dinner was OK nothing like what you see on the website service was good but wee will not be back

What a disappointment. I found the Bothy at Boglily on TA, loved the look of the place, the gorgeous photos of cooked food on their site and the good reviews. We are doing a road trip and this was going to be our Sunday morning treat. The car park was jammed with cars and we saw people standing in a queue to pet baby goats. Upon entering the inviting Bothy and asking a young man for a table, we were told that we couldn’t bring our dog in. Fair enough. Not every dining establishment is dog-friendly. Though I was a bit surprised as the restaurant is in a buffalo farm, there’s a petting zoo and it’s in the countryside. The sun was shining so I asked if we could order our meal and sit at the table on the deck, directly next to the door of The Bothy (see photo for proximity). The young man’s response was that they don’t offer takeaway. I queried whether a table one step from the door qualified as takeaway. It reminded me of the TV ad with the man trying to buy potatoes at a farm shop and being told that he can only pay with digital currency. People taking themselves so seriously that they don’t think of the customer experience. We had driven up from our holiday cottage at Kinghorn especially to get a nice cooked breakfast from their lovely menu, so my surprise and disappointment were apparent. I was directed to the outdoor kiosk they call the Milk Bar to order something from their limited selection. We ordered one Double Cheese Toastie with fries, a latte, an affogato milkshake ( made with buffalo milk ice cream) and a scone, which was on their menu. The two lovely servers told me that they don’t sell scones outside and I would have to go to the Bothy Café to get one. When I explained that I had been told up there that I couldn’t get anything from them takeaway, the young woman offered to go get one for me. They were both very sweet and I apologised for my previous grumpiness. Unfortunately, it wasn’t worth the trouble. The cheese toastie and fries were served in a cardboard tray. The toastie was on “cheap white bread” according to my partner. I didn’t taste it. The fries and the milkshake however, were excellent. My scone was dry, cold and crumbled into breadcrumb texture when I tried to spread some butter on it. The crumb was impossible to pick up and eat but my dog liked it. It wasn’t worth eating for me as it then began to rain and we had to head for the car. I can’t help but think that the very cheerful, welcoming and upmarket website promises more than it delivers.