The Botanist in Richmond upon Thames

The Botanist's pretty garden was the perfect place for our midweek lunch on a sunny day. Ably and amiably served by Jack, we had a rolling spread of sharing boards and small plates, good beers, cider and wines which kept the six of us happily fed and watered into the afternoon and made us feel we were away on holiday.

Great local pub after a few hours at Kew Gardens - 15 minute walk from main exit of Kew.

We come here for quiz every week - it is fab, fun and friendly

Stopped by after a match. Had a couple burgers and beers. The food was good, and the service and atmosphere were great. We would go back.

I WAS SO LOOKING FORWARD TO EXPERIENCING THIS PUB FOR THE FIRST TIME ONLY I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT I WAS IN FOR ! I ORDERED FISH ON TOAST AND A POT OF TEA...WAITED AND WAITED AND WAITED, AFTER READING THE NEWSPAPER I FINALLY WENT UP TO THE COUNTER TO ENQUIRE ABOUT MY ORDER. I SAID,"LOOK ,IT'S GETTING DARK,WHEN'S IT COMING. I WAS TOLD TO GO TO THE PUB ACROSS THE GREEN... I WAS WORRIED AS I HAD A LONG JOURNEY TO TAKE ME BACK HOME...SO I WAITED EVEN MORE. ABOUT 45 MINUTES TO AN HOUR...LATER I WAS SERVED MY FISH ON TOAST AND IT WAS THAT PASTE THAT YOU CAN GET FROM ICELAND FOR 69p OVER TEN POUNDS CHARGED FOR THAT ,,,WHAT A DAYLIGHT ROBBERY... I SHALL NEVER BE COMING HERE AGAIN!

Visited yesterday with my sisters. Shaun was brilliant! Great service, good food.

Mari was amazing. Great service, smile and cocktails! Thank you so much! We had a great time.

We booked this restaurant for my Mum's birthday dinner but from start to finish this place was incredibly poor. Firstly, we called at least 8 times to let them know we were running late - no one picked up a single call. We then arrive and are told the booking isn't on their system - even though my sister had the confirmation email. The restaurant is quiet when we arrive so it is not an issue on this occasion - we are told to choose a table. The table we chose had a clean surface top but we soon realised no one had cleaned the floor around it! We order via the app and staff start to bring out food at varying times. We repeatedly had to ask for more cutlery and more napkins throughout our meal despite there being 6 of us and ordering both starters and mains. My sisters' main still had not arrived whilst most of us were finishing our meals (even after an initial query/prompt) so she then eventually had to ask for a refund and just forgo her meal! We were going to order desserts - we wanted to sing happy birthday to my Mum but we waited 40 minutes and no one even bothered to clear our plates! By then we were so fed up of having to ask for every basic item/service you would expect in any restaurant or even food chain we ended up just leaving! I can't even say the food was worth it. Such an awful experience - would definitely advise to avoid!!!

We received such poor customer service at the Botanist at Kew that I felt compelled to write this review. If I could have given 0* then I would have. I gave 4* for the atmosphere because there was a live band playing jazz. I booked a table on 12th April at 4:30pm for my Mum’s 81st birthday dinner after a day at Kew Gardens. We were running late and called the restaurant 8 times to notify the staff, but there was no response. We arrived at the restaurant at 5:30pm. The lady apologised for no one answering the phone, but as the restaurant was empty there was no issue to seat us. Our party of 6 ordered starters and mains at the table. Our starters arrived and we had to ask the waiter for cutlery and napkins. Our mains started arriving and we had to ask the waiter to clear our starter plates and ask for new cutlery and napkins. No one came to ask if our food was ok. If they had then they would have noticed that my main did not arrive. I went up to the bar and told them. The waiter said he would check. The waiter did not come back to me and by this point the rest of my party had almost finished their food. I then went back up to the bar to complain and the waiter apologised and said there was a mix up in the kitchen and that there was a shortage of staff. There was no point in eating at that stage so the staff refunded me my meal. We originally wanted to order dessert so we could sing happy birthday to my Mum, but we abandoned this plan. We were at the table for 45 minutes listening to the jazz band and no one cleared our table. I was so disappointed that we received this poor level of customer service. I would have been annoyed on any occasion, but even more so given that it was a birthday celebration. I will not be returning or recommending them.

Other restaurants were all busy and this was the only one free , now I know why. The food overall was ok (according to my friends who managed to eat, as my food never arrived), but the wait time was horribly long. We were a group of three, and placed orders separately. Two of the orders arrived after 20 minutes , but the third one took 40 minutes and did not arrive. My friends couldn’t even eat their food as we were waiting so the food ended up being cold. When I asked about the food twice, the waitress said to me angrily (( I told you I will ask the kitchen )) !!! Eventually I canceled my order and they did not even attempt to make any effort to show care or even apologise… Wouldn’t recommend at all.

Very expensive, great location. Very spacey

Great experience on a Sunday afternoon. Food and drinks delivered fairly quickly, considering the restaurant being packed to the brim, everything was delicious. Staff was very friendly and helpful, especially the host Tom, expertly managing the traffic and any eventual questions or requests. Mother's day champagne was definitely an amazing suprise and added to our experience! Thank you.

Tom was a great waiter, good food and great company!

Sunday roast heaven. Dog friendly :)

Fantastic food and the beer was good too- absolutely loved the Guava Pale ale that was recommended to me by Alice.

UNBELIEVABLE SUNDAY VEGAN ROAST!!!!! Tom and Jack who served us were just fab!! Thank you!

Went in for a few drinks and food after work on Friday, Shaun and his team were amazing, food was great and they were really attentive to us

Great evening at the botanist food was lovely presented and staff were polite…definitely worth a visit especially if you are visiting Kew Gardens

Really poor experience here on a Thursday night. I live round and hadn't ever eaten in the pub. Fancied a drink and a meal and saw from the website that a decent looking, well-priced set menu was on offer. Reserved a table but the place was practically empty at 7.30pm. On arrival, the set menu wasn't offered - a big no-no - so I had to ask for it, which threw the staff into some confusion. My date and I both chose the chicken Milanese and it came out almost almost like charcoal - how can you get such a simple dish so wrong. We should have sent it back but in that classic British way, we didn't. I told the waiter it was overcooked and he just nodded and smiled awkwardly. A large glass of wine for £8 was a supplemental choice on the set menu but we were given a medium glass. The plum crumble was delicious though, so one star for that. The two FOH staff members were perfectly polite and friendly. First time eating here and last time. A shame, as it's a great location, and cool decor. Based on this experience, I'd avoid at all costs and go across the road...

Hadn’t realised there was a quiz night on Wednesdays. It was lovely for midweek and food and service was excellent. New Assistant Manager Tom was extremely efficient and friendly. Well done!

Good restaurant. Very good value for money. Excellent location.

Great vibes, great quiz, great service from Jack.

Great service from Jack, great quiz and a lovely evening

Having not been into the Botanist for ages it was a joyous surprise to go and find the current management have got a grip of the place - the welcome is warm and personal, it is relaxed and the food choice / quality is great - so much so that having not been there for years I have now been there three times in as many weeks 👍

Pretty empty, yet service was slow

An excellent Sunday roast, recommend the beef and lamb. Tom the manager is delightful, helpful. Excellent service, will return.

Place was very quiet for a Friday evening.

Great menu and good beer selection. Will definitely be back!

Delightful veggie options, mind blowing flavour and lovely decoration. Tom our waiter was absolutely charming too!

We always pop back here for our fave bangers and mash!

Very nice place to visiting. Also, foods really good. 😋

The staff here really make an effort

This place has no vibe… felt lonely and bored.. food was ok

Awesome food and great service from Tom

Alex was lovely. Great food ! Definitely go back.

Has a brunch menu for this location on the website, but told there was no such option when we arrived.

Had a wonderful visit, before going to Kew Gardens, our first time visiting the Botanist but will definitely be back again soon! Amazing food, and wonderful atmosphere and service from the extremely friendly staff who couldn’t do enough for you.

Lovely pub, my favorite in Kew! 🌷 And it’s so much fun for pub quiz on Wednesdays!

Feb 14th lunch time. Pretty dead. Just a few diners, but Google says busier than usual! Service slow. Food fine though.

The botanist in Kew was the perfect restaurant experience. Tom and Jack took great care of us. The food was delicious. The table service was courteous kind and fun. I had the scallops my wife had the chicken my mother-in-law had the fish and chips my father-in-law had the pie, my sister-in-law Seabass and my brother-in-law another pie. The food was cooked to perfection. The wine was delicious the atmosphere lovely and the conversation convivial. A sublime ending to an evening at Kew. All in all a perfect night out. Thank you so much to the botanist team.

Delicious roast dinner here - impeccable service and nice welcome from staff

What a lovely meal. The steak was cooked beautifully and the service by Alice was top notch. We will happily return.

It was lovely! Tom and his colleagues provided outstanding service! The veggie Sunday roast is a must try!

What a lovely establishment! Their server (Nathan?) Was amazing and very helpful! 10/10. Food was also amazing!!

The bar food tapas-y stuff is top notch tasty. Good beer and great rum.

The botanist is a brilliant pub. Lovely atmosphere and the place to rub shoulders with real Kew botanists ask them how to keep your house plants alive.

The staff at the Botanist are always super friendly and super accommodating! This is a regular spot for all of us! Would recommend to anyone visiting Kew.

We really enjoy the Botanist tonight! Tom and Kesey are the greatest staff! Thank you so much! Save the blue Monday!

Great pub, good company and friendly staff.

Really nice to pop in for a drink after Kew Gardens drinks. We decided to treat ourselves to a charcuterie board and a bottle of malbec and it went down a treat. Sadly the padron peppers had run out but overall a nice meal and friendly staff.

Great pub, beautiful interior, and the team were super friendly and accommodating, will be back!

Staff are very lovely, paitent and kind. Great food, didn't have to wait for long. Very accomodating for such a large group of us.

Great atmosphere, friendly and attentive staff!

Very nice service, and also has a great ambience. I would recommend it.

Superb atmosphere and food.. great menu selection and wine list. We were witch a large group and staff very helpful

Great place with nice drinks and good food. Nice for after work drinks. Staff are very friendly and helpful!

A fantastic local pub with a warm atmosphere & friendly staff 🍻🥂

Enjoyed their secret garden and live music. I've added it to my barguide.london site too!

Terrible service and it wasn't even busy. Server told us to set up a tab and order together so food comes at same time, we did for 8 people. He then decided to charge one of our party when they ordered. The food didn't come together, and one of our orders was cancelled without us knowing. He said he forgot to put it through, but his colleague told us he cancelled it. NUMPTY!!! Will not be back

The service was painfully slow, and the 'prawn' linguine was a complete joke - completely tasteless with a single prawn in the entire dish.

Nice place nice food good atmosphere

The restaurant/bar looked beautiful, (very festive), we were greeted by friendly staff & seated promptly. The food was great, freshly cooked and delivered with a smile. A shout out to Hermione who really looked after us and made our evening.

We had a very nice meal. Service was fast and friendly and the food portions were plentiful, tasty and hot. Great drinks menu too.

We waited way too long to be seated. The staff are really nice though. Most of the lights weren’t working in the ladies loos. Needs a bit of care & attention.

Best Sunday roast west of the river 10/10

Very disappointed. We faced a long delay for our food and we also observed other customers expressing their dissatisfaction with the wait. When we inquired about the status of our order, we received a dismissive response from a staff member. When we finally got our food after a long hour we realized that the burgers and chips were cold, but we decided not to say anything because of the very long wait. Furthermore, the food was very average. I am not going back there.

I had a phenomenal experience at the botanist in Kew as I was met with friendly staff with big smiles, I can especially comment on our server Jack who looked after my girlfriend and I with such class. Took our orders promptly and delivered food as soon as they could - food was excellent and despite the other scrooges in the establishment the staff appeared to deliver a very professional standard of high quality service despite giving up their Christmas days for our benefit! I wish them all a merry Christmas and a big thank you and see you all again soon!

Worst service ever. Small portions. Rude staff

One of the best pub meals I've had in a while. Their wild boar, pork and ale sausage was DELICIOUS. With crispy burnt ends. The green onion and savoy cabbage mash was creamy and helped to balance the flavours. The red wine jus elevated the dish from your standard bangers and mash. The crispy bits were an excellent touch of texture. And the shallots paired well overall. Each ingredient had a purpose, just an amazing dish. The service was very friendly and accommodating. Definitely coming back to try their other items!

First time eating out on Christmas Day and this was a disaster despite preordering all food - which they still managed to get wrong. The service was shambolic, our bread arrived after the starters (only after asking), and we had to ask for cutlery, it took three requests just for one drink, the plural ‘pigs in blankets’ was actually just one tiny offering, the stuffing never materialised, waited ages for the dessert and was then moved to a bar table with tall chairs (despite being disabled) whilst we were in the middle of one course because another family had booked the table. £85 a head for Christmas dinner which turned out to be a disorganised disaster and not as advertised. Clearly overstretched themselves to maximise profits. Appallingly bad and disappointing.

I've been here twice. Both times the service was incredibly slow, with no warning, explanation or apology. Today we waited nearly an hour for our food even though the restaurant was only half full. The food was good the first time I came, but this time there was no crab detectable in the crab and prawn linguine, and the portions were small. For a restaurant located next to Kew Gardens (which is very popular with nature lovers) the menu is extremely limited for vegan and vegetarian options. The choice is two uninspired vegan mains (avocado salad or roasted pumpkin) or a whole load of red meat and some poultry. I won't be returning.

£85 for Christmas dinner. If I'm honest, the food was worth half that. (One cocktail sausage wrapped in bacon. No stuffing). Poor table service. Overstretched staff trying to put out fires with buckets full of holes. If you're entertaining diners for Christmas, then have enough staff onboard. Had to ask for cutlery, bread and drinks orders more than once. Got served the wrong food, even though it was already pre-ordered. They have their money so it doesn't matter so much now I suppose. We'll see....... A free drink to apologise was a kind gesture, so thanks for that. Merry Christmas!

Had a boxing day meal here today. Food was okay and the service from the girls was great. However there was an incredibly rude man working there who showed 0 professionalism and was plain rude when taking our orders. He make us feel uncomfortable to ask for anything and made it apparent he was not interested in serving anyone. He completely ruined our experience today.

Paying ahead for a set menu must mean terrible service is okay. We finally got bread 40 minutes in even though tables seated after us had it in 20, with their apps in 30 - had to ask for an update twice to finally get the bread. Then mains came after 3 tables seated after us, and again had to ask for it. Food wasn't even that good, and ice cream was melted goop.

We loved everything about this place. The service from Jesse and Alice was incredible- they were so doting and kind and attentive. The food was unreal, we kept going “mmm this is so delicious” with every bite and will be recommending this place to everyone. We will be back. Thank you for a wonderful and festive evening

Just popped in for a bite after a walk. What a treat

Excellent service, particularly enjoyed the fried mozzarella although what would have been better would have been TWO fried mozzarellas ! Definitely coming back would recommend particularly if you enjoy good food and great waiters

Great location and quick customer service

Ordered the lamb Christmas dinner not alot of lamb on the plate 3 roast potatoes kids meal for an adult you won't see me there again

Food looked great but was there to meet some friends for a drink. Lovely ambience and all the staff were super friendly and attentive despite there being quite a crowd in. Perfect place for a well earned break after doing Kew Gardens.

Shared a lovely meal with the family, would highly recommend the beef brisket pie

Popped in for a quick drink, didn’t eat anything but what I saw looked great! Great staff, good drinks.

I would absolutely recommend and will definitely visit again when I’m in the area. I went for fish and chips this time and I didn’t regret it. I’m a picky eater and I wanted 2nds. The staff was friendly and polite and even the GM checked to make sure we were ok. Great atmosphere!

Great experience. Shaun, the manager was a great host! Would definitely come back :)

Throughly enjoyed our night out including 2 children

Had our annual Christmas meal here tonight, it was ok.. had the turkey dinner there weren’t any pigs in blankets as stated in the menu and the roast potatoes weren’t cooked at all. Disappointing unfortunately.

Called in for a warm drink while visiting Kew Gardens Lights. We enjoyed our visit and felt welcomed.

The service was extremely slow, we were there nearly a hour before our food order was taken and had to buy our drinks at the bar. I had finished my drink before our starters came out at this point we had been there a hour and a half. We then had to rush our main course and miss desserts as we had a kew gardens reservation at 7.20 and thought we had an adequate timings booking in at 5. Also very disappointed to see lovely homemade Yorkshire puddings and when our arrived it was clearly a shop brought option. Staff were very apologetic and the food was amazing when we did get it and we would return again. Just a shame you didn’t seem to be able to cope with how busy you were x

Lovely interor, really nice and efficent staff, and very tasty food!

Absolutely fantastic meals,drink and a superb Irish coffee. The service was out of this world.

Ok bit expensive and very little in the way of options for vegans. They used to do a great vegan burger but that's been taken off the menu.

We had the Sunday roast which was a great portion and good value for money. The staff is friendly and being able to order at the bar is quite useful and quick. My only note on the roast would be to ensure the vegetables, especially potatoes, are crispier.

The Botanist was well-known to our dining partners and this meant a very warm welcome was received! The menu was comprehensive and there were some comforting specials, too - the cottage pie was delicious! Good food and a welcoming atmosphere! Great dining experience.

Simply excellent- great food, service throughout our visit

Nice place. Just booked it to as was heading to the Halloween event at Kew Gsrdens and was pleasantly surprised. Price, service, food all good. I could have ordered several things off the menu. Recommended!

nice food, atmosphere and place. It's just sometimes the wait is a bit long.

Great pub, highly pricey though

Went for a roast last weekend which was amazing. The server Francesca was also super friendly and helpful. Will definitely be going back again

Food really tasty good selection. Driving so soft drinks were the order of the day, delicious mocktails

Very mediocre food, almost no veggie options, and incredibly slow service. Probably best just to go for a drink.