Exposed brickwork, quirky lighting and friendly faces were what we were greeted with when we entered The Botonist in Farnham the other week.
There was a really buzzy feel as we entered the bar area where people were busy chatting and sampling drinks from the huge cocktail menu they have on offer.
We were shown upstairs to our table in a more subdued area where we had a beautiful glass of red wine whist mulling over the gastro pub style menu.
The attentive waitress came over to take our order which for starters consisted of chicken liver and rum pate with beetroot and onion chutney for me and calamari for my husband.
It was when the starters were presented that the whole theme of the resturant was bought to life.
My pate came served in a super cute mini plant pot with the accompanying chutney in a miniature wheelbarrow.
Not only was the kooky presentation fabulous but the pate had a beautifully smooth consistency complemented perfectly with a crunchy topping. I smothered this over the warm bread and finished it of with a smothering of sweet chutney.
My husband is a creature of habit and as soon as I saw calamari on the menu I knew this would be his first choice.
The calamari had a perfectly crispy coating that was served with a creamy mayonnaise and lightly dressed rocket leaves.
As a calamari connoisseur this came highly recommended from him.
For my main meal I had a delicately spiced Malaysian chicken curry served with fluffy, white basmati rice which was cooked perfectly.
My husband had a classic dish of steak and chips that was that little bit different due to the super tasty seasoning added to the chips.
I always like to save a bit of room for desert and I was so pleased I did when a gooey sticky toffee pudding was placed in front of me.
This finished off a sumptuous meal perfectly!
We couldn’t leave without sampling one or two of the cocktails. I went for their namesake to start with and really impressed with the refreshing cocktail with a great little kick!
By now the bar area was filling up nicely and a live band had just begun their set.
We stayed and listened to the music and took in the atmosphere for a good few hours.
For me The Botonist offers so much from a place to come to grab a quick drink and a few bites of bar food to a whole evening experience with a beatiful meal and good music.
I had initially thought it was more suited to adults only but when I was shown the children’s menu of the usual favourites served in a fun way just as their adult dishes are it will most definitely be somewhere I will visit again as a family.
We were given a meal at the resturant for the purpose of the review and these are all my own honest opinions.