Some highlights and the menu from an extraordinary 29-course meal at Restaurant Botanic in Adelaide last month (was a bit too dark to get a clear photo of everything).
Australia is understandably quite underrepresented in this Subreddit so I’ll contextualise briefly. Botanic is situated in the rotunda of Adelaide’s Botanical Gardens and is run by Justin James, an American chef who took over and refurbished the space in 2021. Since then it’s quickly met high praise and is widely considered as Australia’s best restaurant right now. I have to agree with them – I was visiting from Melbourne and haven’t been this impressed by a dining experience in Australia or anywhere in years. Truly world class.
The experience itself is a four hour, 29-course degustation drawing from the ingredients they grow/forage in the garden and other native produce. While this general concept isn’t new to Australian dining, Botanic for me took it to another level. Everything was equally incredible and interesting, to the point where it’s hard to shortlist my faves.
Someone critiqued Botanic in another thread recently for being too derivative of other restaurants James has worked at (Vue de monde, Eleven Madison Park, staged at Noma etc). As someone who yearns for more authenticity in Australian dining, this was also my concern ahead of eating there. I was beyond pleased to find that Botanic is very much its own thing, and delivered in a way that few others do. This was one of those meals that reminded me why I love and obsess over restaurants in the first place. I definitely hope to return in a few years to see how it’s evolved and (hopefully) continues to thrive.
by cdg6666___