Botanic House

(3.5 stars) Schlepping our way into the The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney cursing the taxi rank being so far away, we stumbled into a wildflower meadow. Wandering through a winding path of brightly-coloured, waist-high blooms was enough to convince even the most committed of cynics, that gardens are actually nice places to visit. With a much better attitude we entered Botanic House, celebrity chef, Luke Nguyen’s latest digs. Ringed by green, the open-air pavilion relies on the canopy’s natural cooling, aided by ceiling fans. With a full house of large tables, mostly women, all pushed onto $69/head set menus, it’s a license to print money, especially with all the wine being consumed. Nguyen helps it to pull up short of a tourist trap with a pleasant, please-all collection of dishes, kicking off with Hokkaido scallops served on the shell with roe pearls, green mango and Vietnamese herbs. The 2016 Domaine Schlumberger Riesling ($78) is a reasonable match, extending through sesame rice crackers with edamame and avocado dip, and salt and pepper squid with lemon dressing. The fifteen buck crab and scallop dumpling upsell looked pretty in bright pink and ate nicely. Ka-ching! Lively chilli made the kingfish carpaccio an easy favourite, dressed with native finger lime, miso and sesame oil. We notched down to the 2018 Kilikanoon Morts Block Riesling ($60) with the roast duck salad—sadly quite low on bird—while the table was populated with shared mains and rice. Caramelised market fish fillets—salmon on the day I dined—with tempura saltbush edged out crisp skin master stock chicken in chilli satay, mostly because the bird wasn’t cooked in the sauce, leaving it all a bit hollow in the middle for my liking. Bring your beau because dessert—a creme caramel and a dry Vietnamese coffee-spiked three milk cake—is served one between two. No need to tip when they helpfully add a ten percent service surcharge onto your bill.

Bit xpensive but nice tho

Awesome

Lovely

Luke, you're brilliant! I have drewllwed watching your shows! Today I just experienced and felt delighted by Botanical Garden by Luke Nguyen! We had held back for a month or two, so for those with children, until we were confirmed kids welcomed ... Staff were so loving and welcoming with our two! For the children there's option of fish and chips, serve of their dumplings or fried rice with mushroom (child feedback 😉 regular veg, or chicken or bacon fried rice ranks higher than mushroom ... They don't know what they're missing out as Mushroom dumplings were my fave!). All was so tasty and succulent, if I had a pick, I could eat an entire Tuna turned into sashimi, but wouldn't turn anything down!

Surprisingly good for a trendy celebrity chef's restaurant... Luke Nguyen is providing excellent cuisine in the charming and peaceful surroundings of the Botanic Gardens. We couldn't get a decent table to enjoy the Degustation menu due to alleged reservations... so we took the Bar Menu and an outdoor dining table which worked out better (and cheaper) on a perfect Sydney autumn day. The Bar Menu actually samples the range of dishes on the main menu and the quality, presentation and service were outstanding. Could write pages about food and location but 4.5 to 4.8 stars sums it up. Was disappointed to see that 2 hours later, the 'reserved tables' were still empty... an annoying and unnecessary niggle in an otherwise outstanding experience.

I got this experience as a Christmas present. Everything about it was beautiful and so was very well enjoyed. The food was incredible. The venue was incredible. Everything. The staff were lovely. We had a young brunette waitress who was wonderfully caring and accommodating throughout the meal. Overall would 100% recommend.

Consistent and delicious. Gorgeous location. Extremely attentive staff with very flexible attitudes to dietary requirements. A wonderful experience.

It almost feels like your seated in a pretty little green house, over looking cascading trees, a pond and in the back drop Sydney Harbour. The decor is simple, warm and welcoming. The staff have personality, friendly and accomodating. We shared the Deluxe tasting menu, inclusive of two cocktails and a bottle of wine. The menu started strong with flavoursome entrees but fizzled midway with mains, ending on a high note with a most delicious textural dessert. What didn’t we like? The yellow fin tuna, was difficult to taste because the two slices received were incredibly tiny. The papaya salad with remnants of pork slices, tasted heavily of red cabbage because this featured predominantly throughout. I asked the waitress what the dish should taste like. It was explained it should taste salty, sour, sweet. None of these flavours were present. The waitress was kind to offer another but we declined. The barramundi & noodle dish, also a little disappointing. We couldn’t cut through the rubbery skin, much less chew it. We requested freshly chopped chilli to add some heat, I think we were given decorative chillies. Overall, the experience was lovely due to a combination of factors, including staff, the setting and half of the dishes served were tasty, in my opinion. Lovely place for lunch.

What a beautiful food, nice ambience, Vietnamese Asian influences. Tasting menu $69 are amazingly enough. Presentation are beautiful, and so tasty. Well done @cheflukenguyen. And what a wonderful staff.