Botanist – Coal Harbour

I had all kinds of thoughts about what this place would be like when I heard we were going to a place called “Botanist.“

Vegan. Molecular Gastronomy. Cool. Too cool for school.

Most of the above were true – but not entirely.

On the vegan front, I’m very pleased to say that a restaurant of this calibre has a full-on vegan menu option.

On the molecular gastronomy side, there was a rhubarb dessert that appeared to incorporate some of the principles, but I wasn’t 100% certain.

On the cool aspect – the place is definitely cool – even the host and I had a little chuckle when she said “you’ll be sitting in the garden section tonight.”

Too cool for school? Definitely not.

Although the restaurant is in the Pacific Rim Fairmont, and I’ll get to my opinion on Fairmont in a moment, the guest profile appeared to be all over the map; no hoity-toity business as far as I could see.

Now – about Fairmont. The one thing that I feel is consistent about this hotel chain is their commitment to food quality. Some years ago, I was staying with a colleague at a Fairmont Hotel and he mentioned that they had a bee hive on the roof and grew their own herbs.

It’s always one place that I can be certain to have free-range eggs for breakfast when I’m travelling for business.

Whenever I’ve stepped into a Fairmont bar, it’s always first-class. The drinks are top-notch, the bartenders knowledgeable, and the environment is always chilled and relaxed; a lot of work goes into that.

Now, on to our experience at Botanist.

The menu included many fancy looking cocktails, fine wines, and other libations – but we wanted to keep it simple to get started – a Hendricks gin martini for me, and a Grey Goose vodka martini for the lady; both with four olives.

We were also presented with sourdough bread and house made butter.

For appetizers, we had the Stracciatella Salad, Pan Seared Scallops, and the Hand-Cut Tagliatelle.

All three were quite good, light and flavourful.

The one thing that I did notice here, and that I’ve seen at other restaurants is the use of a seasonal item in multiple dishes. In this case, it was sunchokes. I guess it’s a smart move, as it improves food cost and efficiency in the kitchen, but I’m never jonesing for sunchokes.

Celeriac is another ingredient I’ve seen making the rounds in Vancouver.

That said – it made for an interesting dining experience. I’ve never had roasted sunchokes in a salad before. Moreover, neither have I had smoked carrots, nor stacciatella in a salad before either.

But they put together a mix of flavours that was light and hit all right notes.

The tagliatelle was great – and appeared to have morel mushrooms, which were super-tasty.

Lastly, the scallops were perfectly pan seared and served with xo sauce.

We decided to choose our wines by the glass: a Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend from Waipara for the lady and a Pinot from Bourgogne for me.

We noticed that the Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend was really complex, with some tropical fruit, barnyard, and cat pee notes. It has a bit of a sparkle on the tongue which made me wonder if there was intentional brettanomyces. But, overall, we felt it was a really nice choice.

My Pinot Noir, Cuvée 37 by Domaine Lorenzon (Mercurey), was exceptional. Nice red and black fruit, tannins, some cassis, and so enjoyable that I sipped it slowly throughout dinner and dessert.

For our main courses, my partner chose the Olive Oil Poached Halibut and I had the vegetarian version of the Cavatelli (a vegan version was also available).

The Halibut was served with fava beans, peas, truffles, and leeks.

The Cavatelli came with a veggie ragu, some ricotta, pine nuts, and basil.

Both were very good and I can attest that the Cavatelli was not too heavy and portioned to leave room for a bit of dessert.

The dessert menu looked great and we definitely would have been remiss not to give it shot.

However, I have to admit, I didn’t read the menu well enough and was hoping for a selection of exotic fruits. There was pineapple and mango, however, it was caressed in passion cream and sorbet (which were all listed in the menu) and a coconut meringue on top (see photo below, where I’ve cracked the meringue).

My partner had the Okanagan Strawberry Rhubarb Sorbet, which was served with almond financier (little French cakes), strawberry cream, and almond strawberry rochers (not sure what that is) – and it was pretty darned good! It’s also the dish that I felt molecular gastronomy methods were utilized. Interestingly, there is also a vegan version of this dessert available.

To finish off, my partner had a German dessert Riesling. I tried it – and it was nice – but too sweet for my taste.

Overall, I’d have to say that you don’t run into an experience like this too often. A lot of care is made to get the flavour combinations just right, while stretching out on a limb to combine flavours that you might not usually see together.

Hats off to the chef for putting together a fantastic menu.

Our server Avital was perfectly attentive, and took good care of us.

Return: Yes – great food, service, and environment.

Rating: 9/10