Located in The Garage at Singapore’s first ever UNESCO world heritage site, The Botanic Gardens, Botanico is one of the latest food and beverage creations by the 1-group, who has helmed many other projects such as Stellar and Monti. Opened in early 2017, the restaurant features posh, ornate décor that highlights its modern European style but also has great respect for the garden it sits in, with plants hanging beautifully from the rafters and along the walls.

The philosophy of Botanico continues into its drinks menu with a myriad of house cocktails and creations, almost all involving fresh fruits or herbs. They also have classic beers on tap such as Archipelago and Heineken, and bottled beers such as Erdinger and Guinness. The wine list is large and extensive, with over fourty bottles from famous wine making regions of France, New Zealand, Spain and many others.

Diners are off to a good start with Croquettes, these little golden beauties are filled with extra smooth and milky potato mixed with bits of serrano (a dry cured Spanish ham). The ham’s slight saltiness works well with the sweetness from the quince (a bright golden-yellow fruit when mature, similar in appearance to a pear) sauce.

Botanico serves up modern European fare with an Asian twist and is all about seasonality and fresh produce. Another delicious starter, Cauliflower nicely broken into bite size portions cooked in inka for added smoky flavours with canarejal cheese, topped with spiced almonds and kaffir lime to finish. The combination of citrus notes with the spices is tantalisingly good, a variety of textures in this dish.

Must try is Botanico Salad, a colourful mix of seasonal tomatoes on a bed of creamy burrata, earthy pickled beetroot, sweet fresh figs and burnt cucumber, drizzled over with olive oil, edible flowers to garnish. A healthy dish that taste just as good as it looks.

Seabass Ceviche has a good lingering savoury sourness to it with caramelised shrimp paste ice cream, tangy tamarind sauce, sweet pomegranate and ginger flower. The seabass used is very fresh, served alongside the ginger flower with it’s subtle aroma bringing out the Asian style and flavour in this particular dish.

For the adventurous eater, Beef Tongue should satisfy. Australian beef tongue brine over four days before slicing and cooking thus creating a super soft texture. Served with chipotle sauce, mustard caviar, celeraic and deep fried capers adding delightful dimensions of taste.

Iberico “Cha Siew” is tender and paired nicely with the sweetness from the carrot noodles, carrot purée, carrot butter, pluma with ice lettuce. The carrots adds various shades of orange and yellow to this dish while the ice lettuce brings the crunch as you indulge.

Finally, for dessert the Jalapeno Ice Cream is a favourite among many, served with bacon financier, Sarawak pineapple and coriander. Guests will be intrigued at how such savoury flavours would work so well in an ice cream dish. The jalapeno spice is mellowed out being in the ice cream giving it a pleasantly warm heat but not one that is enough to knock you off your seat. That mild spiciness worked surprisingly well with the bacon and pineapple plus the coriander rounding off the whole dish in style.

ADDRESS:
50 Cluny Park Road (Level 2), Singapore Botanic Gardens, Singapore 257488
PHONE: +65 9831 1106
WEBSITE: www.thegarage.sg/botanico/