The Botanist opened in Newcastle at the end of 2014, and no matter what time of day I’ve been in or walked past, it’s ALWAYS been busy… there’s sometimes even a queue to get in – the people of the Toon clearly love it. The Botanist have very recently launched their new food menu, I was invited along with a group of fellow North East bloggers to sample the new desserts. The invite promised a ‘divine dessert feast’ with cocktails. So cakes and cocktails then… YES PLEASE.

The place itself is gorgeous inside, which I’m sure you know, but I didn’t take any photos of the pretty tree and sparkly lights covering the dome. The pictures I’ve taken in the past just don’t do it justice, you have to enjoy it IRL.

We were seated in Granny Smith’s private dining room, which is really pretty – I loved this room and went a bit over the top taking photos of everything (at one point I took a picture of a ketchup bottle, don’t worry, that photo was deleted).

(Does the decor remind anyone of that wallpaper scene in Garden State?!)

We hadn’t been seated very long before the first round of cocktails appeared. I had driven into town straight from work so I asked for a non-alcoholic cocktail and was brought a pretty looking drink in a jar with lots of crushed ice. I had the ‘Berry Good Times’ which has fresh blueberries, blackberries, mint and a touch of raspberry syrup. Shaken with apple and cranberry juice and garnished with a sprig of mint. It was delicious, very sweet.

The desserts started to arrive and that’s when things got serious. The photographing reached another level. I’ve tried to choose the best pics of these delightful looking (and tasting) desserts to share with you. We got to sample the Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (with salted caramel sauce and toffee ice cream), Elderflower Jelly and Red Berry Pavlova (with raspberry ripple ice cream), Rocky Road Kebab (with strawberry, hazelnut brownie, marshmallow, biscuit sauce and chocolate crumb) and the Cheese Board (Appleby’s Red Cheshire, Stilton and Shorrock’s with celery, radish and fig chutney).

Here’s a pic of the menu for you to peruse:

If given the choice, I’d always pick the Baked Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, this is my ideal kind of dessert, warm cookie dough with cold ice cream… what’s not to love?! This didn’t disappoint, it was gorgeous. The caramel sauce was lovely too. I’d happily eat it again. The Botanist certainly are fans of the hanging kebab thing, I’ve had the chicken one before (sadly, the chicken was a bit dry), the Rocky Road Kebab was far better, although I’m not a huge fan of brownies (I know I’m in the minority here), I had one brownie square and enjoyed the hazelnuttiness. I let the lovely Alexis (my partner-in-dessert-tasting for the evening) have the last piece. My favourite dessert by far was the Elderflower Jelly and Red Berry Pavlova – I would never have picked this from the menu, but it was SO good. Each layer was delicious, special shout outs for the pavlova pieces and the gorgeous elderflower jelly (this reminds me, there was some funny elderflower chat from Sarah 🙂 ), oh and the cream. I will most definitely be ordering this. The Cheese Board went down well too, I did have a few bits of cheese (loved the stilton) but I’m not a cheese for dessert person.  I did notice there was a Baked Camembert on the starter menu – that’s something I can get excited about. Camembert is my all time favourite cheese FYI.

Time for photos!

We had a big selection of drinks on the table, so of course, being the bloggers that we are, we all took photos before even taking a sip!

During the evening, we were visited by members of The Botanist team who spoke to us about the changes made to the menu and the cocktails we were sipping. The cocktails are Summer focused with more fresh produce being used. I had a sip of the peachy whiskey cocktail (which I can’t remember the name of) and it was bloody  marvellous!

Thank you to The Botanist for hosting 🙂 I had a great evening tasting a few of the new desserts, sipping the flavoursome, fruity cocktails and chatting with my fellow bloggers (Pixie, Sarah, Tasha, Chloe, Katie and Alexis). We ate a lot, drank a lot, took an endless amount of photos and laughed loads!

What are your favourite cocktails and menu choices at The Botanist? Let me know!