I’ve accepted fewer and fewer invites for food tastings lately.
The reasons are many, but not suitable for this post.
However, I make exceptions when the outlet concerned is related to health and wellness!
In recent years many F & B proprietors jumped on the bandwagon and started offering “eat clean, healthy food“.
More often than not, the quality of food is unjustifiable for the price, the portion meager and many hoodwinked ignorant customers by adding a lot of cheap carbs such as rice and pasta into the meals.
I for one, meal-prep and read up on nutrition often. I may not be a certified nutritionist, but heck, a box of creamy pasta plus a few florets of broccoli and thin strips of chicken for RM20/box is not “eating clean” and neither is it worth RM20!
Anyhow, I avoided those opportunistic proprietors like the plague.
As with any businesses there are ones who poured heart and soul into the concept of eating healthy, and there are ones who mislead and cash in on the uninformed.
And for the last time, eating healthy doesn’t have to be expensive neither does the food need to taste like dust.
Prepared right, wholesome food should taste wholesome and satisfying!
My preferred wholesome-eating outlets are few, and today I’m glad to have discovered another that I can’t wait to share with you!
Let me introduce you to Botanica Deli, recently opened, helmed by a chef who is a fitness enthusiast himself and manned by a team of attentive, cheerful staff.
The outlet itself breathes of life with ample space, light & greenery.
It is hard to walk in and not feel at ‘home‘. Yes, it felt that cosy for me.
This was one of the few review sessions that I didn’t hasten the process so I could leave as soon as it was over.
The air conditioning wasn’t too cold, each table is nicely spaced out and the whole outlet is uncluttered.
I felt calm, I felt comfortable, and I felt my stomach growl as my eyes roved over the salad bar.
iIt didn’t help that the staff was walking pass me every few minutes serving platters of scrumptious looking sandwiches!
The ingredients at the salad bar numbered at almost 60 which includes base of greens plus fruits and toppings such as nuts, corns and beans.
I eyed them all and took note that every ingredient is bright and fresh.
To ensure consistency the team has a SOP in place. All salads served are weighted with the small (S) starting at 450g (RM19.50 nett) while the BIG is 600 g (RM24.00 nett).
To order a salad, a simple process is in place.
Walk up to the salad bar and inform the staff the ingredients you want in your salad. Your choice can be as little as 2 ingredients or ALL the ingredients available.
The staff will endeavour to stuff the bowl (dine in)/box (takeaway) with as much as the container would allow, and of course to hit the weightage promised.
BELOW: This is my LARGE salad.
Once done, the salad bowl is given generous drizzles of Botanica house dressing before it was served to you.
If you are the sort who prefers not to customize (less headache, so to speak), select any one of the 4 Botanica’s salads on the menu.
All 4 are familiar variations; Caesar, Beef, Tuna and Smoked Salmon so you wouldn’t be getting any unpleasant surprises.
Besides my customised salad above, I added an order of the Armstrong Beef Salad (RM23.00 nett) since I love my red meat.
While I would have preferred my meat juicy and medium rare, the roasted beef slices in the Armstrong was tender and acceptably moist.
This salad was tossed in Botanica’s Green Goddess dressing; a creamy dip made using a base of Greek yogurt plus lemon juice and a myriad of herbs.
Armstrong came topped with blue cheese (do note this if you do not fancy blue cheese) and candied pecan which provided a nice crunch and mild sweetness.
Botanica Deli’s menu is limited to soups, salads and sandwiches for now.
For sandwiches, the “highly recommended” option is the Roast Beef Sandwich (RM24.00 nett).
Don’t let this simple stack fool you, for once you dissected the heap to check the insides (don’t lie, I’m sure a lot of you would do so – “Hmmm.. worth the price or not?”) you will be pleasantly surprised with the amount of fillings that was sandwiched between the fluffy but substantial slices of bread (which was baked in-house by the way).
One can’t help but fell in love with such a fine sandwich.
A dollop of smoky fruity housemade BBQ sauce and mustard with generous slices of juicy tomatoes added plus generous cuts of slow roasted beef made this one of my favourite sandwich of the year.
You can opt to upsize your meal by adding RM5 nett (small) for one of the 3 soups available.
A large Onion Soup like this goes for RM12 nett if ordered ala-carte.
I’ve not tried the other soups, but this one is excellent. I love how natural and wholesome it tasted.
I know some of you might prefer the heavy onion soup with a crust of cheese but my tastebuds appeals more towards food that are tasty, but light in flavours.
We moved on to sample desserts next.
All desserts are baked in-house except for the croissants which the team promised to be making their own in 3 months’ time, if not sooner.
My favourite from the lot is the Yuzu Pudding (RM12.80 nett) which was a fluffy buttery cake rained with thick, tart and fragrant yuzu sauce.
The sauce, the chef has assured me, was not mixed with any other citrus fruits and is made using ONLY imported yuzu.
This is one dessert uniquely available at Botanica Deli and I would recommend easily to friends and readers of my site, especially if you are a fan of not-overly sweet desserts.
Thank you to the team at Botanica Deli for having me today.
I found the food at Botanica Deli suited to my personal palate with its wholesome, fuss-free and tasty concept. Prices are justified by the quality of produce used and portion of which each dish is served. I have personal plans to revisit soon with some friends who shares my idea of wholesome eating.
It looks like my first visit to Botanica Deli is off to a promising start and I wish the team all the best with their upcoming Botanica + Co outlet.
It would be interesting to discover the menu there as that would be a full-fledged restaurant with heavy mains and cocktails and perhaps even live music!
Directions:
Botanica Deli (and the recently opened Botanica + Co) is actually located at the ground floor of the VE Hotel & Residence Bangsar South, which is right opposite Nexus and connected via a link bridge.
Since the restaurant is not on Waze yet, Waze yourself to “VE Hotel & Residence” instead.
Park at the B1 parking (RM2.00 per hour on weekdays) and take the lift up to the Ground Floor.
Botanica Deli
G3A/G5, Verticals Podium, Bangsar South City,
59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Daily: 8:00 am – 10:00 pm
Contact: + 6016 965 6422