My mission is to find inner-Melbourne’s best high-end burger and the Botanical was at the top of my list.
Last year, invited by erstwhile executive chef Paul Wilson, I spent a pleasant lunch stuffing myself with oysters from the size of a fingernail to a fist. We tasted various breeds and cuts of grass and grain fed beef. And we drank. And laughed.
But the real discovery was what I dubbed the best chips in Melbourne, constructed to the Heston Blumenthal thrice cooked formula (few dishes are genuine originals in Australia) without the peanut oil and served in a plain milk-shake container.
What arrived on Saturday last week one of my biggest eating disappointments (besides Brown & Do) this year. The wagyu beef was dry; the brioche at odds with the meat. The best thing about the dish was a perfectly fried duck egg and perhaps the pancetta. The worst the $29.50 price.
The chips weren’t crisp and on reflection should have been returned. I’m not taking the piss, but McDonald’s serves better fries.
My Twidow (twitter widow) ordered a club sandwich with poached chicken, tarragon aioli, roasted tomatoes, bacon & avocado that cost a whopping $25. It was good but not astonishing.
What we are talking about here is a restaurant with two hats. It is meant to be at the top of its game in Melbourne.
But we are also talking about a restaurant and pub that was mopped up by Cornerstone Hotels in 2007 in one of the most stupid investments since tulipomania. At what was plainly at the peak of the market Cornerstone paid $65 million for a portfolio of pubs and soon found it couldn’t make its interest payments.
Paul Wilson was out, the company in administration. Some of the properties sold off with Luke Mangan picking-up up The Palace in Port Melbourne, presumably to cater to the breakfast TV crowd.
What I read into my $140 Botanical snack lunch (with a beer and three glasses of wine) is a once great restaurant in decline.
Neil Perry’s minimalist Wagyu burger at The Rockpool Bar and Grill is still at the top of the league and is where I’ll next be spending $140 on a snack lunch.
Anybody else got any high-end challengers?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Given the state of Sydney as described in last weekend’s Weekend Australian business pages, soon there won’t be a high end. The $140 burger was always just an absurd look-at-me marketing technique, wagyu or no wagyu, pitched to look-at-me customers. No-one really ever got deep satisfaction out of eating a $140 burger in an empty restaurant.
Wow I love the photos of the food! It’s actually quite mouth watering, even if it was disappointing…. I really want to visit australia. I will definitely be using this as a food guide.
Years ago I was one of the contributors to Epicure’s annual burger review. A number of times I was despatched to Hewitson’s Tolarno for their famed burgers and each time it was horrendous. The worst of them arrived frozen in the centre, while every burger that I ate from the humble Andrew’s in Albert Park was perfectly formed and cost a fraction of the price. Surely short order cooking shouldn’t be so hard to get right?
Hi Ed- I think the price of the burger raises ones expectations somewhat, after all $29 for roughly a 150 g pattie which would cost just over a buck in meat content alone & you can see that they’re havin a larf.
Stickys point is a good one. Many cheffie types take on the humble burger as they see it in the ‘easy to do’ category. I find most of them ‘luxe’ it up to the point where they have lost the ‘essence’ of what a burger should be & I reckon this simply done to justify the hefty price tag, they know they can get a great margin on te dish.
Kitchenhand, I’m doing it so you can reaffirm that you don’t want to.
Stcikyfingers, Hewitson’s aren’t too bad. I used to enjoy his mini burgers. never got a frozen one. Agreed on Andrews and you just mentioning them almost got me driving up to Albert Park for one. It’s lack of attention to detail, in this case in what probably isn’t a very happy restaurant right now from what we hear.
Steve, I see what you aree saying. I still enjoy the Rockpool Bar and Grill one though which gives a reasonable entry price to the place and wagyu for , if I remember, $18.
Botanical burger badly disappoints. Disappoints? Bombs for me.
High end burger, that’s either an oxymoron or simple appropriation of a blue collar icon. A burger never looks completely at ease on a plate, no matter how it’s pimped.
Always folded in paper, popped in a bag with a picture just in case you forget what you ordered – don’t snigger, it’s been known to happen at the drunken end of a late night and possessing the latent ability to dispense murderous red stains down the front of one’s clothes. Street food at its best and where it belongs.
Chefs – hands off!
Thanks for this Ed. Frank and non forgiving, just the way I like it. I am soooo sick of going to the effort both financially and time wise to find a restaurant that is supposed to be of high grade and have it be bitterly disappointing, you literally feel like you are being shafted.
Worst still is finding a decent place, returning expecting the same experience and have it underperform. Consistency is a dying trade and that is why paying at the rockpool, longrain is worth every penny, nothing leaves a bad taste in your mouth like having a bad restaurant experience and I am obviously not just talking about the food here.
I’ve heard many good things about the burger at the Exchange Hotel in Port Melbourne. Plan on heading there in the coming weeks to try it for myself.
I must say I had the burger at the Bot probably a year ago and it was sensational. Sucks to hear it’s gone downhill.
You can’t beat an Andrew’s Burger at 9pm on a Friday night
It’s sad to hear that the once famed Botanical is in a decline. I guess I would now head to Cafe Vue for their wagyu burger (teeny tiny, $10) and Andrew’s – who never disappoints.