The Botanist on the Green, Richmond

THE BOTANIST - a nice pub! I know...I travel the length+breadth of London looking for decent pubs, to eat or drink. This is a decent pub, and the good people of KEW are lucky indeed! :o) If this was walking distance from my humble abode, I'd probably visit at least once a week (...I nearly put 'day', but I'm getting side-glances from "her-in-doors"...so I'd better be more conservative)! Don't ask me what beers were on tap here, I was just glad to get thru' the doors, away from the London hubbub...a little 'haven' on the out-skirts of Central London! And I guess on a sunny day, over-looking Kew Green, watching a cricket match with a pint of best, where would you else be...?!?! ;o) 7/10

Home to The Botanist Brewery this is an interesting place to explore.The brewing kit is proudly diplayed by a front window ,the entrance to the side leads directly to the serving bar.To the right most tables are set for dining and this part is more restaurant with table service,while to the left of the bar is a more informal pub area.The interior is on many different levels,a step up here,another two down there and this breaks up the interior into lots of different sections with some nooks and crannies.There is a wide mixture of furniture,some sofas,wooden tables and chairs,benches and settles while there is a courtyard at the rear of the building.The decor is modern and coal affect gas fires are evident but it is worth wandering around to see the clever use of space. There are five handpumps serving the house brews with Humulus Lupulus,OK Bitter,QGold,Queen Charlotte and Hemophila (£3.60) an excellent smooth,fruity stout. The brew kit bubbles away and there are faint whiffs of production with empty barrels and sacks of malt scattered around which adds to the atmosphere.The generic muzak meant that the Wednesday Quiz Master had to employ open outcry to transmit his questions. I found the food (Starters £5-£6,Mains £11-£18,Desserts £5 ) to be only pub grub quality ,not great value but priced to reflect the tourist trap nature of the area,but the real ale was interesting and would be the main reason for a return visit to sample more fully the other beer styles that are on offer.

This is a nice looking gastro pub that was serving up Sharp's Cornish Coaster, Fosters, Kronenburg, San Miguel, Birra Morreti, Aspalls cider and Guinness on my visit last week. The barman was very friendly, but unfortunately I was the only person in the pub at 12:30 and after returning from the toilet upstairs I was told that I have to move as a reserved sign had suddenly appeared on my table. I'm not 100% that it wasn't there when I originally sat down, but I'm pretty sure. It's a fairly big pub, but it is nicely sectioned so that it doesn't have a food hall atmosphere. I spotted a couple of plasma screens and I could have sat there all afternoon watching the tennis. The ‘sun trap' paved beer garden is fairly small and unexciting although there are thousands of little lights around the walls, so maybe it comes to life at night. I wouldn't go out of my way to drink here, but I've been to a lot worse gastro pubs than this so I may pop in if passing again.