Botanico At The Summerhouse (Formerly at The Garage)

Having a wedding lunch today, 23072023, everything was just so nice.

Having a wedding lunch today, 23072023, everything was just so nice.

Attended a wedding lunch. Very nice ambience, attentive service and great food.

Attended a wedding lunch. Very nice ambience, attentive service and great food.

Came for friends wedding. Good vibes if intending to hold a small wedding. Food served was great too.

Came for friends wedding. Good vibes if intending to hold a small wedding. Food served was great too.

Read good reviews about this place and saw that it was a popular wedding venue with lovely decor so was looking forward to dinner here. However the entire experience was subpar. We had a corporate event/dinner here with pre selected courses, and service was horrendous. Looking at the lowest ranked reviews here it seems the issues are mainly with poor service. As it was a corporate dinner, the overall bill would be borne by the company. Soft drinks and tap water apparently included in the package. However when asked what drinks were available service staff replied orange and lime juice. Which, as we were to find out later in quite a rude manner, was not included in the pre ordered/paid package. Since it was separately chargeable, was it not courtesy for us as guests to be informed prior to us ordering? It put our bosses in terrible light later on when the service staff placed the bills for our drinks in front of each individual quite abruptly suddenly between the appetiser and soup course! My goodness. We were all pay-waving in the middle of the dinner, not even discretely explained with payment collected at the end of dinner. This sudden flourishing of multiple bills in the middle was executed in extremely poor taste… like the dry chicken dish. My colleagues also were turned off by how they could not request for additional bread slices, though the chunk of butter provided per person was huge. The reply received was a curt “everyone is entitled to one slice of bread each”. If there needed to be a top up of payment for additional bread then it could have been explained and I’m sure some people would have happily done so - because they were clearly still hungry. Alcohol was also not distributed equally amongst all patrons between the two tables, with one table not receiving our glasses in time for the toasts raised by our bosses. Overall it might be an interesting venue for a small group meal but this place definitely can’t cope with large groups or corporate events or even weddings. Would highly NOT recommend.

Read good reviews about this place and saw that it was a popular wedding venue with lovely decor so was looking forward to dinner here. However the entire experience was subpar. We had a corporate event/dinner here with pre selected courses, and service was horrendous. Looking at the lowest ranked reviews here it seems the issues are mainly with poor service. As it was a corporate dinner, the overall bill would be borne by the company. Soft drinks and tap water apparently included in the package. However when asked what drinks were available service staff replied orange and lime juice. Which, as we were to find out later in quite a rude manner, was not included in the pre ordered/paid package. Since it was separately chargeable, was it not courtesy for us as guests to be informed prior to us ordering? It put our bosses in terrible light later on when the service staff placed the bills for our drinks in front of each individual quite abruptly suddenly between the appetiser and soup course! My goodness. We were all pay-waving in the middle of the dinner, not even discretely explained with payment collected at the end of dinner. This sudden flourishing of multiple bills in the middle was executed in extremely poor taste… like the dry chicken dish. My colleagues also were turned off by how they could not request for additional bread slices, though the chunk of butter provided per person was huge. The reply received was a curt “everyone is entitled to one slice of bread each”. If there needed to be a top up of payment for additional bread then it could have been explained and I’m sure some people would have happily done so - because they were clearly still hungry. Alcohol was also not distributed equally amongst all patrons between the two tables, with one table not receiving our glasses in time for the toasts raised by our bosses. Overall it might be an interesting venue for a small group meal but this place definitely can’t cope with large groups or corporate events or even weddings. Would highly NOT recommend.

We had our wedding banquet earlier on this year at botanico, part of the 1-group. Wedding planner promised heaven on earth but sadly the actual event was marred by multiple service lapses. It all went downhill after signing the contract. A very junior/inexperienced wedding planner was assigned to us 2 months prior, who mixed up even basic details of our package, couldn't answer simple questions about adding guests, etc without multiple days being missing in action. The food tasting was good. Portions were reasonable (at almost $200/pax, I'd expect so). The actual day experience was horrid. We were shocked that the portions were noticably smaller, beef was hard and fish was dry. The semi outdoors area had a portable Aircon which the staff "forgot" to turn on until late in the event! Our guests were left sweltering in the heat. In the middle of our wedding, the bride was told to move the bridal car immediately from the "loading bay" which was promised to us as a reserved lot for the bridal car. This was informed very rudely by a "senior" staff member (who was visibly rude to his own staff as well) to the bride herself. "You have to move your car now. You cannot park there." The same staff member subsequently also told the bride's father off for accidentally placing the wedding flowers on the newly laid out tablecloth. We were also being chased constantly to clear the place, even though we were making as much effort as we could. The cost of the lunch reception was almost the same price per person as quoted by us by multiple top hotels (e.g Raffles, Fullerton, Capitol Kempinski for similar number of guests) so I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a smooth wedding reception with service standards at least somewhat on par. We also lodged a complaint with the company itself, and not unexpectedly, there was no reply for more than a month, and thereafter a disingenuous reply saying that food quality was within standards, "nobody" promised a bridal car lot and that service staff had "good intentions" when rudely asking us to move. There was also supposed to be a reimbursement for certain items that they'd claim would be paid out 30 days after the wedding. Unsurprisingly, it took far longer and not without pushing multiple times and having to deal with their wedding coordinators. Every sum had to be double checked as there were errors in overcharging and under reimbursement, laughable that the customer had to check for them - and at one stage after the event they even claimed "we underpaid" - which was of course an accounting error on their part. We cannot recommend this venue and 1-group to other couples. Beware of the overpromising and underdelivering.

We had our wedding banquet earlier on this year at botanico, part of the 1-group. Wedding planner promised heaven on earth but sadly the actual event was marred by multiple service lapses. It all went downhill after signing the contract. A very junior/inexperienced wedding planner was assigned to us 2 months prior, who mixed up even basic details of our package, couldn't answer simple questions about adding guests, etc without multiple days being missing in action. The food tasting was good. Portions were reasonable (at almost $200/pax, I'd expect so). The actual day experience was horrid. We were shocked that the portions were noticably smaller, beef was hard and fish was dry. The semi outdoors area had a portable Aircon which the staff "forgot" to turn on until late in the event! Our guests were left sweltering in the heat. In the middle of our wedding, the bride was told to move the bridal car immediately from the "loading bay" which was promised to us as a reserved lot for the bridal car. This was informed very rudely by a "senior" staff member (who was visibly rude to his own staff as well) to the bride herself. "You have to move your car now. You cannot park there." The same staff member subsequently also told the bride's father off for accidentally placing the wedding flowers on the newly laid out tablecloth. We were also being chased constantly to clear the place, even though we were making as much effort as we could. The cost of the lunch reception was almost the same price per person as quoted by us by multiple top hotels (e.g Raffles, Fullerton, Capitol Kempinski for similar number of guests) so I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a smooth wedding reception with service standards at least somewhat on par. We also lodged a complaint with the company itself, and not unexpectedly, there was no reply for more than a month, and thereafter a disingenuous reply saying that food quality was within standards, "nobody" promised a bridal car lot and that service staff had "good intentions" when rudely asking us to move. There was also supposed to be a reimbursement for certain items that they'd claim would be paid out 30 days after the wedding. Unsurprisingly, it took far longer and not without pushing multiple times and having to deal with their wedding coordinators. Every sum had to be double checked as there were errors in overcharging and under reimbursement, laughable that the customer had to check for them - and at one stage after the event they even claimed "we underpaid" - which was of course an accounting error on their part. We cannot recommend this venue and 1-group to other couples. Beware of the overpromising and underdelivering.