Bonsai Botanika

To end off J's two day stay in Brisbane, we headed to Bonsai Botanika for some coffee to round up our meal at Taro's Ramen & Cafe. We walked past Bonsai Botanika the night before and loved the pretty interior and thought it would be worth a try.

With decor that is warm and welcoming, Bonsai Botanika is apparently split levels with the ground level being a cafe and the second level serving up meals like ramen. One can peruse the huge menu banner right at the front, or you can choose to squint and look at the menu hanging right above the cashier. The menu offers a range of coffees and can be a little confusing if you don't know what is what.

The cake display is a beauty, filled with an assortment of flourless chocolate cakes. J and I could not resist and ordered a slice to go with our coffees.

Once again, our order was presented beautifully. Our Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake was served with the sauce in a beaker and a garnish of rhubarb. The cake was delicious, though a little on a pricey side. It was perfect accompaniment with our lattes, one with hazelnut syrup and the other with caramel.

The coffees were decent, cake yummy but the service unfortunately needs some tweaking. Staff seemed to be preoccupied with chatting among themselves instead of greeting diners upon arrival and that defeats the purpose of the cosy and warm ambience created by the decor and furniture. I enquired about the food menu with the cafe staff only to be told that there are no menus for us to browse through and would have to go upstairs to enquire about the menu. We found this a tad bit disappointing as it would have been great to have checked out the meals available.

Overall, Bonsai Botanika is aesthetically pleasing but needs to work on the overall dining experience. I may drop by for coffee and cake but it would be hard to go pass a meal at Madtongsan II or Taro's.