Mitchell T.
Yelp
Upon entry, the doorman, Luca, sat us next to the only other occupied table. Tables are not socially distanced, so we asked to move. When the next customers entered, he insisted again on seating them next to us - again, not socially distanced. We moved ourselves to a new table and Luca then approached and began arguing with us, claiming we were being unreasonable. As he did so, he leaned over our table and got right up in our faces to the point where he was literally about 30cm away from us. After repeatedly telling him to back up, he repeatedly leaned in.
We pulled up the UK Government's official guidelines, to which he responded that these are mere suggestions and not things he actually needs to follow. I don't know why Luca thinks he is above a life-threatening global pandemic, but he certainly wasn't apologetic about it and insisted that we were being unreasonable for wanting to socially distance. Keep in mind - the restaurant is pretty big and with only 3 tables occupied, Luca wanted them to be right next to each other.
Our waitress was actually quite pleasant and I feel sorry for her having to work with someone like Luca. The food was good, but certainly did not outweigh Luca who insisted on putting lives at risk to suit his own personal agenda. Under normal circumstances, Botanist isn't the best restaurant in the area but is still decent; however, given we are in the midst of a global pandemic, I really would not recommend going here. There are a lot of people in the hospitality industry sadly losing their jobs due to this pandemic, maybe one of them should replace Luca and help bring back some sense of safety, intelligence, and respect for customers' general wellbeing.