Botanical: Cville’s Newest Plant-Based Restaurant

Botanical is a new plant-based vegan restaurant in Charlottesville. It lived up to all expectations! Here’s what I ate for lunch.

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Botanical Cville: Plant-Based Delicious 

Last week I met fellow foodie and new friend Elizabeth of the blog Drift Cville for lunch at our brand-new plant-based restaurant: Botanical.

I have been waiting for months for Botanical to open since I first heard it was coming.

The restaurant is located in the space where the Java Java coffee shop used to be. The layout is the same with the long counter and tables in the back. It felt so familiar yet so different! 

For a while I’ve felt that the quick and healthy lunch options have been on the limited side. Charlottesville has needed more health-focused, plant-based vegan restaurants.

I think Botanical is a great addition to the downtown lunch spot collection (Ooey Gooey, Farmacy, Corner Juice, Rev Soup, Tilman’s, Tonic, and more). I’m excited to do more lunch dates out with friends, especially now that the weather is nice!

Botanical’s Vegan Menu

Botanical’s menu is completely plant-based, and they strive to create a welcoming atmosphere for all styles of eating and allergies. Vegetables are the main event with yummy sauces, herbs, nuts, sweet potatoes, rice, and more. 

They also have sharables (street corn! sticky cauliflower!), salads (kale Caesar!), sandwiches like avocado toast and chickpea tuna (which come with a side salad), and a kids’ menu with things like cashew cheese mac and cheese or an almond butter and jam sandwich.

Oh and desserts (see below) and coffee/tea/pastries. 

Of course we drooled over the menu and popped out our cameras for twin photos of the beautiful bowls! 

Botanical is also open for dinner!

Elizabeth and I want to go back for some cocktails – the passionfruit and jalapeño cocktails had our attention. Plus beer and wine too. 

For lunch, we both had the rosemary lemonade, which was fab. Love the stainless straw!

Roasted Sweet Potato Bowl

I was super excited to taste the beautiful creations on the menu. My friend Scott, who is a passionate vegan, has already been more times than he can count and recommended the roasted sweet potato bowl, which Elizabeth got. She shared a bite of the sweet potatoes – AMAZE!

Roasted sweet potatoes, rice, avocado smash, cucumbers, chili cashews, bbq drizzle and cilantro

Crunchy Cauliflower Bowl

I settled on the cauliflower bowl which came with crispy cauliflower nugs. They were SO SO good!!! I loved the tamari ranch too – I asked for more on the side! 

rice, white beans, crispy cauliflower nugs, ginger garlic glaze, purple cabbage, mango, tamari ranch, sesame seeds, aleppo

The bowl was perfectly portioned for my lunch – nearly finished it all and left happily full.

Dessert Bars

To finish our lunch, we shared two different bars – the Jam Bar with a shortbread crust, raspberry jam, and crumble, and the Almond Layer Bar from Bowerbird Bakeshop.  I believe both were vegan. And both were so good! 

I cannot wait to go back for more!!

Note they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Have you been? What’s your favorite plant-based meal?