Tuincafe Botanica in Wijk 05 Oost

Very nice and cozy, also delicious cakes 🍰🥰🙌🏼

What a lovely place this is! The service is very friendly and the food delicious. When you walk to the restroom, you can admire the beautiful garden. I'll definitely be back!

Unfriendly service. We were looking for a nice place to briefly work on our laptops. A sign in the café stated that this wasn't allowed between 12:00 and 15:00. Respecting this rule, we arrived outside of these hours and ordered coffee. Then, at 15:30, we were turned away because we had to make room for people without laptops, because, as the gentleman who approached us told us, it was raining (like what?). Slightly disappointed, we paid and left, after which the man approached us again and started a conversation to prove his point. "Just like two men, you do understand that as a business owner, I'm forced to send you away, right?" As if we weren't just paying customers who abide by the actual rules (not the made-up ones). It's a completely antisocial and unnecessary way to be treated like a second-class customer by someone who bends the rules whenever he pleases, and then, when we do what's expected of us, gets into an even bigger argument. Absolutely the last time I, as a USP resident, will take anyone to this place. The service is even better in the student cafes, and they're also much more affordable.

Cappuccino soap foam like not of this time

Special "spicy Turkish iced tea" for €5.75. It was more like half a glass of flavored water. Service was rushed, and I wasn't allowed a glass of water in the hot weather.

Great lunch and then cake after a walk around the gardens

Light but good coffee, biscuits, and water included. Very friendly staff and a great location.

It was annoying to have to pay for each new order in advance, and it felt like you were practically ignored once you'd finished something. It's a shame, because the food and drinks were okay.

Came off the highway. First walked our little dog along the parking lot and let her out. Came running and the lady came outside: the dog is not allowed to come along, the dog is not allowed to come along. While I was still calling my boyfriend because he was looking for a parking space that could not be found. Everything was packed. Politely indicated that I did not come for the garden, but would like to use the toilet and have a cup of coffee inside since we still have a long way to go. Not welcome because the dog was not allowed along, not even when I indicated that I could pick her up to go to the toilet. Ridiculous. Inhuman. As if all dog owners are antisocial ;). You automatically become that when you are treated like that according to the 'rules'.

From 10:00 to 16:30 time to walk, only a pity that the visitor told too much about me, fat or thin, etc. Which is why I won't be walking here again so quickly, what's healthy here, then we'll go into town and just ask for a mobility scooter, then I don't have to walk at all, the weather was nice, but going to town was more fun I think, the experience, the feeling, a nice day, no.

After a wonderful walk through the beautiful gardens we settled down on the terrace. Because it was a very warm day we were ready for something to drink. In the spirit of the surroundings we were in, the choice 'lush elderflower' and the lemon with basil lemonade seemed nice to us. The price (€5.75 per drink!!) made us think that this would be a large (Hoegaarden) glass full. When ordering, the elderflower turned out to be gone. Too bad. So we chose the lemon lemonade variant 1 with and 1 still. Unfortunately, five minutes later, two small glasses of +/- 200ml and a lemon and MINT arrived. No basil to be seen or tasted. Very special, at this location you would expect a bit more knowledge of herbs. Was very happy not to have settled here with all the kids for this price... This was not worth it by far. Very unfortunate.

Beautiful garden, terrace big letdown. Starts with impersonal ordering via QR code. Staff hasty, probably hunted by "the boss" This man is not suitable for the catering industry. At 4:15 p.m. the customers are looking away because the tent closes at 4:30 p.m. An advice; SIR, FIND ANOTHER WORK, YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE!!!!!

Seems like a nice place, but it's a bit of a shame that your driver in a van with your name on it blends into traffic so antisocially. That would be a shame if something like that ended up on Dumpert, but please try to do something about it.v907hk

Yesterday I took a seat in the Café to warm up. At 11:55 a gentleman came to take my order and tell me that I was not allowed to use my laptop after 12:00. So I neatly put the laptop away and sat down with my notebook and a cappuccino (€3.50). Ten minutes later the gentleman wanted to take my coffee without having finished it, and another five minutes later he asked me if I wanted to make room for other visitors if more people came in. Excuse me? I felt really unwelcome here yesterday during the half hour I was there because I was by myself and didn't want lunch at that time. As far as I'm concerned, people could have joined me. I can imagine that you want enough space for lunch, but have never experienced this before.

Went there yesterday, food was delicious and staff were very friendly. Not sure about the little winged waiters though - eagerly waited for customers to leave so they could fight over the leftovers. Joke aside, very much recommend this place

As a UU employee I was shocked by the poor service and quality of the garden cafe. Especially the lunch bag product is substandard. The lunch bag of 16.70 euros contains a small soggy sandwich, soaked wrap, wafer-thin piece of cake, an apple and .... a Wilhelmina peppermint. You are better off ordering something. In addition, the problem-solving thinking of the staff and especially the manager is very limited. Especially if you still want a glass or coffee with your package and want to take a seat at the tables.

This place is a disgrace in terms of food and service. Poor options of food (only pre-made cakes and VERY ordinary sandwiches), extremely expensive and with attendants that could be easily replaced by a “self service” operation. Drinks are even worse… options of cold drinks are either soft drinks or a combination of water and industrialised/ semi industrialised syrups (5,5 for a “ice tea”). But the “cherry on top of the pie” was an accident with the drink we ordered… it spilled all over the table when being served (again, an accident…those things happen, all fine) but: - took ages to the waitress to come back and help us cleaning / bringing napkins to dry the table - when cleaning, the drink on the table was thrown on one of the guests - we “could” order another drink but… WE NEEDED TO PAY FOR it - the drink only came after 40 minutes, when everybody was done having lunch. As everything is pre-paid, there is no compromise whatsoever with the service… it can take 5 or 50 minutes, problem of the customer. Really horrible. If you visit the botanic garden in Utrecht, bring your own food.

We went here to wait for our excursion in the Botanical Gardens, and sat down at one of the tables eventually sent away because apparently EVERYONE at the table had to order something to be able to sit there, even though somebody already did. The staff was really unkind about it, the man who sent us away was unnecessarily harsh and the girl waiters were all laughing about it behind the bar. The woman at the reception was unkind and unnecessarily strict and blamed us angrily that the backdoor was open. Very unhappy about this experience, I would change up the staff entirely with people who actually have good experience within the horeca.

Delicious food, service wanted to take your order before we could even look at the menu. Do not offer something to drink first, because you have to order everything at once and pay immediately. Very strange, but we were in a great location and I would definitely recommend the caprese fleatbread.

Asked if I could order for take-away, staff member said yes but other staff member swooped in to direct me to the truck outside; when I protested it was closed, he insisted it wasn’t and even tho it was, I ended up without order (he asked what coffee I wanted; I hadn’t wanted to order coffee). Quite hostile all in all.

The place itself is nice, unfortunately the prices for many dishes and drinks are really too high for what you get. Also, the service usually does not work properly. Almost every time I order something, something goes wrong or things that you ask for are forgotten, such as cutlery that is forgotten or the wrong drink is delivered. I don't (always) blame the employees, working with both self-ordering via QR and in person is mixed up. I can imagine that this sometimes causes things to go wrong. Unfortunately, I have experienced this so often and I am really shocked by the price-quality ratio of some products that I no longer think it is worth ordering something here. This is of course separate from the gardens themselves, which are beautiful!

A good start to a visit to the gardens. Although not everyone's order seems to have gone well (given the reviews), it went well and friendly for us. Service (albeit in English) is at the table and immediate payment is the norm. Toilet stalls are outside.

The staff was extremely unprofessional and rude at times to others and my family. Instead of taking responsibility and ownership of their mistakes and shortcomings, they simply tell their clients to "relax" and "take it easy" because it's a botanical garden. If an order is missed despite being paid for, the excuse shouldn't be "things can happen." Its a shame that there are such low standards of service in such a beautiful setting.

Had a nice meal in the sun. Drinks and pastries came quickly, but the sandwich took a while but it all tasted delicious

Perfect for tasting local products. Fast and efficient service. Good value for money.

Delicious fresh falafel eaten on the terrace with a beautiful view. That's fine!

There were no pleasantries from the staff at the cafe. If you're new, you may not know where to place your order and may simply stand. We are aware of the no-smoking area. Staff members are unfriendly if you smoke outside. It is not advisable to sit there. There are no omens present.

Nice coffee and fresh pastries. Quickly helped with 4 people on the terrace and all 4 enjoyed it

Nice location but quite unprofessionally set up. Power was out halfway through the wedding party (without solution), staff quite inexperienced, bar closed without a final round or announcement. At the end the gate was closed and it seemed quite a problem that we really wanted to leave the site.

Very friendly staff. The banana bread was very tasty. I found 2.75 a bit too expensive.

Beautifully located lunch café. Perfect if you just want a tasty sandwich.

Food and drinks were fine, but staff were not friendly. You also have to pay immediately, this seems logical to me on a large city terrace, but on a terrace of less than 15 tables it is quite customer unfriendly

Nice terrace with a decent lunch menu with a few unusual things. Friendly staff and reasonable prices.

A mockery. We sat on the terrace. Then something we ordered and paid for is not served. Tried a few times to get the attention of the waiter because the order had not been served completely. Finally someone responded and made inquiries. They had forgotten to bring it. It later turned out that what we had ordered was not in stock. We were offered a replacement product. A little later it turned out that it could not be served (it was still in the freezer). What a mess. There were no excuses. Fortunately, the rest of the day was wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed the Botanical Gardens.

Easy ordering via app. Staff friendly. Real Utrecht beer and a tasty sandwich. And beautiful surroundings! Top

The gardens are beautiful, but I would skip the cafe. I don't know whether it is the table numbering or the cash register software or the occupancy or something like that, but things often seem to go wrong with the order. Perhaps we should discuss with each other how this could be done more conveniently? The service was friendly and the food was delicious, that wasn't the problem.

Friendly service, great view and a delicious large flatbread with hummus and falafel. Definitely recommended!

Nice cafe in a great botanical garden. Friendly staff with good food recommendations: Pastel de nata. In terms of price, you can certainly get slightly larger portions elsewhere, but it's definitely worth a visit. :)

Very unpleasantly surprised to find out they "don't serve lunch today". This was not mentioned on the website, not on a sign and not by the waiter who gave us the menu. We only found out at the moment of ordering. Very unprofessional and unfriendly to customers.

This was quite a disappointing experience. There was nothing wrong with the coffee, but the cakes we had were very (!) dry and quite tasteless. It's definitely not worth the stop for the food.

The Café at is okay, the staff speak both dutch and english. The tea seems to be of decent quality (i had the "unicorn tea", green tea with jasmin), but the Schwarzwälder Kirsch cake did not seem to be fresh and it was dry, so i find it quite expensive for what it is.

Tea was good but the piece of cake i had with it was dry, the cake was for sure not fresh and not worth 4 euro's.

This is a nice restaurant. The cold sandwiches are absolutely delicious. The soup is pretty good too. It's vegan friendly and eco-friendly.

Paid 40+ euros for 3 normal beers, a kombucha and 4 extremely dry tostis that barely filled us. We all had different tostis, but were equally disappointed with them. In addition to this, even though the staff is very friendly, the service was extremely slow.

Had to wait almost an hour and a half for two croquette sandwiches. 2 staff members assured us that they were on their way. The new girl was kind enough to check this out. SHOUTOUT to her. Then we received our order almost immediately. Due to the long wait, I had to quickly view the garden due to closing time. Received two vouchers for coffee. Garden is beautiful.

We celebrated our wedding last June in the conservatory of the Botanical Garden in Utrecht. Botanica provided vegan catering and helped us organize the wedding in the conservatory. The food was really delicious and we received so many nice compliments from our guests about it. In terms of organization, they think very carefully about what is possible, but they also let us know if something is inconvenient or could be improved. Very nice to work with and thanks to them we had an unforgettable and carefree day. I can definitely recommend them!!

Great place!!! Good food and very beautiful area ✨

Lovely place for lunch. I had a second cup of coffee because the first one tasted good. Delicious sandwiches. Very nice that the birds on the terrace also want to eat. They are insatiable.

Unfortunately I had a very bad experience with this cafe. The botanical gardens are beautiful but this cafe ruined our afternoon. Treated absolutely unwelcoming by the waitress. I have a nut allergy so I asked if my choice contained nuts. Without taking out an allergen card, the waitress said that everything contained traces of nuts because nothing is cleaned between preparing the dishes, so it was our own risk. When I asked if there was anything without nuts, the response was very sullen. In the end we just left.

Very small and barely sufficient portions, which means you hardly feel full and the price is also not appropriate.

We went here to celebrate a birthday. We arrived at 3:30 PM. We knew that the restaurant closed at 4:30 PM. And yet an employee had to constantly indicate that they really closed at 4:30 PM. At exactly 4:30 PM, the gentleman was standing at the table. Then we went outside. Because we had a number of people in wheelchairs, I moved some chairs outside. The gentleman then came on high legs to indicate that the chairs were not allowed to be moved because they would break. I can still understand why that is not allowed, but it could be said in a nicer way. Then indicate that they really want to help... that was a bit too late. we then went into the gardens.

Very poor sandwiches, tried them all. The one with houmous was smeared hours ago. Soup wasn't much better. Absurdly limited card anyway. Staff unfriendly.

I was there last week , nice environment, sitting place outside , staff are friendly.