Stopped here because I was looking for a coffee and a sandwich. Got a latte, slice of cake and a filled croissant, stupidly didn't look at the prices before and was shocked when that all came to £14.90!!
The latte was very middle of the road, the croissant was fine but filled with just lettuce and a tomato jam - for how much I paid I'd expect more interesting filling. I thought the cake was quite nice until I came to the thick layer of burnt cake at the bottom - can't believe they would see a burnt cake and decide it's still okay to sell! Wouldn't recommend
Tsenka Georgieva★★★★★
The modern minimalist design caught my eye, and the coffee and natas were fantastic. The staff was incredibly polite and provided excellent service. I'll definitely be back for more!
Ross Brannigan★★★☆☆
Nice place with a great vibe and decor. Coffee was good and staff fairly friendly. Food was OK but super salty (????) A little on the pricey side (£8ish for a toastie feels like a lot). Definitely has some potential.
Anushi Desai★☆☆☆☆
All I can say is that if you’re thinking of booking Michele and her team for an important occasion (like a wedding) - please save yourself the stress and don’t! We have tried to reach out to the team privately to avoid leaving anything negative on a public forum but it’s been impossible to get a response from them.
Nova Botanics were staggeringly unprofessional to deal with - after having paid in full, it is pretty shocking that the team are unable to respond to numerous emails - even with a small acknowledgement of funds paid / next steps. I struggle to believe any company is that busy that they cannot take 20 seconds to reply to their customers. Eventually we heard back (after multiple phone calls and emails) - the team are far too busy but will be in touch a month prior. Fine.
After chasing again, they finally got in touch in the run up to the wedding. Michele has fantastic vision and is reassuring to speak to (when you get hold of her) - but sadly that’s pretty much as far as it goes. They wildly undelivered vs. what was promised - some items (like the orders of service) were just completely incorrect. I had asked for Michele to send me photos of completed items, she agreed and nothing was ever sent. The bouquets were wilted and completely not in line with expectations.
The run up to a wedding is always going to be stressful but it was so much more exacerbated by Nova - it got to the point where we were worried they might not even show up on the day - such is the unprofessionalism of the team.
I only wish I had gone with a more established and reputable florist. It would have allowed us to enjoy the run up to the wedding, the flowers would have looked significantly better and so would the photos of the flowers! We were so disappointed by the entire experience of dealing with this team.
Sean Duncan★☆☆☆☆
Michele, we have given you so many opportunities to engage with us in what is a serious safety concern as well as dishonest trading. You have taken hundreds of pounds from us and simply disappeared.
We paid to have Nova Botanics conduct floristry and bake a cake for our wedding on 15/10/2022. After taking money upfront Michele became completely uncontactable, we sent dozens of un-replied emails asking very basic questions about plans for the day.
As our actual wedding became closer and closer, the lack of response became concerning and very stressful. No response to emails, social media messages or phone calls. Our venue coordinator went down to the shop to ask what on earth is happening, to which Michele replied that she was too busy to deal with us. This was shocking for us to hear and was a problem we only ever had with Michele.
We felt very depressed that we had employed a local tradesperson, only to encounter such an arrogant and belittling character who didn’t deem our budget (1700) worthy of response.
1 month before the wedding Michele finally gets in contact and dictates to us some extremely limited options for a cake-tasting session. The cakes were professional looking and delicious; we felt relieved to finally have things in order.
Michele drops off the greenery and flowers the day before the wedding and our fears of under-delivery were realised. We had been invoiced 130 pounds for a handful of green foliage and the arch was looking very bare. I spoke to Michele on the phone, she was very defensive and spoke over the top of me the whole time without conceding an inch. She agreed to source some fresh flowers to bulk out the arch- at additional cost of course.
Despite all the above, we had an amazing day and I think couples at this time are willing to just let go of any issues and move on- I note how Michele is a very busy wedding florist yet has barely any reviews with regards to her weddings. But the “cake” she made us was so hilariously awful that it had to be shared. Please see the attached photos of what appears to be cake mix heated up in a frying pan, presumably by the local boy scouts, and then slabbered with icing. I am utterly aghast that Michele pulled this out of her oven and bothered to ice it let alone insert it into the middle of our wedding cake. She turns up at our venue and drops the thing off, its wobbling and sinking through it’s tiers. Our venue organizer confronts her about it and Michele denies any issues with it. Our Chef inspects that it’s actually safe to consume which of course it is not. The carrot cake has huge areas of uncooked mush and the Victoria sponge is certainly not fit for consumption. Not only this, but the layers are completely amateur, the domes have been stacked and iced without any trimming- no wonder it’s wobbling when you’re stacking ovals on top of each other. What is served is completely different to what was served at our cake-tasting, which raises more interesting questions....
Unbelievably Michele made no effort to contact us since. I sent her a very reasonable text the following day as I wanted to give her a fair chance of getting ahead of things. No response. I sent another text asking her if she was planning on responding- no response. I have called with no answer. I sent an email advising that I will be making things more official if I didn’t hear from her this week. Nothing.
I’m sorry Michele, but you cannot charge Chelsea prices and produce a service like this. You frankly cannot have a food license with an active café and serve raw cake mix to customers. Finally, you cannot call yourself a creative with integrity when you can clearly see the standard of what you have produced. I know you have previously been referred to Perth and Kinross Trading Standards. I will be following suit and also referring you to Food Safety agency. I hope you will reflect on the many, many opportunities you have been given to de-escalate this. I encourage other people who have experiences with Michele Lamb to also leave reviews so Nova Botanics can be held accountable.
Stan★☆☆☆☆
Stopped for a quick coffee. Rudest host and worse customer service ever. She wants you to feel like she’s doing you a favor serving you.
She wouldn’t make it as a shoe salesperson in any other town.
We all left and found a MUCH friendlier shop across the streee.
Definitely AVOID!!!
I can see by her reply to other recent negative reviews how defensive she is, so I’m not surprised she tries to put the blame on the customers. There was no “shouting” and the only people being disrespected are the guests.
Just a perfect example of what to expect if you go here.
EUGENE OH★★★★★
I was travelling around Scotland on my vacation for a week joining a group tour and while we're dropping by this charming small city Dunkeld, I was able to have this Portuguese tart and iced coffee(finally!) at her facinating cafe. She was very busy but managed to get the ice(I didn't know that she had no ice in the shop, but then realised that she just got it from other place and prepared it for me.. still feeling so bad for this..). I'd had portuguese tart my friend brought to me directly from Portugal before and have it sometimes in Seoul, Korea but I can tell this is the best Portuguese tart I've ever had! which made me google her cafe and write this long long review which I barely do usually ;) Her kind and thoughtful service and good tart made my trip even brighter and made me wish to visit Dunkeld and her cafe once again in my life time. Thank you very much for this amazing experience and hopefully see you again in the future :) I promise I will have hot coffee then! ;)
Yujin Oh from Seoul, Korea.
India johnson★★★★★
One of my favourite shops in Dunkeld. The owner was so helpful, and curated a gorgeous dried flower bouquet for me. The shop was so beautifully curated, I wanted to take everything home with me! Our experience here just added to our gorgeous honeymoon stay in Dunkeld. We can’t wait to return ❤️
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FAQs
What is the address of By Nova?
By Nova is located at 23 Atholl St, Dunkeld PH8 0AR, UK
How can I get to By Nova?
You can find directions to By Nova by following this map link
