El Gouna’s Botanica Grows Your Plate Right Next to Your Table

In El Gouna, Botanica brings the idea of a farm-driven kitchen closer to reality with a restaurant that gets it's ingredients from its very own greenhouse. The concept grew out of founder Ashraf Fala’s years managing luxury resorts along the Red Sea, where he watched menus across the coast slip into sameness - imported tomatoes, generic fish suppliers, herbs with little trace of the sun. During the COVID-19 pandemic he launched O’ROOTS, a hydroponic farm, and the project naturally evolved into Botanica: a place where what grows just beside the restaurant informs what arrives on the plate.“Most restaurants decorate with nature. Botanica is built inside it. The greenhouse is at the heart,” Fala tells SceneEats. At Botanica, when basil peaks in the greenhouse, basil leads the menu. When it's time for the tomatoes to ripen, it's the tomatoes that demand the spotlight. Every week brings a change, and the chefs improvise accordingly. “Botanica follows nature’s rhythm. Each week brings a surprise; a new sprout, a faster harvest.” Every dish starts as a seed in the greenhouse, then makes the journey to the plate. By the time it’s served, it’s transformed into an Italian-Mediterranean creation.

Hydroponics - a method of growing plants without soil, using a nutrient-rich water solution instead - are the clockwork beneath the surface. Fala mentions pH levels, nutrient balance, light cycles, then shrugs them off: the science is in service to the emotion. “Our systems guarantee purity and precision, but what stays with you is the taste, a tomato still warm from the morning sun.”
Botanica’s architecture itself seems alive: Water runs beneath the marble floors, plants grow toward the sun, and the space changes with the time of day. “We built the restaurant like a body that breathes," Fala says. "It’s a dialogue between design and flavour.”El Gouna likes to wear sustainability like a badge, but Botanica doesn’t need one. Ninety percent less water. No pesticides. Almost zero waste. You notice it without needing to be told. “Botanica translates sustainability into hospitality; something you can taste, not just read about,” Fala says. Through O’ROOTS, Fala already supplies his hotels, but Botanica is his next evolution: a way of proving that fine dining and farming can coexist without the theatrics of Instagram-ready garnish.