Dobbies Garden Centres Reviews 32,058

Avoid the Restaurant, the food is not very good and usually cold. Also they have a weird annoying rule, that they cannot serve hot, cold or Alcoholic drinks after 3pm.
They take your money for food without explaining all the rules. We won't be going again.

Well, IF you have all day to queue for a hot drink, try it. Afraid we didn't, put our tray down & left as did others in front of us.
The set up to order for drinks only or hot food needs separating or employ more staff.
It's the last Sunday before Xmas, we went 10.30 ish about 15 customers queuing but queue just didn't move for 10/15 minutes.
Shame, 'cause with better organisation, could be a great visit.

Love dobbies, the children were so excited to see Santa and the whole event was well worth the price, the store has a very Christmassy feel with decorations and gifts , used my voucher for a coffee and bought a treat, 🎄🎅🎁🎄

My friend and I attended a Christmas wreath making workshop with afternoon tea.
We were shown how to make our wreaths by Melissa. She is a florist who works for Dobbies and was brilliant! She was helpful, informative and encouraging with our wreaths.
The afternoon tea to follow was superb! A vast array of sandwiches, savouries, scones with clotted cream and jam, and a good selection of cakes with lots of tea or coffee.
A perfect way to spend a long afternoon with a very reasonable price.
Thank you!

Father Christmas experience not great only team Member that was super helpful was the girl at the desk.
Last ones apparently in on the day even though it was lunch not sure why , didn’t let my little girl finish making the reindeer food after a story and told about what it’s for !!! Was told
There was no time . I then had to request they filled it up before I left as no child would understand why you wouldn’t have it.
Father Christmas had no idea who the child was couldn’t find her on the
List and no mention of any of the info that you give in advance didn’t even ask What they wanted for Christmas I had to say and prompt !
If you don’t want to bring children Christmas cheer don’t do the job and employ someone who can. Woburn sands emporium much better so disappointed that we choose here this year . Little girl upset on the way home and confused !

We come here because it's local to us and we enjoy the garden centre. One of the worst things was seeing the empty upper part of the store where Costa used to occupy it some years ago. A super mezzanine area.

The Dobbies coffee shop has now made use of this space, with the old Costa furniture and wow, what a difference. We like the restaurant, but this coffee shop is quieter and lovely and I'm so glad Dobbies has brought it back! Comfortable sofas from back in the day when shops encouraged people to stay and relax! Great garden centre and seems to be running a lot more smoothly now.

Lots to like about this garden centre. Good cafe , fair selection of plants and most staff are knowledgeable and helpful.
However...
At the till we met a member of staff who lacked every skill needed to interact with customers. No eye contact...not a glimmer of a smile...he was a thoroughly miserable individual who obviously needed training .
It spoilt our visit !
Come on Cadnam - make sure that customer's last interaction with your staff is a pleasant one.

Won't use proper full milk in their coffees yet sell large cakes and biscuits full of sugar. Majority of their customers are older, many with pre or type 2 diabetes,chronic inflammation, Obesity, and one or more symptoms of metabolic syndrome, many of which are caused by these sugar bombs. If the fat in the milk was unhealthy in the first place, then nature wouldn't put it there. It contains all the fat soluble vitamins (especially vitamin D) that the body needs for optimum health.

Dogs in restaurants not good.

Had Xmas special 2 course lunch.
It wasn't warm enough and the young lady that served us apologised and brought out two nice hot meals. They were fine and we enjoyed them. She looked after us well.
I would point out that the cutlery trays are dirty. Lots of bits in the containers. They should be wiped out daily.

What a waste of money . We were in a total of 2 minutes ,that includes the activities with the elves and Santa .you are asked on the booking to mention 3 things for Santa to possibly mention when they meet your child , nothing was mentioned from my list 😔. The activities were extremely rushed and to be honest really embarrassingly crappy. The gift at the end was ok though but for £14 what a waste of money .this experience could be so much better .such a shame .won't be going next year

Just brilliant

A disappointing visit to the restaurant this afternoon. Tables left dirty and uncleared. At least half a dozen staff looking either bored or completely overwhelmed. The cashier was more interested in checking her phone. They clearly need training / supervision / motivation to improve their customer service. Will not be back.

Regularly visit Dobbies at Gailey as I have a loyalty card which is good value for the free drinks each month.
Decent garden centre with good choice of plants, at average prices. The biggest problem here is the cafe/restaurant which is very hit and miss on service and cleanliness. When it is busy the queues are very long and slow, when all you want is two coffees you have to wait in line while customers are being served with food, never enough staff there. All other garden centres now seem to allow you order and pay at the till with your table number, and bring your order to you, much better.
The cafe needs a good clean with badly stained carpets (not a good choice for flooring) and windows which look like they were last cleaned ten years ago.

Don't go for breakfast unless you like it cold and dry. After ordering a vegetarian breakfast and a vegan breakfast they came within a few minutes. How can they cook that fast? They can't it was cold and eggs dry like it had been sat for ages under a lamp "a broken one" and they served the vegan breakfast with normal butter... won't bother again.

I went for afternoon tea ,I had to change my chair it was filthy the one I got from another table wasn't much better . The tables were not cleaned it looked as though they didn't pay for cleaners if they did they weren't doing there job .I will not be going again.

Poor selection of stock, half empty areas and needs a lot of work. Rusty plant supports in outside area. A lot of the compost didnt have prices on the board.

Great shopping at Waitrose today. Friendly staff.
Great coffee at the restaurant. Special thanks to Vicky, Jan and Grannier for their superb customer service.
Well done ladies.
Our visits are now more and more regular Thbaks to the girls and the Waitrose staff.

Dobbies main store is great but the restaurant wasn't good today. We waited a long time for overpriced coffee and cake, whilst those waiting for the restaurant were still not being seated (there were plenty of free tables). We also noticed there was thick dust on the ledges around the restaurant.

Just visited the cafe at Chesterfield, had fish and chips, it should I say batter and chips. What fish there was and not a lot, was cold, chips only warm. The hottest part of the meal was the peas! Extremely disappointed will not be visiting again!