Squire's Garden Centres Reviews 

This review is for the Stanmore branch and, in particular, the 'Pets & Aquatics' section. We've bought tropical fish from there, on and off, for a couple of years. The staff are knowledgeable and check that the fish they sell you are going to a suitable 'home' by asking pertinent questions about your aquarium set-up and existing occupants. I've kept tropical fish for over 50 years so can spot when sellers are just going 'through the motions' - these folk have been well trained and actually care! They have a good selection of fish that are very well kept. No sign of dead fish mouldering away at the bottom of their tanks, as you often see at other outlets. The fish are also more likely to be of a decent size and are offered at a very competitive price. They give a 48 hour guarantee which we have had to call upon just the once - yesterday. Being caught, transported several miles and then added to a new tank is very stressful for fish, so the occasional casualty is to be expected, unfortunately. We contacted Squire's Stanmore online, offering to send pictures of the two dead fishes (Rummy-Nose Tetras), and were promptly contacted to arrange a refund. The other ten Rummy-Noses are doing fine, you'll be glad to hear.
So, overall, it's very hard to fault Squire's Stanmore when it comes to tropical fish. Thoroughly recommended.

Went to Woking squires for lunch. Shocking service and so disorganised with clearly not enough staff! Asked for water which never arrived. They got my order wrong for lunch so had to send back. Food is of very poor quality reminded me of the type of food you get on an airplane. Had to call someone to take our order or we would have just been left.

Late morning on Friday the cafe at Badshot Lea had two staff, one taking orders and one acting as barista. I say "acting", as observation showed she had little clue what she was doing.

Many tables were littered with the detritus of previous diners, and there were trays on the floor. The returned tray rack was full (and was still unemptied when I left).

On ordering one latte I was handed a pager! That was a first, but clearly not unconnected with the tardy service from the "barista".

15 minutes later, my pager started flashing and I collected the coffee.

It was a cappuccino not a latte!

I could not be bothered to complain and have wait another 15 minutes for the correct drink, so we left ... and we will not be going back, despite having shopped there for tens of years.

Thought I would treat myself to a breakfast of poached eggs on toast. Was really looking forward to it but unfortunately my eggs were stone cold.
Not a nice experience. Last time we ate there, the rolls my wife were given were covered in mould.
Don't think I will be going back again.!

I recently visited Squires 'Cheals' Garden Centre, Crawley, with my Mother and my Sister and their little elderly, blind, dog in her little doggy pushchair. We had been around the garden centre and gathered a trolley full of plants, but when we went to the cafe, we were refused access. We couldn't sit outside because we can't sit in the sun and they wouldn't allow us to put an umbrella up because it was a bit windy, so when we asked to sit in the restaurant we were told no dogs allowed! It was a Thursday afternoon and almost empty, but even with the doggy pushchair they wouldn't let us in! What harm would it have done? Why can't they have a dog friendly section like a lot of other places?

Hersham squires garden centre
Difficulty in contacting them directly to make a complaint
Lunch on the 6th July table booked for 12.30 Served at 1:30
1 Drinks order wrong
2 ran out of sausages on child’s menu
3 delay in fourth persons order others had finish when it arrived
4 minuscule portions
5 service poor
For this I paid £58,73 I am 78 been using squires all my adult life disgusted

Squires Cafe Reigate
My husband and I often spend quite a bit on plants and then pop in for lunch at the cafe in Squires Reigate. Unfortunately the food has gone badly downhill. I usually have the Allotment sandwich which is basically a cheese, onion and tomato toastie with a small green salad, at £9.99 not cheap but it was so nice I could never resist it. It was poor the last time I had it around a month ago but I put it down to a one off.

Well today I had to send it back twice, I bit into it and it was like biting into two carpet tiles aka dry brown bread. On opening it up, and showing the counter staff, a member of the serving staff said "we've been told to cut back" they then brought me another, I promptly opened it in front of the "chef" and said no, it's not good enough. She said "we have to put in a designated amount of cheese" I could not see more than 10 grams at best with 1/2 slice of tomato and some limp onion. I have a 400 gram block of cheese at home for around £3.50 so how much mark up are they expecting? They gave us a refund but while my husband had cod, chips and peas I sat there with nothing. They did not appear to want to remedy the situation. So Squires have not just lost out on cafe customers but we will also not be popping in to purchase plants, pots, cakes, sweets, cards etc . What a silly decision someone has made, the cafe was quite empty today on a Friday lunchtime, normally it would be hard to get a table. I wonder why? We will be going elsewhere, there is plenty of other places.

I purchased 2 Koi one of which died within 4-5 weeks cost £40. Water sample requested and tested ok. Replacement fish refused and directed to 48 hour replacement window which is contrary to Consumer Rights Act. Bailey and manager were only prepared to give 50% off to a customer that has spent 100s - remarkable short sightedness over £20 and here i am leaving a review. Farnham Badshot Lea Centre.

Terrible service waited ages for food.waiter said he was too young to take order for wine. Asked him 3 times to send somebody who could take order. No cutlery. We went up and fetched our own cutlery. Prawn cocktail had 3 black prawns in it. One person ordered roast chicken. Served chargrilled chicken breast with vegetables all cold. Never again.

My husband and I called into the garden centre this afternoon only were we unable to find staff to make plant enquiries we then made the mistake of deciding to have a cuppa. I’ve NEVER seen such poor impolite service. After waiting 25 minutes to place an order we were told it would take 40 minutes for our drinks (we had only ordered hot drinks). We decided not to wait but whilst we were there we saw no fewer than 4 other parties give up and leave. The place was quite untidy , the manager looked really unkempt and several tables needed clearing SORRY but we won’t be returning!!

Online purchase of trellis and seeds. Excellent service - fast delivery from their own cheerful and helpful driver. The seeds arrived in the post carefully packaged on the same day and a total spend of $66 incurred no delivery charge which was very reasonable. Delivery slot was 10.00am to 1.30pm so I didn't have to spend long waiting at home for it. Products were fine, the trellis was sturdy and in good condition.

1- Website says "opening time" Christmas Eve 10.30. Got there soon after and people were leaving already. I asked cashier what time they were open, she says 10 am but cash tills don't open till 10.30. Why on earth not put that on the website??
2- Wow I can't believe how over priced everything is!
3- Only 2 cashiers with a lot of people queuing up, one of the cashier tells her queue that she has to close because she needs to go to the car of the customer she was serving. Everyone moves behind the queue of the only other till. Then after a few minutes another cashier opens up, so everyone having already changed tills loses their place in line twice. Then the cashier came back from the carpark and opened her till again. Why on earth couldn't the cashier who was closing, wait until someone came to take over her till, or better still why couldn't someone else go to that shopper's car?

Squires Stanmore cafe is frequently very cold at this time of year. The place always seems dirty and the floor looks as if it goes for weeks without anyone sweeping it properly. We went a couple of weeks ago in mid-afternoon and were turned away as they were "not accepting anyone for 30 minutes" - no additional explanation given. They often have menu items unavailable - no beans on the breakfast menu recently! Beans come in tins, so surely they can have an adequate stock?? Looking at the comments on here, it would seem that similar complaints are made about various branches, so it would appear that no one at senior level cares very much. Let's see if anyone responds to this to say they're going to take action. To their credit, I should mention that several of the staff there are very nice, and do their utmost to make amends for what I assume they see as organisational failings.

Squires Woking Cafe bar:
Just had Christmas lunch at Squires Littlewick rd Woking and it was excellent. This was my 3rd Christmas party in December all at local venues and it is by far the best. Food was top quality and the service very friendly and attentive.
Would definitely recommend

I visited the coffee shop at Squires Garden centre Badshot Lea on Sunday 10th Dec. I wouldn't normally post a negative review but l was so appalled by the dreadful level of service l experienced l've made an exception! It took 45mins in total to receive our order of 2 hot drinks and 2 cakes! To describe them as being woefully understaffed wouldn't even come close. On a busy Sunday a few weeks before Christmas they clearly need extra staff since the existing are completely out of their depth!! My first visit....and it will most definitely be my last, absolutely dreadful!!

Badshot Lea outlet has gone through many alterations over the years, but they never seem to get the catering offer quite right. There’s a small (and from what I could see, inadequate) cafe which only does hot drinks and cake. Then there’s a separate restaurant for breakfast / lunch. The latter is an at table service which is nice but the space itself is cold, draughty and noisy. The biggest shock is the prices: £10.95 for a very basic baked potato with tuna and a small side salad. To me that’s not good value for money.

Just now the Squires "Beautiful Christmas" magazine arrived through my post box.
I must say that I feel that it is very out-of-date -it's crammed full of plastic kitsch, with no sense of anything at all whatsoever natural - much of it eventually destined for a landfill.
The magazine is exactly the same format as last year's - it's as though nothing has changed in 12 months – but people do remember – society has evolved – but Squires seem to have stayed the same!!
From a garden centre I would expect to see pictures and features about natural things, even in the winter - and I don't get any impression of nature in the magazine - it doesn't advertise Squires to me or, I think, to an increasing number of other people. I certainly will NOT be visiting Squires because they seem to be a short-sighted company that hasn't bothered to dream up even one single inspirational article about gardening at Christmas and thus doesn’t appear to have any idea about gardens but is more interested in peddling plastic.

The garden centre is fantastic but the food , not good . A scone so burnt more like a rock cake and the bread in the sandwich stale . Shame as the rest of the place including fantastic toilets is brilliant .

I had gone in to get advice on some plants as I want to change up my garden. A woman sent a man over to me to help and I thought he seemed really kind. I let him know I have no experience and thats why I needed help.
A few minutes later I hear him laughing about me to his colleagues and saying awful stuff and calling me a horrible person because I didn't have any knowledge about plants and asking the woman why he had to be sent to "help someone like her".

It felt awful knowing that the staff were so judgey. I cried on my way home due to the terrible experience.

I really like the garden centre in Twickenham. They have a very good range of quality products.
However their shop on the website is horrendous. Every time I have tried to order something, I would get an error message preventing me to complete the order , and that after spending time filling out all the required fields. Just feels like they do not want to sell you anything online… just a waste of time !