britishgardencentres.com Reviews 

The café is average. There are two seating areas, one inside a large industrial greenhouse adjacent to the café and the other actually inside the café.
What really spoilt it for me was that some of the tables in the greenhouse area had glass tops, being faux wicker garden furniture, and there was a collection of crumbs from other people's food in the faux wicker around the edge of the glass top.

I have been using Alton’s on the A127 for over 25 years, which has now been taken over by British Garden Centres.

What an absolute nightmare of an experience and they certainly know how to destroy what used to be a pleasant experience overnight.

They have now got rid of the effective pay wooden huts for all your plants, which now means your have to take your plant trolley on a Grand Prix Circuit round the entire shop in order to pay.

What used to be the entry point is now the exit point and what used to be the exit out to the plant area is now the entry point.

So with your plant trolley fully loaded up you now have to go through the entry door (previously what was the exit point) walk through the store, past the cafe so you can watch what they eat whilst they admire your plants (good luck at Easter weekend next week when they are all start to back up in the que) down the slope, past the BBQ area (take a break because by this point your knackered) and then work your way to the tills.

Oh I should add it’s an exhausting lap with a loaded trolley (let alone for a 90 year old mum) who nearly pasted out at the exit door only to find (after doing the Grand Prix circuit) to see a bunch of wheel chairs chained up by the exit door for those that need them. Well obviously it looks like that management were not bought up with any common sense to ensure that these should be housed at the entry point! No let’s, let the elderly and vulnerable suffer and laugh at them whilst that suffer doing there shopping and then to admire the wheels chairs when exiting the store.

After 25 years of loving Alton’s I can honestly say I will never ever be visiting one of these British Garden Centres again.

Never seen so many people complaining and the staff were the most miserable people I’ve ever seen.

Lots of choice for garden furniture, plants and all the usual items you didn't know you needed until it's visited.
We also stopped for some refreshments in the little cafe, very nice, welcoming staff, a good range of food on offer although we forced ourselves to stick with Scone's and really nice coffee. Plenty of parking (no chargers) and easy access from the centre to the boot of the car which is a bonus.

Visited the Gloucester branch, soft play With a friend and our 1 year old boys. It was diabolical. Queued up at the cafeteria till to pay, granted it was a lovely surprise that for a 90 min session it was only £2.49, however, as soon as we walked through the doors we could soon see why.
It was freezing and straight away I clocked that there are large gaps and holes at the top of the walls, straight to the outside.
The recommended ages are 1-8, so we went to the baby section, which essentially was some padded mats that were laid down, with gaps between them so you could see the concrete ground underneath, bordered by a knee high padded edge. Nothing for the babies to interact with. The mats were dirty and looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in years. My son’s hands were freezing from crawling and all the kids, even the older ones, all had their coats on. It’s also unmanned so the older kids were bombing about the baby section. As we walked round the corner to the older kids section I could see hair balls and dust balls wedged into corners and edges, it was gross! I highly recommend you do NOT take your children to the Gloucester soft play.

Paid alot for soup, scone, tea and juice but what was ridiculous we wanted to take a piece of chocolate cake to go, to someone to brighten their day and this £5 piece was the smallest, most pathetic, small piece of cake we ever came across. We often visit Brigg Garden Centre but we are getting more and more put off by the products and prices! Would post a pic but unsure how. I would avoid the resteraunt if you can or just hv a cup of tea or coffee as the food is becoming a rip off sadly. Just got a reply to say only consider a slice of cake as a treat only! I think at £5 for the thinnest, most pathetic piece of chocolate cake priced at £4.95 that is already considered a treat...and a rip off. What a silly reply!!!!!

We ,3 off us went for afternoon tea at Studley garden centre, what a disappointment egg sandwiches taste less cakes mediocre but worsed of all was the plain scones absolutely rock hard when we told them they removed them and brought more which where worse so they just apologised and that was it.

Went for an afternoon tea at the Northampton branch today, the amount of food we got for the money was excellent. The young lady that looked after us was attentive. Would certainly go again for an afternoon tea. I don’t think think the normal menu is always worth the money, the afternoon tea definitely is.

Afternoon tea at Lewis Garden Centre today was very good indeed.Very well presented, plenty of choice, sandwiches, quiche,cakes, tarts and plenty tea or coffee. Staff were brilliant,and super quick service. We will definitely be back.

Ate in the restaurant ordered baked potato with cheese and beans. Potato was half the size of last time. The beans and potato were cool not hot and the drink had gone up from £2.25 to £2.85 very unimpressed

Stevenage garden centre is fairly local to us ...I popped in there (with my little dog) whilst waiting for my wife who was at the Lister Hospital, I ordered a sandwich & a pot of tea at the exorbitant price of £12.28 which I thought was a lot ...nice surroundings & comfortable seating but the person serving me, his mannerism reminded me of Basil Fawlty

Ordered a gift card on 8th January for a friends 70th birthday. Money taken from credit card. Gift Card NOT received. I have sent a message requesting action BUT NO REPLY. BEWARE. Still no reply.

I have visited my local British Garden Centre, Ramsden, Oxfordshire , a few times and each time have complained about the state of the toilets.Nothing has changed. They are disgusting. I will not eat at this place due to not being able to ‘make myself comfortable’ or wash my hands. I was told on complaining again that they do not have cleaners there or at their other branches. The facilities need replacing anyway.

Hemel Hempstead Garden Centre - Pipers Hill. How welcoming and friendly are the team who work in the restaurant. Lynn C is such a lovely lady to be served by and takes an interest in all her customers & has a brilliant memory. Thank you for making every visit such a pleasure. I bring a lady I visit here when she fancies a trip out and the welcoming atmosphere and delicious coffee are always a hit. Just such a nice place to bring someone who is quite vulnerable but is welcomed and made feel very much at home. Long may this continue and your kindness is not taken for granted.

Visited Gloucester for a carvery last week, Jon and the 2 young ladies were very welcoming and helpful, the food was delicious. There custom service was first class.

Absolutely beautiful restaurant,ordered a egg mayo sandwich which came with chips and a bit of salad and chunky coleslaw,must say a bit to chunky and salad needs a bit of dressing but other then that Great Sandwich nice chips friendly staff.

I visited Gardener's Retreat Restaurant with my hearing dog. I was so pleased to find the server was aware of my needs. She took my order and although I was prepared to sit in the dog seating area which was full of dogs, she invited me to sit anywhere. She paid particular attention bringing my food to the table quietly without fuss. I shall definitely visit again. So refreshing to have such a positive experience. Oh and the bacon bap was stuffed full of bacon and thoroughly delicious.

My wife and I decided to have a meal at the new Gardener's Retreat Restaurant at the Paddock Wood Garden Centre. When ordering at one of the 3 tills, the young lady serving the gentleman in front of me was struggling to scan the voucher he had given her. Two other young ladies were trying to help her. This went on for several minutes until a mature member of staff came to the till to assist. This experienced lady saw the queue and said to the other 2 young ladies, "Will one of you jump on another till to serve the next customer". Not a good start. I chose the Italian Chicken and my wife chose a baked potato with a chunky coleslaw side dish. You have to help yourself to cutlery, napkins and sauces, but these are not next to the tills and you are not told this when ordering. The 2 meals were placed on our table and the waitress, who was the one who took my order and who I shall call Annie, quickly disappeared before I could ask her about the cutlery. The baked potato came without butter so as Annie was walking past I asked her for some butter. Several minutes had passed and no butter appeared so I went to the till to ask for some. The Italian Chicken was just about okay, although the salad was dry and looked old and was very bland. The baked potato was awful, the skin was leathery and my wife could not eat it. The chunky coleslaw was 3 pieces of coarsely chopped red cabbage with a very small, nay tiny, amount of dressing. The cabbage was hard and inedible. When Annie came to clear our plates I told her the baked potato was not very good and she said, "I don't work in the kitchen so I will let the kitchen staff know". There was no apology or "I'm sorry to hear that" from her or anyone else. I also told her that the service was not good, but again, I received no apology or acknowledgement of what I had said. The restaurant was not busy - it was 3pm and I would guess there were about 15 people there. The surroundings were pleasant and it looked like a good place to eat. Unfortunately the service and the food, on this occasion, let it down.
The reply to my review invited me to contact the customer service team, which I did via email. It says a lot about the attitude and ethos of the company that after contacting the customer services team as requested, I am still awaiting an acknowledgement/reply a week later.

Canny arden centre but what a total rip off in the cafe, a salmon salad, a tikka wrap, a few chips and two coffees…£37!

I love visiting British Garden Centres! The stores are well-organised, full of beautiful plants and gifts, and the café is a lovely place to relax. Excellent quality at reasonable prices and always a welcoming atmosphere.

Went to the quiet session of Santa's grotto last week with my non verbal disabled child. We have taken him previous years and have been absolutely amazing. The whole experience was rushed, he didn't resemble santa, spoke to him and expected a response despite previously giving the details before hand. There was no reindeer dust making or cookie decorating like previous years, the staff were freezing and couldn't wait to get home. The whole santa visit was 2mins and out and no issues visited santa at hayes book either. For £25 a child it most definitely wasn't worth it ! After speaking to other parents they were also disappointed one resulting in a disabled child being shouted at by a member of staff for their behavior!!!! I've emailed with 0 response. The toy was an air car that he can't play with that cost £6 at most he had a much more pleasant and compassionate visit from his home football team ! I actually can't believe how much it's declined.