Dobbies Garden Centres Reviews 

Absolutely gobsmacked.Dobbies Barlborough.Breakfast in the restaurant was diabolical. Waited 5 minutes to be served. Looked at the food under the warmer and my instincts told me to walk away. Wish I had. Mini breakfast consisted of 1 cheap sausage, 1 piece dry bacon, spoon of solid scrambled egg and 1 cherry tomato. Forgot to mention the hash brown. Couldn’t swap items either. Then to be charged £23.75 for 2 mini breakfast and 2 regular lattes.
Breakfast cold and to be brutally honest absolutely outrageous. Insulted to think that they presumed that could be served and anyone could eat it
On a positive note, staff fantastic and complaint was dealt with in that refund was given for £6.75- one breakfast. My daughter didn’t want any fuss.
Feel the whole cost should have been reimbursed.

Afternoon tea for my birthday, advertised scone with jam clotted cream was given dry scone with packet of butter, asked for clotted cream and was then given the cream. Sandwiches small but nice, cakes not as advertised small jelly like squares that you would avoid in poor all inclusive. Cakes advertised raspberry cheese cake, however did not get this, complained staff were nice and said we could pick a cake from the restaurant. Overall small and very disappointing, will not be returning for afternoon tea.

We visited the restaurant at Dobbies Garden Centre Woodcote (Wallington) for breakfast, ordering one Full English and one Vegetarian breakfast. Unfortunately, the entire experience was deeply disappointing.

​After a considerable wait, both meals arrived lukewarm to cold. The vegetarian breakfast was completely tasteless, and the hash browns were clearly low-grade frozen ones with an unappetising, odd colour. The Full English was just as bad—cold, flavourless, and served with a child-sized portion of baked beans.

​The one positive was our server, Tracy, who was polite and helpful. When we pointed out the issue, she kindly took the Full English back to be reheated. However, the chef simply microwaved the entire plate, completely ruining it and turning the poached eggs rock solid. The food was practically inedible.

​To make matters worse, when I raised this through their website, I received a generic, copy-paste brush-off stating it was "passed on centrally" and that the store wouldn't even be contacting me directly. No resolution, no genuine accountability. Appalling food quality and equally poor customer care.

I am wishing to book Afternoon Tea at Dobbies, Swansea but having telephoned at least six times at different times of the same day, nobody is interested in answering the phone! This does not give a very good impression at all.

The layout and the helpful customer service assistant. She was very helpful helping me sign up for a Dobbies card

Ordered a patio set 2 tables and 1 parasol arrived
NO CHAIRS Called customer service they assured us the chairs would be delivered 18 /08/26
Still nothing chased up with customer service pushed around different people they had been lying to us they had NO STOCK so they had sent 3 random parts
Out of pocket nothing to sit on
Gross incompetence on there part they do not care it’s diabolical customer service
Why was the consignment not checked?.
No compassion
No thought
It’s now got a case number? For there huge mistake and I now feel I am to blame
Come on Dobbies buck your ideas up and employ staff that can do a job or is this the way you run
Totally disappointed let’s hope it rains this bank holiday so I will not as disappointed !

Restaurant poor service and overpriced. If the staff don’t want the job don’t work there. No trays cheap Victoria sponge not worth the money. Garden centre looks ok this is a restaurant review only.

Never again shop half empty. My partner was over charged for a sale clothing item. on returning it the staff member said "Oh this often happens"
then even worse the cafe was a rip off. I have allergies so was forced to pay £6.75 for scrambled egg and a piece of bacon. I had to pay for scrambled eggs with toast that was no use to me. buy the time the order arrived our coffee was finished. I was not able to order egg and bacon separately so Dobbies ,its a never again experience again.

Now here's a company that does get what customer service is all about. We purchased a set of garden furniture, the boss (my wife) was sure it was the perfect size, in fact she measured the table using her mobile phone as a ruler. Sadly she got it wrong (my fault it seems) and it was way too big. Here's the great service part, Dobbies (Swindon) had a laugh at our predicament (we laughed too) and refunded the cost wishing us well and encouraging us to return. And we will because we like their customer service ethos.

We had a very disappointing experience at the Dobbies Garden Centre Ashford restaurant today.

We arrived at around 12:20 pm. and went straight to the restaurant. There were only around five people in front of us, so we expected to be served fairly quickly and enjoy a nice lunch.

Unfortunately, we and around 15 customers who arrived after us were left waiting in the queue. A 6 members of staff were gathered around the coffee machine taking part in what appeared to be a training session, while only Faith (rather ironic, considering the circumstances!) and, as far as I remember, a chef called Jackie(?) were trying to deal with the customers.

The situation looked particularly unprofessional when the lady in front of me ordered a coffee. The member of staff making it then asked another member of staff involved in the training whether the coffee she had made "looked OK". As a customer, I found it very uncomfortable to watch a drink being prepared for a paying customer as part of what appeared to be a training exercise. I certainly don't feel that customers should effectively be paying for products being used for staff training.

Meanwhile, the chef was serving the five customers ahead of us while also trying to pop to the kitchen and deal with food preparation as well. After waiting for around 25–30 minutes, my daughter approached the group of staff gathered around the coffee machine and politely complained about how long customers had been left waiting.

Only then did two members of staff come over to serve the queue. However, once customers started placing their orders, it became apparent that some of the prepared dishes were already unavailable. This was hardly surprising, considering that the chef had been pulled away from preparing food in order to serve customers. She was also, rather awkwardly, told off by another member of staff who was involved in the coffee training for the luck of prepared food.

I completely understand that staff training is necessary and important. However, carrying out training involving six members of staff right in the middle of the lunchtime rush seems extremely poorly timed and poorly organised. Customers should not be left standing in a queue for such a long time because of this. I noticed that a few customers actually walked away because of waiting time.

In total, we waited around 40 minutes from joining the queue until we finally received our food and paid for our order.

Sadly, this experience has completely put us off choosing this restaurant for lunch in the future.
The whole situation gave the impression that customer service was not the priority, which is very disappointing for a place that should be welcoming and customer-focused.

Just had a new patio set delivered (via DX2). Excellent service in the shop (Stockton-on-Tees) with some splendid autumn discounts. Well please with the furniture and the plants we've bought over the year.

Unfortunately, today’s visit to Dobbies Ashford was a very disappointing experience.

I spent around 35 minutes queuing in the restaurant just to order lunch for myself and my son. The queue was barely moving, and I saw several customers simply give up and leave without being served. When customers expressed their frustration, the response was: “We have training today.”

Only two members of staff appeared to be actually serving customers, while the rest of the team were gathered around the coffee machine for training.

The situation with my coffee was also very unprofessional. Staff were practising making drinks and asking the trainer whether the coffee they had prepared was correct. I have absolutely nothing against staff training - everyone has to learn. However, if my order is being used as part of that training and the person making it is not even sure whether the drink has been prepared correctly, I think it is reasonable to ask: why should I be expected to pay full price for that drink?

Staff training is necessary, but it should be organised in a way that does not result in customers waiting 35 minutes or paying for drinks that are effectively being used as training examples.

The whole atmosphere in the restaurant today felt unpleasant and poorly organised. We came simply to have a nice lunch together, but instead experienced a very long wait, frustration, and the feeling that customer experience had become the lowest priority during the training session.

Very disappointed with today’s visit.

Mia

Bought a swing from here that snapped in half and because slightly over 1 year it's not covered by the guarantee. My expectations were obviously far too high for these swings to last more than 1 year. I will throw them away and buy more swings and then throw them away. Perhaps they could start a subscription service where you get a new swing every year then chuck it in the tip when it breaks every few months. Great to see we can build high quality products still in this country. Perhaps we could make them from paper and they would be more durable and we could recycle them each week? Congratulations Dobbies on another example of outstanding British company service!

I was served with a very nice assiant ,I had bought. A garden gazebo which was on sale , excellent price may I mention , I tried speaking to a assistant before the girl that served me ,,she was a bit rude ,I only wanted to ask a quick question. ,she was having none of it really sharp reply. ,was with a customer , she was on her own then a colleague came and spoke they had a blether a giggle. , I attempted again to ask her nope. No chance cut short.im with a customer , not a gd customer. Assistant at all. ,small in height very short hair ,and was about 1-55 pm. Very rude.,

We like the Garden Centre.
Alas the plants and own brand soil/grobags can be dire.
We bought 2 own brand Grobags, 3 tomato plants and 1 cucumber plant.
Growth has been abysmal compared to last year when we had a bumper crop.
So far 1 large tomato and 4 small pixie type tomato’s
The plants do not look healthy and watering has been as required, not excessive and not being allowed to dry out, tomorite feed has been used

Background

In 2023, we purchased the parasol shown in the attached documentation from your Dobbies Milngavie store at a cost of £400, together with a £45 installation charge.

Earlier this month, I unfortunately damaged the parasol cover (Item L, Part No. 790727) and wished to purchase a replacement.

I visited your Milngavie store, where I was advised that this model is no longer stocked and that no replacement covers or spare parts are available. I then contacted your Customer Services department who, although helpful, were unable to provide any further assistance.

I also contacted Kenston, believing them to be the manufacturer. They advised that they did not manufacture the parasol and believed it had been imported from the Far East.

Conclusion

I purchased this parasol in good faith from Dobbies with the reasonable expectation that a premium product costing £400 would be supported by the availability of replacement parts, particularly a replacement canopy, for a reasonable period.

It is extremely disappointing to discover that there is no product support whatsoever. Had I been made aware at the time of purchase that replacement covers and spare parts would not be available, I would not have purchased this parasol.

I believe it is reasonable to expect that a product of this quality and price should remain serviceable and that customers should be able to obtain replacement parts for accidental damage without having to replace the entire parasol.

I would therefore ask Dobbies to review this matter and advise what assistance they can provide, whether by sourcing a replacement cover, identifying an alternative supplier, or proposing another satisfactory solution.
They did review the mater after me sending a reminder. Gave an apology and advise that I should try another company to see if I could get a new cover.
VERY DISAPPOINTED.

We go to dobbies in chirk once a week for breakfast it has always been lovely always until today it was horrible the black pudding couldn’t even cut with a knife the bacon was hard the toast was soft and not the normal bread they normally have, it was really disappointing today even the tea was cold

We had lunch in the Southport garden centre. Never again.
My husband had a tuna jacket potato with a bit of salad. The tuna was straight out of the tin with nothing added to it, so it was very dry. (Only ate half of it). I had a chicken and bacon caesar salad. The lettuce hadn't been washed and some of the leaves should have gone straight into the bin not onto the plate. Also the prices are to high for what you are getting.

We had a wonderful afternoon tea to celebrate mum's 95th birthday. The table was set beautifully and we were given a warm welcome. The food was delicious and the staff were so kind and made the her feel very special. She has been telling all her friends about the occasion.

Yesterday visited this garden centre in Swansea. Section where reduced plants were available. These plants had not been watered and were in a sorry state. Purchased various items and spent £98. Including 7 of the same reduced plants at £1.20 each. 5 had stickers two had none. The lady at the till said she had to verify their price. We then had to wait until someone came. This gave me the feeling that I was trying to pretend that the 2 were reduced when they were not.