Dobbies Garden Centres Reviews 32.076

Dreadful food
This was our 2nd visit for food (Moreton Park) within past 4 weeks and will be our last!
£29.60 for 2 warm coffees, two cheese and red onion chutney toasties and a measly portion of fries. Our toasties looked lovely but the cheese on the inside was cold and not even melted. Three weeks ago we both ordered fish and chips and unfortunately the batter was so hard I had to take my fish out of it just so I could eat it, the mushy peas were cold and the fries just warm. We regularly visit and also bring our 1 year old grandson with us to the soft play there. We have eaten there in the past and found it ok and we visit a few times a month for coffee and cake. I have a Dobbies card but shan’t be renewing when it’s due. It seems it’s struggling for staff judging by the tables cluttered with trays both in main eating area and the soft play area. They have priced themselves out of the market as far as our wallets are concerned.
We were silly not to have complained the other week and even more silly not complaining today. Lesson learned not going to eat there again, just the free drinks until my loyalty card runs out.

This particular Dobbies in Ayr, looks like its been here quite a long time and is in need of renovation. There's rust on the supporting ceiling beams, flaking plaster and obvious signs of damp ingress on the walls. The chairs in the café are tatty with the faux leather worn off the chair arms. In the clothes section the edge of the carpets to the hard floor have different types of sticky tape obviously applied at different times to address wear and tear. Gives the impression of under investment which doesn't go well with generally pricy clothing. Compared to the local Dobbies at Carlisle, this branch needs some tidying up and some cap-ex applied. A disappointing visit.

Long term customer of this place. Usually love visiting every few weeks. But what an absolute rip off on the strawberry and cream scones. Ordered 3 for myself, partner and mother to find not even half a strawberry inside, just garbage cream from a can and a wafer thin smear of strawberry jam scraped on one side of the scone. Complained to the Manager who said there was supposed to be half a strawberry (clearly not too bright to admit that, as it’s pathetic for £4.25 per scone). Given their prices, Dobbies should be ashamed of themselves. Have a Dobbies membership card I WONT be renewing. Greed personifies.

My partner and I visterd thornbury Dobbies. we tock our dog to the dinopaws advent. we visited on sat 11th April 2026. the staff at the advent were amazing,very kind and polite. we enter though an arch which led to the sand were hidden treats were placed for our dog to find them there was a little brigade that had smells for my dog to smell then an agility course, which was lovely. After that we tock our dog to see the dinosaur which he loved and we all sat and had a photo taken with the dinosaur on leaving our dog was given his own dog dinosaur,to which he loved and he was also given a dinosaur treat which he loved.i forgot to mention at the beginning we were given vouchers and a leaflet about the advent. The dinosaurs advent was very good and were definitely come back for more paws adventures .Thankyou again to all three staff for making this advent perfect in everywhere .

Garden centre fabulous BUT £4.25 for a tiny piece of cake!!!!

Ordered 2 jacket potatoes came with mostly unappettising dull looking lettuce 2 half slices of cucumber a hint of red onion no tomatoes.
Not a lot of cheese on the potato the whole lot was bland no taste whatsever. Very disappointing.
Have given 1 star as no other choice.

Ham and tomato baguette bought today £9
Normally with salad and crisps enough for two people.
Baguette size was small, barely any salad ,no crisps
What a total rip off for the price
Feel like I have been totally ripped off.
Will never buy again

So disappointed with changes made in the restaurant. No longer doing 100% fresh cream cakes. Now selling cakes with fresh cream mixed with a vanilla paste. The cream tastes ‘off’. Will now be by-passing the restaurant.

Terrible customer service. I asked about a product and waited a long time for the member of staff to come back. He did see me waiting for him to return and then walked off in the opposite direction.

I have used this shop for years and it has steadily gone down hill. Well dobbies if your staff member could have been bothered to help me you would be £140 richer.

This particular Dobbies Restaurant deserves no stars at all. I'm sorry to use the word, but disgusting is the most appropriate word to describe the quality and standard of the poor customer service, accommodation, food and atmosphere here.

Lovely chairs covered in food, bird poo and other debris so we had to move the chairs around and clean 5 chairs and 2 tables which were joined together; this was easy enough as the restaurant was practically dead in the middle of a sunny, blue sky Easter Sunday; although we did have hale briefly at one point. Unfortunately, we still managed to have debris from the chairs stuck to our clothing despite our efforts.

A few minutes into our meal we saw a robin flying around the restaurant, but, all the doors and windows were closed. That explained all the dried bird poo on the chairs, so one wonders how long the robin had been in there, and despite customers pointing at it, the staff were completely disinterested. Cute robin, but quite unpleasant and totally unsanitary!

The ordering and delivery of food was fine, but there was no service beyond that; the staff were busy having long chats with each other and some to guests at a specific table. The one waitress who served us seemed to be the only busy person.

The menu was poor. The fish and chips were okay, but the 3 light sandwiches with soup were totally bland, cardboard-like and unpleasant. The tuna sandwich and the beef sandwich were both bland and tasteless; how is that even possible? The horseradish which came with the beef sandwich was bitter and tasted of nothing else at all leaving one to wonder was this even horseradish? There was no mustard in the sauces either. Unfortunately, I had no choice but to eat to facilitate taking medication with a meal so my friends accommodated me. £73 would have been reasonable if the food was even remotely palatable.

Up until 2022, we enjoyed meeting to shop for our garden requirements and have a lunch and a wee catch up at Dobbies Milngavie, but the honestly each one of us were so put off that I can state categorically that none of us plan to go back there again. We will do our shopping and our catch-up elsewhere.

From the state of this restaurant one would be forgiven for thinking the managerial staff at the restaurant are not attentive or have appropriate experience.

On the other hand, with so many public complaints over nearly 3 years, is this just another business being let down by upper management because before writing this I read the reviews and I am wondering who the responders from the Dobbies Team reported the complaining reviews to, because nearly 3 years of consistent complaints by customers and it certainly appears that absolutely nothing constructive has been done to improve customer service, the quality of the food, and sanitation at this restaurant.

For reference, the last few times we ate at this restaurant up until early Easter 2022, the restaurant was always full; so much so that we had to wait to be seated on occasion. Now the restaurant appears to be neglected and practically dead on what was once a very busy day of the year at that location. How extremely disappointing.

Well went to the restaurant ,not too many in queue.Ordered 2 baguettes I Ploughman’s and 1 ham and tomato.30minutes later still waiting! Asked at counter told be a few minutes.5 or so minutes later food arrived.However what was described as a ploughmans was actually just cheese and tomatoe.Once again queried at counter who checked with kitchen and came back with “that is a ploughmans”. This is not acceptable and whoever allowed this to be listed as ploughman’s should realise this is false trade description!
I have to say counter staff and waitress were all pleasant and indeed apologetic,and certainly not there fault.I also noted a table near us sent food back! and another table waiting long time requested money back as they could wait no longer.A disappointing visit and we were not alone in that!

We went to Dobbies at kew wood for breakfast following park run. I have to say it was possibly the rudest team I have ever encountered. I actually considered not eating and waiting until i got back.

As we entered we had dogs and were just waved about with no real direction. We found a table but then nobody would advise how we ordered or paid so it was very confusing, there were 7 of us stood waiting to order food and the girl just walked away from us all.

Then as we were waiting to order drinks another lady approached with a dog and was told she couldnt walk through, this was fair as it was no dogs allowed in this section, she advised she was on her own and instead of offering any help the staff member rolled her eys and shrugged at her then carried on. I said to my friend "that was so rude" at this point she must have heard me and went after the lady who was then allowed to walk through with her dog.

They were very understaffed meaning we waited 10 minutes just to order food, all she had to do was write it down and plate it after as all pre cooked and we were all together. Drinks was worse, left waiting again with 1 staff member who seemed to not know what she was doing. The only staff member i found to be polite was the one taking money. He actually was lovely, so much so i felt like saying thank you for smiling at us.

Though the table staff are helpful the cheesy chips were a disappointment and not worth over £5 for such a small helping. Studley Grange restaurant serves a much larger portion for a £1 cheaper. A would attach a photo if I knee how

Ordered a table and chairs for the garden on a Monday. On the Wednesday DX contacted us via text with a delivery for Thursday, as this was no good we changed it for the Friday. Then 9am on the Friday they contacted us again to say the furniture hadn’t arrived at the depot and they would rearrange. So on the following Tuesday they contacted us again with a delivery for the Wednesday and a 2 hour time slot of 1.45 to 3.45 . So we waited and waited and are still waiting, it’s now 4.30 and no sign. We will therefore be going back to Dobbies in the morning for a full refund and will not recommend their delivery team DX.

We visited Dobbies Lisburn on 25th March.
We required information regarding poly tunnel and cold frames.
We were very impressed and delighted to receive help and assistance from Ryan the sales assistant.
He was both courteous and knowledgeable .
He also helped us to put our purchases into our car.
Overall he made our visit a pleasant experience.

Really poor facilities for disabled customers at the Brighton branch. Not enough disabled parking spaces. Steps up with no handrails, no wheelchair available when we went in, which meant a really long and arduous walk with two sticks, through the large shop and up to the restaurant, up a long, circuitous ramp. No automatic doors into the restaurant, only two narrow ones, which were hard to hold open while trying to get in. A wheelchair was available for later, but apparently there is only one in the whole place.

A long wait for our meals in the restaurant, and unclean glasses for drinks. Overpriced food, and not good quality. Very slow service. We won't be returning.

The assistant in the nursery was pleasant and helpful in looking for suitable plants.

Visited Dobbies restaurant in Boston 31/03/26.
After being kept waiting to be seated we ordered 2 drinks, a bacon roll and Pancakes with yogurt and raspberries on it.
Several of the raspberries were going mouldy. On pointing this out to a staff member she just said, “ Oh, would you like a few more raspberries?
Staff were also very unfriendly and looked as if they would sooner be somewhere else.
Not a place I would return to in a hurry.

While my friend and I were queuing for food in the restaurant in the 27/03/2026 we watched a young lad in the kitchen with an apron on dishing up the food, mostly fish and chips, just using his bare hands, then wiping them on his dirty apron and proceeding to dish up another dish

Dobbies Marple .. Mother’s Day … basic breakfast .. what a rubbish experience!
Poor service
No cutlery
Lack of choice / sold out
Cobwebs above eating area
Average food / fairly cold
This is my local garden centre .. I spend hundreds of pounds a year here ..
I got a Simple apology… feedback is important ..

£31

Visited Dobbies Derby for my Birthday treat provided by Dobbies, the scones were dry and hard, the fruit were like bullets, very disappointed.