Otter Nurseries Reviews 

Went to the restaurant for breakfast Easter Monday. Self ordering process was very easy to use. Collected our hot drinks before finding a seat in the vast restaurant area. Cooked breakfast delivered to our table and was nice and hot and breakfast was good quality no complaints and plates were collected afterwards. Will go again.

Great Xmas sale and some great bargains.
Restaurant is very over priced 😢
Have spent a Lot of money doing up the buildings-which look great!

Telephoned Torquay Otter Nurseries and ordered plant to be delivered. Alice was extremely helpful in selecting a plant in a pot and had delivered to my relative. She was very pleased with the plant. Well done Alice

Otter Nurseries

10 December 2025
16:24
There are several Otter Nurseries Garden Centres along the South coast area. This review is about my local one, between Ottery St Mary and Honiton and my wife and I are frequent visitors.

This is the second review I am writing today because I am surprized to see a low overall Trust Pilot score for a spectacularly good business which I have watched grow and develop for most of its history for the last thirty five years. It was founded in 1963 and the owners know a thing or two about running a top class Garden Centre.

Here you can find every plant under the Sun and indeed under the water. Beautiful flowers, bulbs, trees to plant, water cascades working on solar, when the Sun is out, and garden ornaments galore, including the Easter Island monoliths. I'm not a gardener, but this place is a gem for those who are.

We went there for a light lunch today. We share a sandwich and ask for an extra plate. No problem. The owner and his wife are often working alongside the staff to make sure everything is working well. Prices are reasonable and the staff polite and helpful. The large, spotless, restaurant was well filled today and a happy family group were having a party. On the menu diners can choose from a cream tea to a variety of main hot meals. Our sandwich with salad (£8.65)arrived within three minutes of us ordering.

The business is so successful that a large development has been completed just in time for Christmas. I guess £1M. The 150+ (estimate) bay carpark was almost full. People would not be coming here in large numbers if this was not a good visit and a day out.

'Christmas' was everywhere of course, and it is a delight to just walk around and anticipate the seasonal festivities. We bought a couple of presents but, not an illuminated 6' reindeer!

Personally I can't find anything to complain about. It is truly magnificent, warm, comfortable and interestingly well presented. We will be back next week as will thousands of other happy, satisfied returning customers.

Thank you for reading this and my thanks to Trust Pilot for this useful platform. If you could spare a quick 'like' I would be grateful.

We live near 3 otter nurseries and vist one of them at lest weekly. Lovely dog owners areas for eating and drinking and very welcome with our dog. My husband said he would take me up to the main one today, we didn't even get inside a gentleman who was stood in the car park with his dog told us we couldn't go in with a dog. So back in our car and off we went to another nursery close by where we were warmly welcomed. Wont be going back even without our dog. She is an ESA but unfortunately still not allowed in

The cafe is now a Big let down, the food use to be lovely but now it's bland, piddly portions, not much filling in the baguettes or panini's.
If you complain then some staff are not the most pleasant to deal with it, so we do not eat here any longer.

As visitors to Dorset we decided to visit this garden centre to be faced with a lady telling us our dog was not allowed to sit outside at the restaurant as you walk through to get outside. We turned and left immediately. How ridiculous. Will never return 😡

Purchased a begonia plant from Jack's Patch .
The plant was covered in brown spots on the majority of the leaves .I was told on calling I can take the plant back to the Torquay branch . It took me 40 minutes to find the branch as it is impossible to use satellite navigation.
On arriving the girl on the till was laughing at me when I requested a refund . I was then directed to the outside area and to speak to the head horticulturist , he asked me why I bought the plant in this condition. I then asked to speak to a Manager who informed me there 8s nothing wrong with the plant and he has done specialist courses . Later on in the conversation he did mention it had most likely been scorched by watering the leaves in direct sun .It is clear the compsny is badly run and the management leave staff to Bulley and insult the public . This company fails to understand the Sale of Goods act by law you need to give a full refund for faulty goods

Jacks Patch part of the Otter group charges £1.25 for vanilla essence which is double what most other outlets charge.
Today ,with an elderly relative, it took an age to walk to the restaurant only to find that cooked food wasn’t available.
I think I will take my business to one of numerous alternatives.

Like many other garden centres you can no longer take dogs.
However thankfully a lot more cafes and restaurants are dog friendly .

We went to otter nurseries near Ottery St Mary in Devon and had lunch. Their roast dinners used to be really good but we haven't been a few years, this time it was very disappointing, the beef was very tough, the swede was like baby food and the red cabbage was yuk. We used the new touchscreen system which had options to remove all the veg and replace we peas but as far as we could see no option to remove certain veg and keep others also it had an option to take away or keep horseradish my wife wanted to keep it but when the food arrived none of the roasts had horseradish so we asked the waitress who told us we had to collect it ourselves!! So why put the option on the screen??
I had a pot of tea with my dinner which turned out to be a cup and a half but it was luke warm. Really not a great experience

Always go to otter and been to Plymouth , Paignton and Jacks Patch. They are all so good. Lovely staff, plants, gifts and cafes. This time we were after garden furniture and looked all over in Torbay, Exeter etc. We came back to Otter as they had the best selection at realistic prices. Staff can’t be more helpful and in the end we purchased from Paignton. The lady was so helpful and they had just what we wanted.

Recent visit to Torquay branch. Top notch plants. The recent purchase of roses that are so healthy compared to other local retailers, made my day. Reasonable prices for such robust specimens. Im havingnto fully replant gardens after a disastrous garage fire that decimated my small sanctuary.

Im not going to have a problem finding amazing blooms here though! No plant looked parched here, everything was laid out with enough room for the trolley carts. All the plants looked established and ready for transplant when you get home. Lots of choice. Could spend way too much time and money here, my little garden is my haven and flowers bring me joy.

Parking is limited though which I expect is difficult at peak times such as weekends.

Staff were happy and helpful when I need assistance. Will definitely be returning for more colourful additions for the garden.

There's a cafe which I didn't get to visut but will be returning soon, added bonus is I hadn't realised how close it is to home!

Visited Otter garden centre in Taunton for a midday meal, ordered 4 meals,the first 2 meals arrived only to be after they had started eating that the meals were meant for someone else but to continue,my brother continued but disappointed as dressing he ordered was missing.after a period of time the other 2 meals arrived my wife ordered cottage pie it appeared to have been dipped from a bucket no crust just a soggy mess,my meal was incorrect I was brought some sort of pie but I had ordered ham egg and chips ,my meal was so late I was eating alone as the rest of party had eaten a half a hour earlier.The only good point was the lady who served us

The garden centre and shop were lovely but the restaurant let it down. There were only two vegan options - jacket potato with baked beans, and curry which contains peanuts. I was really surprised that they would have peanuts in their kitchen! My daughter has a peanut allergy so we cannot eat there due to risk of contamination and death. The staff didn't seem to understand the concept of a peanut free system and said they routinely use peanuts in their recipes.

Carpark great. Shp great. Cafe lets it all down. Slow surly staff who couldn't have been ruder when I quietly and politely pointed out flies crawling over cheese and bacon scones. Female assistant deliberately turned her back and the male assistant sullenly removed the second time I spoke. No apologies or acknowledgement. Tea out is a treat and I have been made to be a nuisance. Easily remedied as I will not be back.

Whilst the plant side of the nurseries service is brilliant, sadly the same can't be said for the cafe. Visited a week or so ago and, having stood in the queue for over 10mins because there was only one person serving, finally reached the till at 11.31am by their clock. Asked for two bacon sandwiches. The girl at the till said something to a lady I assume was the manageress, who said something along the lines of 'just put it through as a BLT, but leave off the lettuce and tomato', then turning to me said 'unless you want the lettuce and tomato?' I replied that, no, I purely wanted a bacon sandwich.
When I checked the bill, I had been charged for a BLT not the £5.45 price of a bacon sandwich. When I questioned it, the manageress replied 'well it was after 11.30 and we've stopped doing breakfast
so the only way we can ring it up is as a BLT, I'll take it off if you don't want it', to which I agreed. Had she bother to tell me first, then I wouldn't have ordered. However, I objected to be charged an additional £2.50, just to accommodate their inflexible system, especially as the lettuce and tomato was to be left out and the reason thr breakfast deadline had passed was because of their slow service.
In addition, prices seem to have gone up and the quantity of the coffee gone down. Also having to go all the way through the garden centre itself to get to the cafe is hardly friendly for those who have mobility issues.
Use to think this was one of the best garden centre cafes in the area but sadly no longer.

Only recently praising up cafes, restaurants, etc on their help with my food allergies of milk and egg, and finding more choice with vegan, I was extremely disappointed to find nothing within your restaurant for lunch. Many items on the menu had mayonnaise, an egg wash and cheese in the ingredients.
For lunch I had a toasted tea cake and was able to have the flapjack (which was vegan) when listening to Adam Frost!
Fortunately Adam was very entertaining and inspiring so my day was not a complete disappointment.

Traveled 20miles to buy pond plants which I was told over the phone you had in stock...when I arrived you had None... Yet you managed to stock up and display Christmas decorations, even though it's still summer. And you need to make up your minds if dogs are allowed or not.. You have lost my custom !

In addition phoned regarding whether they had a facility to re-cycle plastic pots and they don't. Need to drag yourselves into the 21st century guys!