Dobbies Garden Centres Reviews 

Absolutely shocking experience at Dobbies Cafe. The place felt completely unstaffed, with dirty floors and lifting tiles, and tables that clearly hadn’t been cleaned. The cutlery was filthy, and some of the milk pots still had old custard or cream in them—disgusting. The food was cold, stale, and ridiculously overpriced. When we raised concerns, the staff were rude and dismissive. Honestly, I’ve never seen a cafe in such a state. Avoid at all costs.

Have been coming here to Dobbies (Speke, Liverpool) for a few years now and have always enjoyed the free cakes for over 60's (Mon to Friday) but found out today the free cake offer has been withdrawn. Our Bill has now gone up by over £9.00. We also used to buy little items from the shop floor when passing through but afraid have today decided not to come here anymore.
A pity, but our Bill was just under £40.00 here and we can get a mains, cake and drink on our local Pub/Restaurants on their Set Menu's for less than £29.00.
Bye, bye Dobbies.

Today I visited Dobbies in Ashford for an afternoon tea with my soon to be daughter in law, Tristan was so lovely very attentive, kind and very helpful. Working extremely hard in alot of areas. He made our experience complete. The afternoon tea was amazing, beautiful presented and very tasty. Excellent value for money.

After waiting 15min to be served then another 20min for food this dreadful ploughman's came out wow ,at £8.10 has to be the most expensive cheese and tomatoes baguette because the pickle was non existent, I asked the counter staff for some more pickle and they gave me a teaspoon of pickle in a pot and a sorry thats all im allowed to give.
The cheese was tasteless as its pre sliced cheap stuff and no dressing on the salad.

I hope that the company/owner responds because what a disgrace to locals.

The system of only having one cafe till and that operator taking your order and payment, serving cakes and then answering queries and going to get cutlery etc means it is slow, inefficient and poor customer service. I write this whilst queuing to be served. It can't be a Dobbies policy as Shrewsbury operates a totally different system that works. Could not fault the staff member on the till though. Then a lengthy wait for the coffee and cake eaten before it arrived. Surely can't be the only one thinking this.

Just bought box of Linder chocolates costing £8. Same box £5 in Asda. Ridiculous! Lesson learned 😢

The garden centre itself is very good plenty of stock etc
The restaurant area was not a pleasant experience !!! the lady serving the hot food was rude and clearly in a bad mood she was particularly rude to a lady who had a disabled person with her tbh it made asking for food and unpleasant experience
The queues for each food counter were absolutely shocking

Why is the tea always lukewarm in the coffee shop area.
Nice staff, didn’t want to ask them.

Dobbies Lisburn: Hot food was readily available, and a personal touch from Rhys who explained the Over 60s Lunch deal, helped bring meals to our table. Tables were cleaned quickly, and in a quiet moment, a girl went round under tables with a quiet vacuum so it looked nice and clean. We were able to go back to the counter for a choice of desserts included in the deal. Overall a pleasant experience and I would say Rhys is a great asset to the team.

Wow! Took my 90 year old mum to Dobbies Gillingham today. We are regular customers as mum likes to look around and have something to eat and drink after a busy shopping spree.
The restaurant is always very busy and the small amount of staff are usually run off their feet trying to serve everyone, you can always expect a fair wait to be served and food to arrive!
NOT TODAY….. the restaurant was packed but the service was SUPER quick, it was LOVELY to see more serving staff present to cope with the amount of people sitting waiting for food.
Just one request…. Please could you make the service quicker at the crowded coffee Shop too, there is always a massive queue there.
Well done Dobbies please keep it up.

Bought a growhouse from them just before christmas. Moved it outside in February and the first minor storm snapped the plastic that holds it together. Took it back and was refused a repair or replacement and told that without the original receipt i might have stolen it. Disgraceful customer service.

Visited Dobbies in Birtley, wouldn’t normally have made the trek but had been given gift voucher. I also squandered £15 to join Dobbies club to maximise the voucher. Reasonable selection of plants and gardening equipment although some of the plants looked a bit ratty. Oddly they had a selection of Klass women’s clothing … like I’d drop in for bulbs and suddenly need an evening dress. The allotment isn’t that formal. The reason I’ve. Taken to Truspilot was the state of the lavatories. Disgusting. Dirty toilets, used lavatory paper on the floor, overflowing sanitary bins, toilets that didn’t flush properly and the whole area looked desperate for refurbishment. We were going to make a day of it and visit the cafe but after that, I was very reluctant to eat there. It’s a shame. The staff were helpful and cheerful. Spent the voucher and will chalk the £15 membership to experience! .

Been so many times and been told they arent doing hot food for various reasons. Been Wednesday this week...waited in the queue only to be told the chef was off. Tried again today...2 days later. Ordered a brie and cranberry pannini...no brie. I give up! Waste of mine and my husbands time. Not worth going.

My visit to the restaurant unfortunately left a very bad impression. The tables were dirty, which immediately affected the comfort of the meal. The customer service was below expectations – there was a clear lack of interest in the guests. The prices turned out to be definitely inadequate compared to the quality of the food served. Additionally, the plate on which the dish was served had a very unpleasant fishy smell (I did not order fish), which is absolutely unacceptable. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this place.

My wife and I popped into the cafe today for coffee and cake. They ask £4.50 for a slice of cake yet half of the tables were dirty and hadn't been cleared (even though it wasn't busy), the carpet /laminate flooring is gaffer taped down so you don't fall over it! How about you invest some of the huge profits into the cafe environment?! Not good at all.

Very disappointed, they cost themselves over £100 of business today as they do not do delivery now, although there web site says they do.

It’s very rare that I complain, but the young lady who was preparing the coffee at about 3.30pm completely let the other team members down.
Firstly, the teapot she presented us with, not only was horribly stained, it looked dirty. The person behind me in the queue mentioned this too.
I asked her if it would be possible to change it. No words. No smile. Nothing. Just snatched it and made another one.
I then waited for the milk. Another team member brought a jug and I simply asked if it were mine. She huffed, and literally slammed it on my tray, then poured another one, as the one I claimed was apparently for the people behind me.
I asked if I could have a teaspoon. She said very sarcastically “ sorry honey we haven’t got any, if you give me a chance I’ll get some’.
I asked if there were any on the tables and she said no.
I waited and waited. Hot drinks going colder. I asked again, to be met by the same patronising attitude and being called honey again.
Her attitude was literally appalling.
In the end I went to my table, found another member of staff and explained what happened. She was a credit to the team. Went and found some spoons, asked if we needed our drinks refreshed, which we declined and was very apologetic.
Fortunately we come to this branch weekly, and apart from the odd tepid coffee, we know the staff are lovely.
If this was my first visit, it would definitely have been my last.
This young lady needs customer service training urgently!!

Dobbies Atherstone - Long queues in the restaurant but got served very quickly by a very professional and speedy young man called Glenn. Coffee was lovely and hot and very nice. Glenn is a credit to the team

Waited 25 mins for food. Not the staffs fault. There was a shortage of staff and guys who were working were running from side to side to order, serve and deliver food.
WHY DONT DOBBIES ADD A QR CODE SO THAT YOU CAN ORDER AT TABLE. ESPECIALLY THE DOG AREA WHERE SERVERS ARE VERY RARE.
Food was good but service time made it unacceptable. Soup and sandwiches, and kids lunch box. Coffee and coke.

Travelling a long way to visit the Garden Centre so needed to know the online information was corrects I tried phoning. I stayed on the phone for more than 5 minutes with no answer so I redialled trying the other options eg restaurant .No one answer after 10 minutes .
Needless to say I shall take mu business else where.