Gates Garden Centre Reviews 

Ordered two climbing roses by overnight delivery . Very happy with the quality of the plants . Also very well packed and thus was important due to delays by APC. Often with mail order, packaging lets it down and the plants and soil get knocked about . These roses were in a good healthy state despite taking an extra 24 hrs to arrive due to APC . Top marks Gates but 'room for improvement' with the courier service

Arrived at 1.30pm to order a Carvery meal.
The Carvery is supposed to operate 12.00-2.30pm yet by 1.30 they had run out of Beef and could not offer any other option, other than their second meat which was Gammon, which we don't like.
If this carvery is going to be successful, then it needs to be able to offer the advertised 'choice of two meats' for the full duration of operation.
To make matters worse, having abandoned the restaurant we thought we would have a quiet coffee in the Courtyard Cafe away from the noise of the Restaurant - only to discover it was closed today!

What a shambles.

The cafe has exuberant prices for measly cake and drinks portions especially the coffee for example they have changed the cup to a small mug the cappuccino is equivalent to a small size anywhere, weak as a kitten and yet £3.99 an absolute rip off.

On the 8th of March 2026
We went to gates garden center Oakham for lunch it was a Sunday so we all wanted carvery , who came up with the idea that you have to queue up to get the carvery? We stood in the queue for 40 mins when it was our turn there were no knives or forks to eat our meal so we had to wait another 10 minutes for a staff member to bring them to us on our second ask ? To the same person might I add , after our meal we went and ordered dessert it was just a drink each and cake we waited another 30 minutes for them to bring it to us it wasn’t even that busy at that point
They really need to go back to waiting on tables for carvery
I think they probably have more customers if they do?
The staff were brilliant tho .

Having visited this garden centre so many times under previous owners disgusted to learn that under Gates the new owners they are no longer dog friendly. Wasted trip and won’t be returning will be taking our money elsewhere.

I bought a yellow ceramic garden gnome from Gates at Somerby in August 2025. It was on offer in a "25% Off Outdoor Living 2025" event. I placed it in the garden & during the recent cold spell roughly a third of the yellow paint outer coating cracked & fell off, leaving large unsightly bald white patches. I took the garden ornament back to Gates yesterday afternoon as a complaint & 2 assistants told me the gnome was for indoor use only. This was plainly ludicrous when my receipt showed a purchase of an "outdoor event" item. I then got to speak to 2 managers on the internal phone. The first one gave up on any attempt at a defence. The second manager said I couldn't have a refund because my gnome was a reduced item. I believe that by reason of the 2015 Consumer Rights Act even reduced items have to be fit for purpose? The amount of money involved was less than £12 & the remarkable fight put up by Gates' staff to deny me my rightful refund was both disproportionate & infuriating. I'll certainly not be buying anything from Gates again.

I bought a garden trug as a Christmas present and unfortunately, the quality was not up to scratch. I complained to the team and received excellent customer service from Gilly. I sent in photos of why I did not believe the quality was sufficient and was instantly replied to agreeing that this was not the standard that they expect for their customers. Gilly stated she would send out another but whilst checking the others found that they were all similar and it was an issue with the supplier. Instead she sent me out a different brand of trug with short notice to arrive before Christmas. Massive shoutout to her and her positive attitude towards a complaint which really made my experience worthwhile.

Went into the restaurant, ordered bacon cob and scrambled eggs on toast, waited alot longer than was been shown. When food came out bacon cob was just warm and scrambled eggs on toast wasn't any better with the toast not even toasted or buttered.
After waiting so long for food and having to move on, complaining was out of the question as we didn'thave time.
Very poor and disappointing.

Awful.
Ordered a flat white which came in a tea cup.
Too bitter and froth. Returned it and got attitude from the coffee server (definitely not a barista). Who served us 2 weak lattes.
Breakfast
Eggs hard, bacon fatty and barely cooked, toast hard - I could go on.
It all seemed to be pre cooked.
Overall, the worst breakfast for 2 £38 I’ve ever had.
Try greenacres if you want a decent coffee.
This is awful

Shocking customer service, received faulty item. Have been communicating on and off for 3 weeks, very small partial refund for an extremely overpriced faulty item. Would not even buy in the sale, would not order from here again.

⭐️ 1 Star

I recently returned to Gates Garden Centre in Oakham to refund an unopened product just two days after purchase. What followed was genuinely baffling.
I was repeatedly told it was “company policy” to offer only an exchange for the same item (which makes no sense) or a credit note. This policy was apparently “clearly displayed” at each till — except the till I used didn’t have one. In fact, a staff member even tried to quietly place a policy stand on the counter mid-conversation, comical.

This policy was never mentioned when I bought the item, and yet I was spoken to as if I should have known. When I calmly asked for some basic common sense to be applied, the manager raised her voice and suggested to email the owner. Bizarre.

Honesty also seems to work against you here: because the item wasn’t faulty and I told the truth, I was refused a refund. I was even told that had I simply claimed it was faulty, I’d have received one. Eventually I was offered a “50/50” — half refund, half credit note — and another manager treated the whole thing like a game show suggesting I should “take the offer”.

In the end, I accepted it because I had no choice, but it’s left a very sour taste. When you’re paying premium prices for products that are far cheaper online, you at least expect decent customer service.
We’ve spent plenty here in the past — including a Snowman decoration that was so flimsy I had to weld it myself — but perhaps that should have been the warning sign.
Overall, a really disappointing experience and sadly a reminder to take my money elsewhere in future.

We did the wreath making at Gates’ Hinckley today. It was the best wreath making class we have done. Abbie and Jen were great teachers, patient, friendly and helpful. , the mince pies were to die for, great choice of drinks and everyone is complimenting the final product. The robin hopping around us made the event! Can’t wait to come next year!

Visited Gates today, my review is purely on the restaurant. Just under £60 for scampi and chips, 5 pieces of very over cooked scampi with mushy peas (although garden peas ordered) fish and chips with mushy peas. Well the fish was definitely dead - it would have drowned in the very thick brown batter! There would have been more fish in 3 fish fingers. A child’s cheese sandwich box. This was ok. Pot of tea for one, oat milk cappuccino and a Diet Coke that was that watered down at £3.99 it was undrinkable. Then to end our visit as my partner was finishing her lunch, a staff member asked if they could clear the table, we said yes but wasn’t expecting her to then spray the table plus our drinks and the last part of a lunch! Absolute crap if I’m truthful, enjoy the garden centre but don’t waste your money in the restaurant. Let the silver surfers sup up the carvery and spend their pensions.

This used to be a great place to go when it was Dobbies and dogs were allowed.

Been a few times since it was taken over but hadn’t realised dogs are no longer welcome.

What a total shame, it was nice place to young puppies for training and food after.

The fish store used to be great with the dogs when you were walking around inside.

Shame that I went all that way with our dog and he couldn’t go in.

I really think this is a very poor decision and disappointing for a centre that has always been so welcoming to pet owners.

I won’t be going back.

I ordered two packs of seed potatos, twenty in total. When they arrived only 4 where viable. Waste of money and an absolute con, clearly stock they cannot sell in person so result to selling online to unsuspecting people.

Buy elsewhere and not from gates garden centre.

The hinkley branch was better as a woodlanders, no atmosphere now it’s just a money making machine. We won’t be going again.

Gone down the pan since gates took it over from Dobbies, now they don’t allow dogs into the garden centre, they even suggest on their website to park in a shaded area and leave your dogs in your car!!! Totally unacceptable and bad advice, even a car in the shade can heat up quickly in the summer!!
I won’t be shopping with them in the future with or without my dog!!

We had heard good things about the Sunday roast carvery at the Stapleton branch of Gates.
The roast was just about passable but the queue to get it was not.
The kitchen was obviously having a job to keep up with customer demand and the guy carving the meat had to keep stopping carving and worry about shortages of yorkshires, vegetables and sauces and plates. My wife and I are elderly and standing in a queue for 45 minutes before we reached the meat carver was no joke. We were lucky enough to get the last two yorkshires but all the sauce dishes were empty. There are many pubs in this area that do a better (and cheaper) Sunday carvery and without the excessive wait.

Whilst visiting my daughter and two week old grandson in Hinckley we visited Gates garden centre.
We were very impressed until we went to the cafe.
I made the mistake of picking up a plate of cakes from apparently a display fridge.
I was shouted at by a lady at the drinks counter who snatched the plate from me telling me to make my order at the till.
I did this to the amusementof the lady at the tills who seemed to find it very funny.
Eventually the coffees and cakes arrived but there was more coffee in the saucers and tray than in the cups.
Not a bad thing as the coffees was terrible.
Cafe is a scar in a very nice place.
Doubt we will return next time we are visiting my daughter.

When i opened the package all that was in there were small rotten and wrinkled dried out seed potatoes
Worst mail order plants/seeds i have ever received from any online supplier.
Stay away from this company a complete waste of money.