This is about the restaurant downstairs more than anything.
The actual garden centre/shop is good. You can find anything from local produce, outdoor seating/cooking, aquatics to what you expect from a garden centre, plants, tools, etc.
(And the cat, Peggy, is a real angel. So gentle and happy to be petted.)
I have purchased a number of plants, which have all done well.
The reason I am writing this is because I recently visited the restaurant on the lower level for lunch, and was faced with something I don't like.
The food, for a start, was reasonable. However my Mother wasn't overly impressed with her jacket potato, mentioning it was bland. My Father didn't say much and my tomato and sweet pepper soup was reasonable. Past cream cakes I've had there where hardly fresh and the cream, which I would have expected to have plain whipped cream was laced with sugar lending the cream a sickeningly sweet taste. For the price we paid the food wasn't exactly up to a standard we would have expected, but it wasn't bad.
Most of my displeasure came from one staffs' lack of hygiene. Whilst preparing peoples' drinks she was scratching her nose and didn't wash her hands, which is disgusting and a big no-no (I work with food/drink and where I work touching/scratching is not acceptable).
The toilets where reasonable, however it was clear not a single member of staff had inspected them in a while (the little time table they have on the wall indicated that it the last check was the day before in the morning, and it was afternoon). One of the taps was jammed down letting it spew water into a sink at such a force that it was getting water all over the floor in front of it.
Overall, the garden centre is great. The restaurant, not so much. read more