Coolings Reviews 33

My wife and I visited The Potted Garden at Bearsted today to select our seed potatoes for the year, and we were fortunate to receive assistance from Emma. Although I have experience in growing potatoes, Emma's knowledge, enthusiasm, and willingness to help made the entire process easier and much more enjoyable.

She guided us through the different varieties with clarity and confidence, helping us choose exactly what we needed, and while talking, also filling in some gaps in both of our own individual knowledge. It’s rare to find someone who combines genuine customer care with such practical expertise.

Thank you, Emma, for going above and beyond. Your support made a real difference, and we will definitely be returning to our favourite place to shop!

I love this garden centre but now completely ruined by the installation of a smoky chimney at the Green and Pleasant store. When the chimney is in use your clothes and hair smell of smoke and I had to shower when I got home. Such a shame as I used to love this place but honestly don't feel I want to bother again.

I absolutely love Arthur's Restaurant, we visit atleast once a week and usually more with my disabled Mum and 2 Chihuahuas.
I cannot understand the previous comment as there are dog waste bins on the premises and of course you can take your dog to the tills to order food and or drinks.
The staff here are wonderful and super friendly especially Carolyn, Julie, Kate and of course Emma the restaurant Manager.
The menu is quite extensive and varied and they also have daily specials.
It's nice to get your 10th drink free with a Family Card.
Yes it does get VERY busy at times and queues can be long and a bit slow but to me this demonstrates what a popular place Arthur's is !!
I love this place and welcome the fact we are allowed to visit with our four legged family members.
Thankyou to all the team at Arthur's for greeting us with a warm and friendly smile when we visit it means a lot.
I'm a great believer in the saying "You reap what you sow" !!

Hannah was very helpful and her knowledge of house plants was exceptional. Her customer service skills were outstanding. She was very helpful.

Nice plants. Nice coffee. But what chaos at the checkouts!
We are three ladies who have been very loyal Coolings customers for literally over twenty years. We went for a coffee today, which, due to a ten mile addition to our jouney (five miles added each way due to Rushmore Hill being closed) was not as easy as it sounds. We loaded up on plants and picked out several Family Card offers, all being Family Card members. I was looking for one specific plant as a gift. They only had one...which was in a sorry state with brown leaves. At the checkout I asked whether the brown whithered plant could be reduced and was told that only the plant team can make that decision. I was happy to go and find the plant team to ask them but the assistant said she could call them which she did. Well what a dressing down I got from the manager for asking! Apparently, according to the manager the following applies.... It is company policy not to haggle at the till. I put the poor assistant in a difficult position. Apperently I wouldn't haggle if I was in Tescos.(I would actually ask for a reduction if an item was damaged) And apparently I always had the option not to buy. (Oh how I wish I had said "Fair Enough" and walked away, leaving behind my £90 worth of plants!) Then,,,we tried to pay for our "Offer Plants" showing our Family Cards. But no. We had to show the email that we had been sent with the offer on it. Apparently the email had made it clear that we would have to show it. OK so we hadn't seen that....but we had Family cards and my friend had a trade card too and we were spending close to £100 each. So we tried to open our emails to show and couldn't due to no internet in Knockholt. No they wouldn't have it and a supervisor came over to further crossly tell us off and that we cannot have the offer as we did not show our emails. We put our special offers back. Coolings lost our sales on those items. But more than that - we left feeling very unhappy. No special offers, spoken to in a condescending way and mostly feeling very sad that a business, that we have previously supported and which is clearly feeling the impact of the road closure with a very low number of customers today....has made itself so unpopular with us loyal customers that we will be shopping elsewhere in future and not just because of the closed road.

My club visited Arthur’s Restaurant to celebrate one of our fiends becoming an honorary member. We were just having the offer of the month, tea , scone and clotted cream and did not expect them to reserve a table for us. However when we arrived a table had been laid out for a dozen people, and portion of clotted cream set aside. Staff even brought over bottles of chilled water for us. It was a very pleasant afternoon and confirmed that when we have anything to celebrate, Arthur’s is our number one choice.

My visit to this garden centre yesterday was extremely disappointing, and I will not be returning. Firstly, I was shocked by the lack of bins anywhere on the premises, especially after walking my dog in Ashdown Forest where bins are scarce. When I inquired about disposing of the waste, a staff member responded in an incredibly rude and condescending manner, stating there were no bins available .Her tone was completely unacceptable. So there is somewhen to change babies nappies but nowhere to get rid of dog waste, not everyone has children but some people have dogs. Secondly, the café's dog policy is impractical and unhelpful. While dogs are allowed inside or outside, they are not permitted when ordering food. This makes it impossible for a solo visitor with a dog to get anything to eat or drink. Finally, the café prices are extortionate, even compared to garden centres in London. I've visited many garden centres, and I have never encountered such poor service or rude staff anywhere else. A truly terrible experience all around.

We ordered 2 tuna melt toasties, one on white bread and one on gluten free. The gluten free toastie was a quarter of the size of the other toastie but cost the same! The bread wasn’t toasted, the cheese wasn’t melted and the side salad had wilted leaves. The coffee’s were lukewarm. Absolutely appalling and overpriced to boot.

Just queued 15 mins for restaurant,only to be told they do not have any jacket potatoes that are in offer! It is only 2 pm so why haven't they prepared for the offer, not good enough we will not be coming back and I'm sure many others feel the same. AVOID!!

Went recently to the two Coolings garden centre sites in Knockholt. The staff were as friendly as ever but ,since Paul Coolings’ death, the whole experience is more of a corporate and less community feel, and altogether less appealing. The ‘Green and Pleasant’ site, noted for its environmental credentials and family friendly feel has been renamed as ‘Lifestyle’, and extended to provide expensive interior design paraphernalia. Prices at both sites have shot up leaving it vulnerable to competition Disappointing to see it become indistinguishable from other local centres. From being somewhere that seemed to put as much into the local community as it took, now seems to be dedicated to maximising profit.

Sadly they have installed a massive smoking chimney at Coolings Green and Pleasant and the whole place stinks of smoke I would not recommend if you are taking young children as the dangers of wood smoke are now well known

Firstly very slow service
Secondly £9 for a sandwich when you can get a full roast dinner at a carvery for the same price !
Thirdly - frozen triangular fish at £13 !!!!!!
Fourthly - DOGS IN THE RESTAURANT ARE A DEFINITE NO NO !

Appalling service and attitude in restaurant. One person only at till and helping serve drinks. Waiting in queue for 10.mi utes and then told couldn't have breakfast at 11.15am when small breakfasts stop. No apologies just told nothing they can do

I purchased 4 hedges yesterday and receive great help and advice from a lovely man in that department (with a leather hat on)
I then received some very helpful advice about hoses and their connections.
And when I arrived at the till to arrange delivery, sort out some vouchers and pay, the young lady there couldn't have been more helpful.
I am sorry apart from Louise I didn't get any names but my overall experience was very good and I will be definitely returning

I must say that my wife and I had a great experience today at Coolings Rushmore Hill.
We went to but an olive tree and didn't really know what we were looking for however, John (the new plant manager, so I was told) walked by and we asked some questions, answering all our questions on Olive trees, he could not do enough for us, even advising on a suitable pot.
Thank you Coolings, you have a star in your midst.

I brought 3 climbing roses 2 yellow and one white. Sadly the label on one was wrong. I now have a bright red rose instead of yellow. I called Coolings and explained their label was incorrect. They offered a refund. But it’s not the case. Although the plant is lovely. It has now ruined a theme I had going in my garden. Please don’t trust the labels at this garden centre.

Bought some 2L pot grasses for about £15 each.

When I went to plant them it turned out that the grasses had just been repotted into 2L pots, they had no roots and 95% of the 2L was just compost.

They are effectively selling 7cm pot size plants that should cost £6 in 2L pots for £15 full of compost - complete crooks.

I had used Coolings a lot in the past, but it seems they are just ripping customers off now.

Carry on past the Rushmore Hill site for a mile of so and you’ll find their Knockholt branch…make your way to the Blueberry Cafe where you’ll find some excellent food on offer. Arthur’s on the other hand seems to have gone the other way over the last few years but the Blueberry Cafe is most definitely the place to go. Very generous portions and a proper salad that you actually want to eat rather than push to the side of the plate. Tuna mayo sandwich with a huge side salad (potatoes and coleslaw too) & bread of your choice, for £10.95.
Same price for cheese/ham/tomato- chicken pesto and cheese- coronation chicken- egg mayo- & pulled pork for a quid more.. I could go on but I want the prices and quality to stay the same before market forces take hold 😂. Plenty more on the menu to spark your interest so take a look. I really don’t think you'll be disappointed. Place your own review and let me know.

Visited the cafe at Forest Row with a friend. We had one normal tea, one regular latte and two sausage rolls. These were puff pastry which were then placed in a microwave leaving the pastry very soggy and flabby. Mine i found inedible but chose not to cause a fuss so as not to embarrass my friend. Two drinks and two sausage rolls cost £16.15 which is terrible. I will never go again, what a rip off!

Spoke with Gary regarding a water feature on the website. I asked it was checked over before I collected the item, which was over a week later. Service from front desk to the other member of staff was excellent, advising why the packaging had been broken (at my request) and the item was as advertised. Great price point and great service.