Dobbies Garden Centres - Sandyholm Reviews 245

First and last time I'll use Restaurant. Food arrived cold . Quality of food was not worth the money. Staff were rude . Not a very welcoming environment. Could be doing with a good clean . Would not recommend.

Fantastic custer service very helpful will return

Went to visit Santa Paws at Dobbies Sandyholm (Clyde Valley) yesterday and was shocked at what a poor experience this was for the money! We took our 8 year old son, new baby and elderly dog hoping to get a nice photo of all 3 together. On booking you are requested to list 3 hobbies/toys each child/dog enjoys. None of them received anything that they liked (surely a squeaky toy isn't hard to find for a pup-related event?) and in fact our 9 month old baby was given a toy for age 3+ . I'm glad we opened the gifts there and not whilst at home! I managed to complain to a manager who said all babies should get a cuddly toy, and he rushed off looking stressed and muttering about wrong gifts being given out. Our 8 year old son also received a gift for age 3+, a marble maze which was definitely more for younger children. Add to this a Santa Claus who's costume was appalling, visible elastic from his beard stretched across his cheek, elves who looked like they would rather be someplace else and didnt even want to pet the dog, the only excited one amongst us! Would not recommend taking young children here unless you want to spoil the magic of Christmas and get lots of questions asking if Santa is real. And worst of all we spent around £55 for the pleasure! We had to actually pay another £10 to get our photo with Santa!!! Dreadful. Go to one of the many other garden centres in the Clyde Valley who are head and shoulders ahead of this establishment for Christmas events.

Everything has gone downhill since the change in management. The food was overpriced and horrible (seemed like the fish and chips were cooked in old oil that should have been changed months ago, veg was boiled for so long that it was almost grey). We didn't bother to finish our food as it seemed like it would be a health hazard. We didn't bother to complain as it seemed that the staff themselves had their hands tied. My mother in law and her friends who had been in a few weeks before us were given re-heated unsold food from previous day (they were offered a £10 voucher for a meal that cost more). Had we known their experience we would have not visited the place. The parking lot was quiet especially on a Saturday when we drove in which should have been a red flag. The other garden centres in the area was so busy. Seems like management are making decisions that are making things worse for the business. Never coming back and will be advising others to not visit.

Always shop at Dobbies, the staff are really very helpful the gentlemen in the garden centre are so helpful Stevie, and John keep up the wonderful work that you do x

Queue to order 10 minutes. Queue for drinks five minutes. Pay quick. Wait for food toastie and a wrap 40 minutes so far. One person seems to take the orders, make them up then take them to the table. Three people seem to check his work but do very little. Twelve tables occupied about 3 times that empty. Won’t be back for food not sure if I will get any today. Food arrived after 50 minutes. Wrap didn’t have main ingredients offered chips instead. Accepted. Wrap was crispy.

Used this cafe many of times and today has been by far our worst experience. 25 minutes had passed after placing our order for 3 sandwiches and a soup and portion of chips which we still hadn't received went upto query this as I saw people who arrived after us receive there order first and they had lost our order so had to wait a further 5 minutes for the girl to quickly make this up. She couldn't be any more apologetic but given the money spent in here as it certainly isn't cheap I would expect a far better and quicker service. The tables were a riot with which appeared to be a supervisor from the garden centre come in to clear the tables and radio to see if anyone could come into the cafe she didn't look to impressed and quite rightly so as we wernt the only people not happy during this visit. The tray racks would be better here for customers to mpve there on trays to help the staff out. Being a card holder for here and visiting often this has now put us of visiting for food again. I'm not one to complain as I work in food my self so know what it can be like but this is just beyond forgetting.

Went for tea and scones. Explained I was 3 months post transplant and just wanted jam on my scone. "They're already made up" was the response. Useful eh?
Tea came, the teapot was disgusting. Tea stained and black inside.
Certainly did not look clean.
Asked for a table to be cleared and cleaned. Most table's were dirty with crumbs all under them as well as on them. Ended up cleaning a table ourselves. Staff were a waste of time. It's basic hygiene.
Definitely wont be back.

good quality products, good service.

The staff are very helpful and friendly .
The store itself has lost some of its previous ranges and choices are limited . Plants good

Fantastic friendly staff. Staff so friendly especially Michelle at the checkout who has served us a few times over the past few weeks.
Always helpful and always points out great offers, thanks for making our shopping experience pleasurable.
Also to the staff at your cafe, they are chatty and friendly and make a great Latte

This must be the worst Dobbies in Scotland, the restaurant is a disgrace with completely demotivated staff, dirty tables, poor service, expensive cakes.
We are unfortunate that we take our puppy in and have to sit in the dog
section which is always full of dirty tables and seems to be last to be cleaned.
This place needs to compete against some of the best garden centre in the Clyde Valley and needs good management!
Give yourself a shake!

Visited Dobbies in the Lanark valley today,what a disappointment,no food ,apparently there hadn’t been a delivery,don’t think there had been for days.To be fair the staff offered us some soup and a panini ,please train the staff not to put their fingers inside the cups when lifting them.As for the whole shop it was just a mess.Wont be back

The staff at Sandyholm are extremely helpful, Gillian, at the checkout was very polite and scanned then helped us with packing. The cafeteria staff were prompt in taking and serving our breakfast order. All in all an enjoyable visit.

Dobbies Sandyholm, Nr Lanark. Loud music blaring out throughout the garden centre. “Restaurant” dirty, dirty floors, dirty trays and food left festering under hot lights - yuk! Hot drinks only barely warm. You feel like you are in a greasy spoon setting and would not want to spend time here with friends.

The man I dealt with went out of his way to help me with my questions about paving slabs. He then got me to move my car as close to the loading area as possible and helped me load the slabs. A very pleasant experience all round.

The garden centre at Sandyholm was absolutely freezing inside and quite sad looking decoratively. It needs some TLC. The scones were good though!

Always smiling, friendly and helpful.

Love to go in a have a coffee, then go for a browse round store.

Excellent scones, well made & hot flavoursome coffee, friendly staff and good selection of gifts etc