Dobbies Garden Centres Reviews 32,068

No staff on coffee counters, as per usual there are just one person who are run off their feet, I felt so sorry for the young girl serving. Every time we come it is the same, queues a mile long!

Shocking in cafe today, no tea pots or cups or milk. When i asked if there was any i was rudly told no and would have to get them from the otherside where the que was massive! Is the point of having a coffee machine not so people dont have to wait?? There was no one at the till? The tables were rotten and full of dishes. We left our cakes and walked out.

Ordered a traditional breakfast at Shrewsbury branch , "just to let you know we don't have any beans, tomatoes or mushrooms" lol We have 3 big supermarkets within yards, wouldn't it be a great idea for the manager to send a member of staff for emergency supplies , I mean no wonder you are closing stores like no tomorrow

Over a period of many years , this is the first time I have had cause to complain re the restaurant. Today we ordered the new addition to the menu, beef burger with chips etc, the meals arrived after approx 15 minutes, at best the chips could only be described as warm, i enquired , where is the coleslaw, the reply was, the chef said we have no coleslaw, no apology, this meal should have been stated as unavailable. At £12+ per meal, this was unacceptable

Wow, what an absolutely wonderful visit we had to see Father Christmas at Thornbury today. We picked the last slot of the day so it was nice and quiet and we were welcomed by a wonderful happy elf who guided us around the different little games that the children could play and the photo opportunities.
I wasn’t sure how well our 3 year old would take to it but he absolutely loved it and our 8 year old was so excited. Once we got to Father Christmas he was utterly delightful and chatted with them for ages and was telling them all kinds of things, they were mesmerised. We got lots of photos on our phones and didn’t feel rushed or like we couldn’t take pictures like some places and the lovely Elf took a more professional photo and printed it and we had it put in a beautiful snowflake shaker frame which we will absolutely treasure. I just wanted to thank the Elf and wonderful Father Christmas for making a precious memory that will last a lifetime for us and our children. I would absolutely recommend this beautiful experience.

Took grandson to see Santa ,when I booked they asked age range for present ,I said 5 to 8 years he was given a present for 3years , £16 would not return .

Customer Service are utterly useless; happy to take your annual membership fee but fail to change your home address on numerous occasions; of consequence all discounted vouchers, points and birthday gift go to the wrong address. When challenged 3 times, they simply say there's nothing that they can do and the vouchers have expired.... tough.... completely ignoring (with fingers in their ears) that the incorrect address on their system was failed to be set as Primary address twice; a manager in a store did it himself in front of me and explained where Customer service was going wrong and was shocked by how poor that was and explained Customer Service should honour past discounts as good will....(especially with the amount I spend at Dobbies over the years) But Customer Services simply say no...there is nothing that they can do....(space ships are starting to travel to Mars but Dobbies cannot do anything).... additionally, my account via Dobbies website and/or mobile app never works.
Utterly rubbish; took my membership fee and points collated for years and provided nothing in return.
Sod you then Dobbies membership and we'll start visiting another garden centre for plants, gifts and breakfasts from now on.

We started with a spot of lunch, which was good, although my wife’s festival roll was expensive for a turkey and stuffing roll with nothing else and then they mucked up my children’s order. This was sorted swiftly by the team so can’t complain too much.
We had a 2pm slot booked with Santa, the whole experience on paper sounds great, ice fishing, hockey and snowball basketball. We were greeted by an elf who was friendly and chatty which was a good start although she was wearing a onesie. Soon she introduced another elf and disappeared then that elf introduced another elf, all of these elves were nameless and took away a personal touch to the experience. When meeting the man himself he was abrupt and not warm or very welcoming. My 2 children picked up on this and became a little timid and fidgety one of them was playing with a little bag of reindeer food, to what the response of Santa was”put that down, it’s distracting you” so he could talk. Other than that the presents given there are of a good quality and well thought about.

I visited the café recently using my loyalty scheme free coffee and decided to order the vegetarian breakfast. Unfortunately, the experience was very disappointing.

I waited several minutes at the till while staff appeared unsure how to resolve a simple issue. Eventually an older member of staff briefly stepped in to help several customers, but I was left to place my order with a very young and clearly inexperienced staff member, who was polite but not properly supported.

While ordering, it was called out that there were no beans, which wasn’t mentioned to me directly or reflected in the price. I was told I could “double up” on something else, so I asked for extra mushrooms. What arrived was two very small, dry mushrooms.

The breakfast overall was extremely poor: dry mushrooms, lukewarm sausages, a very small amount of scrambled egg (around three mouthfuls), and half a tomato that amounted to little more than a bite. The food felt basic, poorly prepared, and not good value for money.

This was honestly one of the worst café breakfasts I’ve had in years, and it felt more like a 1970s school dinner than a café meal. Sadly, it’s put me off returning, and I wouldn’t recommend the vegetarian breakfast based on this experience.

Went with my daughter and grandchildren to see Santa. Was difficult to see where the grotto was in the garden but found it eventually. We were a touch early but they said the children could go in. It said there was helping the penguins fish but after a couple of minutes we were quickly whisked away to Santa's sleigh which was a garden bench with a red cloth on with reins. Went to Rudolph which was a stuffed toy which didn't do anything, stroked some stuffed polar bears. Made reindeer food which was putting some glittered oats into a bag. Santa was just wonderful though. Presents from Santa were good. Expensive and disappointing

What a complete waste of money for the Santa experience for my grandson. Santa didn’t break a smile and hardly said a word to my grandson. £16, I would rather have taken him to a shop to get a decent gift instead of a cheap little game. So disappointed for him. Now I know why it was so quiet and we were the only people seeing Santa. Never again!!

Product failed within 24 hours. As I purchased online via click & collect Dobbies were unwilling to support in any way unless I went back to the location I collected from (hours away as collected after a business meeting)

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.

I go to this garden centre on a regular basis and travel 20 miles to get there and always have a good experience.
I went on Friday 19 December 2925 and was horrified on entering the gents toilet to see the urinals which looked disgusting compared to the store normally
I was intending to upload an image but was unable the urinals we’re stained brown

We visited Santa's grotto and I must say, the very smiley elf who welcomed us was the start of a magical tour for my 5 year old. Fishing, ice hockey and making food for the reindeers was just some of the activities we did before visiting Santa. We thoroughly enjoyed our time and found the staff to be exceptionally friendly and happy to see us. Thanks for a memory im sure my boy will cherish for many a year.

I made a mistake and booked 1 child today to meet Santa and the other 3 children 2 weeks ago. We turned up today & the staff and manager were amazing even though it was fully booked. It would have ruined Christmas and would have been all my fault. But they bent over backwards and everyone was so welcoming and friendly!! They helped the magic of Christmas even more. Thank you so much.

Fabulous store wonderful staff
From door to door a warm family experience telford store is amazing friendly place merry Christmas to you all

We went to see Santa and they gave gift with no marbles in which is meant to have marbles in

Rubbish Wrapping Paper - Over priced, poor quality products

The staff where lovely BUT the “living” Christmas tree I bought which was supposed to keep its needles dyed dispite watering it daily
A week till Christmas and I think it will be needless by Christmas Day.