Dobbies Garden Centre Rugby Reviews Summary

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "Staff were helpful and friendly will definitely visit again."
• "Santa was on top form with a lovely book reading."
• "Made to feel welcome, able to ask questions about trees, shrubs and plants."
• "The youngsters bringing the food etc out were very pleasant and they dealt with the number of covers extremely well."
• "Very helpful and friendly staff, especially the young man called Alex."
• "Staff always helpful."
• "The manager and staff were more than helpful."

Cons:

• "Doesn't appear to be anyone in charge; signs asking customers to wear a mask but most staff don't."
• "Staff not sure what plants they sell, was shown an area to look, if i couldn't find them then perhaps they don't sell them."
• "Staff all stood about chatting in groups!"
• "Checkout staff whose customer skills wouldn't be out of place in a prison camp."
• "Staff were lovely but obviously very understaffed."
• "I had to interrupt three chatting members of staff to get one of them to fetch toilet paper and give the toilets a clean."
• "Was disappointed not to be able to have a coffee in the cafe as the queue was so long and didn't move in 5 minutes of waiting. Most of the empty tables had not been cleared and the staff were standing talking."

Restaurant and Cafe

Pros:

• "The restaurant is under a new manager and every aspect has been improved greatly."
• "Cafe food was delicious and served quickly by courteous staff."
• "Soft play is clean and suitable for the age range. Food is fresh, healthy and exceptional value for money."
• "Went today, 24th May, for afternoon tea and it was excellent. Very quick service and pleasant staff."
• "Fish and chips were very tasty and plentiful."
• "The good was delicious so thanks to the chef's too."
• "Lovely afternoon tea."

Cons:

• "Good soft play let down by a crazy dangerous automatic door."
• "Ordered jacket potatoes.... arrived cold, cold plates, coronation chicken was so cold."
• "The queue for food and hence time spent waiting to be served is atrocious."
• "Service was painfully slow and the food was not good."
• "Garden Centre is nice, but the Cafe is very overpriced especially as the standard of food is not great."
• "Cafe service appalling - disorganised and slow."
• "Unfortunately the cake is always dry."

Cleanliness and Maintenance

Pros:

• "The Cafe is very well managed with regards to Social Distancing."
• "Always nice time spent there among greens, flowers, trees."
• "A very comfortable spacious cafe, spoilt by the way its run."

Cons:

• "The garden centre side was fine but the cook wear and Waitrose area is disgusting, shelves, floor and between the freezers are absolutely filthy."
• "Most of the tables were covered in used tableware, it was hard to find a clean table."
• "Ventilation is also an issue no windows in the area at all or adequate airflow."
• "The shop itself always looks like they are in the process of reorganising it."
• "Hygiene is also an issue in the seating area with little or no attention paid to clearing tables or sweeping the floor!"
• "We saw no cleaning the whole time we were there in the play area while other areas were spotless."
• "All tables plastered in food and rubbish as were the floors."

Value and Pricing

Pros:

• "Car park free and large enough to cope."
• "Good value for money too."
• "The food itself was beautiful, fresh, tasty and very well presented and at £12.50 each extremely good value compared with many local venues."

Cons:

• "It's like a glorified overpriced Sainsbury's now."
• "Since taking over from Wyevale, all you've done is make everything more expensive."
• "Seriously expensive and nowhere near as good as it used to be."
• "Plants are massively overpriced."
• "The cafe was crazy expensive. £2.10 for a can of Diet Coke !!!"
• "Food in cafe a complete rip off. Had a cheese sandwich where cheese was cut so thin could practically see through it."
• "Prices so OVER priced compared to other places."