Avenue Nurseries Garden Centre Reviews Summary

Restaurant

Pros:

• "I had steak & kidney pie with beans and new potatoes, and I have never before enjoyed such a beautiful meal at a garden centre cafe."
• "The young people who work in the restaurant are THE most polite and conscientious I have ever encountered."
• "The food was fantastic - an extensive menu of reasonably priced, well-cooked food."
• "The restaurant has freshly cooked meals to order and the variety is amazing and price and value are very good."
• "The restaurant is amazing with excellent food (huge helpings) and very reasonably priced."
• "Beautiful food cooked fresh to order (hence it takes a while to arrive) but the curry I had was on a par with an Indian restaurant."
• "The cafe is the star of the show here - good ‘homemade’ style food which is served in good portion sizes and at a very competitive price."

Cons:

• "Unbelievably behind the times. Grossly understocked, a landmark tea room/restaurant STILL closed where most other garden centre tea rooms are open and thriving."
• "The food has gone downhill and customer service is a joke."
• "Called in for Lunch Roast Beef, Plaice and chips and a Fish finger sandwich two teas and a hot chocolate £25!!! Very EXPENSIVE for what you get."
• "The Cokes we ordered were flat and tasted like supermarket cola, not branded Coca Cola."
• "The roast was barely warm."
• "Very disappointing the fish was cooked to an inch of its life and not edible."
• "Food took 50mins for two cooked breakfasts and it wasn't warm."

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "Staff were friendly and engaging."
• "Very helpful staff, offered to deliver our Christmas tree for free as we live local."
• "Thank you to all the staff for giving us an incredibly pleasant time."
• "Staff always friendly and helpful and the lemon drizzle cake they sell in the nursery is to die for."
• "Garden Centre staff are great."
• "Very pleasant and helpful staff."
• "Really friendly and helpful staff."

Cons:

• "The whole experience was negative no wonder the staff dont smile!"
• "Appearance of staff leaves much to be desired and rather scruffy."
• "Mother and child behind servery and child in kitchen!! Health and Safety issue."
• "Wanted to have a drink in the cafe, but sign informed us to wait to be seated, so waited over a minute & either lack of staff because no one attempted to come over to us."
• "The guy on the till, did not seem to know what to do, and called a manager."
• "After we mentioned that a few drinks were missing from our order, to then have a member of staff come out with attitude asking for proof of purchase is not good service."
• "The staff would maybe do better if they spent less time chatting with the customers when other people are waiting for meals."

Pricing

Pros:

• "The quality of their plants is excellent and very reasonably priced."
• "Garden Centre has wide variety of plants and gardening items reasonably priced."
• "A real, proper plateful of perfectly cooked food at a surprisingly low price."
• "Good food at cheap prices."
• "Had a lovely meal in the restaurant. Very good value and the staff are very friendly."
• "Menu excellent and price of meals excellent and so much homemade/cooked."
• "Lovely food at very reasonable prices."

Cons:

• "However, the cost of such products are expensive in comparison to mainstream hardware stores."
• "Generally prices were high."
• "I found the prices quite expensive. No one is going to pay £35 for a soft toy duck!"
• "The shop part of the garden centre is a bit overpriced."
• "£4.50 for a bacon bap that comprised of 2 small rashers and a shriveled up roll...not good value."
• "The burger was a good size but the chips were over-done and very poor quality."
• "Very disappointed to drive there for a plate of slop."

Facilities

Pros:

• "The whole place is spacious and wheelchair friendly, well stocked with all sorts of interesting items to peruse."
• "On the road to Lasham gliding centre (GU34 5SU), the garden centre is set opposite a wood (maybe forest?) of tall trees of many species, making it a very tranquil and fresh air place to visit."
• "It has a Works inside which is great for present shopping and getting craft bits and books."
• "The car park is huge, including lots of disabled bays."
• "They have a large carkpark with ample parking."
• "There is ample free parking and the site is fully accessible for wheelchair users etc."
• "Measures are in place to maintain 2 metres social distancing. We felt safe inside the shop, were able to move around safely, and recommend shopping there."

Cons:

• "Outdoor area seems to be more storage of stock than produce."
• "The entrance and queueing/till areas were well segmented for safety, but transitioning through different parts of the centre weren't as clearly marked."
• "Not so nice when it is wet or cold as there is no covered area."
• "Only down side is that mobile coverage is very poor and no guest wi-fi."
• "The cafe has to be experienced to be believed. First you have to wait behind the sign until one of the staff decide to serve you, you must not cross the white line!"
• "Appears quite dated."
• "We won't be visiting again."