Stewarts Christchurch Garden Centre Reviews Summary

Selection and Variety

Pros:

• "Large selection of very tempting cakes and drinks."
• "Lots of lovely ornaments and gifts as well as plants."
• "Always a joy to visit. On special occasions such as Xmas and spring they really do go that extra mile with wonderful displays and new and exciting products as well as favourite old."
• "Love the shop and the garden center always had something interesting and new to see."
• "Loads of Plants, Garden stuff, Bird food, Tools, Accessories and everything else."
• "A huge array of garden plants, equipment, seed, furniture etc."
• "Good selection of quality plants, grouped into logical sections."

Cons:

• "I do like visiting this garden centre but it is quite difficult to find what you are looking for."
• "The only bugbear I have is that their water dispensing machine works when it wants to but it doesn't bother too much."
• "Only 4 stars because the plants are so expensive compared with many other places locally."
• "Christmas displays and trees are a much lower standard than in the past and not very inspiring."
• "It's been a bit sparse the last couple of times I've been."
• "The rest of Stewarts is quite expensive but they are quality and varied."
• "Everything is overpriced."

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "The kind man on the tills carried part of our meal to the table."
• "Greeting serving and checkout staff all very friendly and helpful."
• "Friendly staff."
• "Neil & Tina were both superb in the coffee shop."
• "The only garden centre that I felt welcomed, all the staff had a smile on their faces so they must enjoy their job or have a good manager that runs the place."
• "Staff are very knowledgeable and helpful."
• "Every single member of staff asked if I needed any help, a young lady even refused to allow me to carry anything over to my table."

Cons:

• "A member of staff was very rude to my 90 year old mum."
• "Not good, very busy and very slow service, when you get it the food is excellent."
• "Sadly the waitress who brought over the food was very rude."
• "Unfortunately we also experienced poor customer service at the tills when purchasing cards and Xmas lights."
• "Lovely lunch, lady on customer service a little abrupt and arrogant."
• "I asked a staff member working in the Plants section today how often I should water my large bonsai tree... She interrupted me... and very wearily and rudely said ‘You just use, well, your intelligence really to judge when it needs watering’."
• "Unfortunately Sarah on the checkout put a dampener on my shopping experience, Sarah was clearly not happy having to work."

Facilities and Accessibility

Pros:

• "Ample free parking outside."
• "The ladies Toilets are the best I have seen."
• "It has clean toilets, free parking and a massive cafe which serves very good food."
• "The parking is large and spacious."
• "Plenty of space for walkers and scooters if disabled."
• "Wheelchair access."
• "Plenty of parking and easy, level disabled access."

Cons:

• "Website states dogs welcome so we drove all the way from Chandler's Ford to get us in the Christmas spirit... And they changed the rules and wouldn't let us in!"
• "No dogs allowed at this time."
• "Very nice light and spacious, did notice that dogs are not allowed these branches."
• "Is there any parent and child spaces? Really struggle getting parked, normally have to go to the overflow just so I can get my daughter out of the car."
• "I would say there is a smell in the Canteen I could be wrong but it smelt a little bit damp or sewer related."
• "Not a very good experience, was waiting in a queue to be served when the lady in front of me was served the till was shut without warning."
• "While the garden centre itself is lovely it is let down severely by the restaurant."

Food and Drinks

Pros:

• "Had a delicious lunch here this week. Even though it was very busy, the staff were amazing."
• "The hot chocolate was fab! The coffee was also good."
• "The cakes on display looked absolutely amazing, so much choice & what a beautiful piece of cake I had."
• "We had soup and fresh bread which was very tasty."
• "Cafe is really good, serves lovely meals and a good selection of naughty cakes."
• "The cake selection in the cafe is to die for, large doorstep sized cakes and creamy lattes are a treat."
• "Tasty sandwiches and scones in the restaurant."

Cons:

• "Breakfast was almost cold by the time we'd waited and sat down."
• "Overcharged in cafe where I was charged £12.55 for 4 breakfast items."
• "Breakfast in the cafe is expensive, eggs and mushrooms made of rubber, portions are average."
• "Went for lunch. Wide choice on the menu, fairly pricey as well."
• "Even the decaf coffee was watery - but the decaf coffee tasted ok."
• "Lovely food in the restaurant, but the salad garnish was not particularly fresh and we had some brown lettuce."
• "All looks great but tastes awful. Vegan scone could not have been less like a light fluffy scone."

Pricing

Pros:

• "With an excellent selection and very reasonable prices I left with a huge (festive) smile on my face."
• "The cafe/restaurant offers a huge range of quality food and drink at very fair prices."
• "Really enjoyed our trip, the Christmas decorations were very good and reasonable prices."
• "Just what one would expect from a high end garden centre in regards to quality, but prices comparative to discount centres and kept in excellent condition."
• "A well run Garden Centre, plenty of items are Garden centre prices but that's ok because you kind of expect it."
• "Did have a lovely lunch there, portions very generous, and very reasonable price."
• "The restaurant has incredible quality and delicious food."

Cons:

• "Lots of different products, can be a little pricey."
• "The gift area is very pricey, and the goods really quite inane and over priced."
• "Some of their gifts a little pricey."
• "Not particularly cheap though."
• "Cake is pricey though but so is everything!"
• "Only down point is the prices are a bit high."
• "It's not cheap."