Merriments Gardens Reviews Summary

Gardens

Pros:

• "The gardens are a wonderful riot of colour when I visited in late August can't wait to visit at other times of the year to see it then."
• "Best garden I’ve visited array of plants to choose from. Plants are high quality great condition all looks cared for."
• "Really lovely garden with a good mix of trees and planting and different lakes and little streams, plenty of seats to admire the different views, well worth a visit."
• "Beautiful and varied gardens, lots of wow moments."
• "The gardens were tired and a bit fried but that was understandable having just gone trough the hottest summer on record."
• "Lovely Garden Centre with a beautiful garden to visit as well. Excellent light lunches and friendly staff in the cafe."
• "The gardens attached to this garden centre are incredible - very well cared for and great to see new developments being worked on around the garden."

Cons:

• "Disappointing garden centre compared to others - too small to have much choice."
• "We would liked to have visited their themed gardens...but it was tickets only and we thought it was a little too expensive sadly."
• "Garden disappointing and expensive for what it is."
• "I was really disappointed when I visited with my daughters, £30 to see a more weed filled, neglected garden than my own!"
• "Disappointed with wheel chair access in gardens shingle paths made it difficult to push wheel chair."
• "Many borders unkempt and full of grass and weeds."
• "What a complete and utter waste of money, I cannot believe they have the nerve to charge people."

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "The two chaps in garden plant section were helpful and friendly."
• "Staff always charming and helpful."
• "The staff were lovely and helpful and so polite. We enjoyed the food and delicious cake 😋."
• "Their staff couldn’t have been more helpful- thank you so much."
• "Wonderful helpful staff who went out of their way to help a novice gardener on a horrid rainy day!"
• "All the staff here are helpful, friendly and know their stuff."
• "The staff were all friendly and particularly the young chap in the stunning orange garden which was full with sunflowers, marigolds and tadgets. He gave us some tips on gardening tools."

Cons:

• "When one of the waitresses brought two dishes out she just stood and looked... Didn't say what the two identical looking dishes were (they were different)."
• "Our drinks took 15 minutes and the food did not turn up."
• "Staff at the till need to appear a bit more cheerful though...."
• "Mature lady at plant till was miserable and more interested in looking at her mobile phone than smiling and serving me."
• "Venue was great but guy who served us made it very uncomfortable and unpleasant."
• "The only disappointment was the cafe. After being shown to a table outside, the waitresses hadn't returned after ten minutes, so we left and went elsewhere for food."
• "Only two stars because of unfriendly ticket seller who didn't tell us where to go."

Food and Restaurant

Pros:

• "The restaurant is nice, not a lot of choice but what there is, is tasty and reasonably priced."
• "The cafe was reasonably priced, the cream tea was delicious."
• "Wonderful new cafe serving its usual high quality food with warm smiles from all the staff."
• "Just had a lovely Sunday morning visit. Nice little place with lots of plants, some nice gifty bits and cards and very friendly staff. Had a fantastic breakfast in the restaurant too."
• "They have very good food, i often take my girl friends just for lunch."
• "The food was delicious! All in all a lovely, relaxed afternoon out."
• "Also enjoyed lunch in the Merriments restaurant and that was delicious."

Cons:

• "Ordered a cheese and chutney baguette as I am vegetarian given a ham baguette so had to send back and wait coffee was like tar."
• "Very little choice and while we were informed the fish cakes were a main meal if we had 2 each, we had to go elsewhere for a proper lunch afterwards."
• "I can't give any stars for the cafe which offered a very limited food choice and was as noisy (particularly with the dreadful coffee machine running) and as uncomfortable as it was two years ago."
• "Had meat free sausage roll for lunch, but it came with a grand total of 5 potato wedges and a salad that consisted of some lettuce roughly chopped, with a bit of added cabbage leaf and 1/2 a cherry tomato!! Very poor value for money."
• "The coffee was out of a press button machine and the scone was heated in the microwave which made it rubbery."
• "Really expensive. The dishes come with wedges and salad. Well, I had 3 wedges, and the so-called salad was just lettuce."
• "So expected a premium price because of bank holiday but cheese and ham sandwich £8.50 with half cooked wedges stale very cold bread."

Facilities and Accessibility

Pros:

• "We had a lovely visit and were pleasantly surprised by reasonably priced plants, aggregates and gorgeous outdoor ornaments."
• "Well stocked shop, cafe looked nice."
• "Pleasant staff and plenty of parking."
• "Garden centre was well stocked with plants, bushes, trees and other garden centre goodies."
• "Cafe provides good food and drinks with indoor and outdoor seating. Clean toilets with men/women having separate facilities."
• "Easy to find and lots of parking."
• "Ample car parking, including a disabled area."

Cons:

• "But car park is gravel which is not so easy for wheelchairs, walking frames, etc."
• "Disappointed with wheel chair access in gardens shingle paths made it difficult to push wheel chair."
• "Stunk of sewage where the new portaloos were being cleaned."
• "A lovely experience of both centre and gardens, but very let down by the very dirty state of the cutlery in eatery."
• "Very cold, no radiators in sight in the restaurant."
• "Scones were vile, used to be the best."
• "Made to feel 'odd' when seated as I was on my own seems loaded towards couples and groups."