Old Barn Garden Centre Reviews Summary

Garden Centre & Facilities

Pros:

• "One of our favourite garden centres, the modernisation looks nearly complete."
• "Good array of garden stuff, and things for the home."
• "What stood out most was the variety of garden stone and trellises etc."
• "The garden centre itself is great, lots of unusual items."
• "Making great progress with the makeover. Cafe and coffee shop looking great."
• "A great garden centre with a huge selection of plants and garden/outdoor focused items on sale."
• "This garden centre has completed the makeover and I like what I am seeing. Quality finishes used everywhere and product diversity is very good."

Cons:

• "The garden center had a craft fair in one of there outside buildings. But unfortunately for all the hard work the stall holders had gone to. The garden centre failed them by not advertising they were there."
• "Most disappointing, the dog friendly section has been moved to the little cafe, with very few tables."
• "The external plant section is undergoing a refit at present so the selection of plants is very limited."
• "Plant quality looked pretty grim what there was."
• "It's OK but no one there has any real knowledge of plants and trees and they only stock the norm."
• "If you want anything a bit different don't go there."
• "What was once a pretty good garden centre if sometimes a little dear is now a crash site!"

Café & Restaurant

Pros:

• "A genuinely excellent café elevates this 'garden' centre above the majority of its peers."
• "Staff at the café are excellent, very polite, good service, very clean and you feel safe."
• "The restaurant is so lovely now its been made bigger & always lovely & clean & has some great staff who are always very helpful & friendly."
• "Coffee and bacon bun in the restaurant was rather good also!"
• "The café is very good, the staff were rushed off their feet on a hot day but still had smiles for everyone and the food was excellent and arrived promptly."
• "The cafe had a good selection of drinks and cakes, with a lot of seating space."
• "The cafe does excellent food, served by polite and efficient staff too."

Cons:

• "The Latte was bitter and burnt. The breakfast was really bad."
• "The cappuccino I had was weak and served in a mug."
• "We booked santas grotto but their website glitches meaning the time we booked they couldn't accommodate."
• "The garden centre itself is great, lots of unusual items. However the breakfast was poor quality."
• "Stopped off at this lovely garden centre to get a much needed coffee. Went to the café and the counter was closed."
• "I ordered jacket potato with tuna. Potato was cold and inside was grey tasted as bad as it looked won’t eat there again."
• "Extremely disappointed with our visit to the restaurant. Food was poor and presentation dismal."

Customer Service

Pros:

• "Very honest and helpful, left my motorcycle bag in restaurant with wallet etc, got home and when I realised phoned and a very nice lady, Jane I think said they had found it and it was in the safe for collection, thankyou."
• "The staff are Friendly."
• "The staff were very happy, courteous & eager to please."
• "This was our fourth visit with our Classic Car club, and as before we were extremely well looked after by the team."
• "Outstanding garden centre staff very helpful and polite."
• "The staff are amazing...helpful, polite and unbelievably pleasant."
• "All the staff were very friendly and helpful."

Cons:

• "For today was the Southern classics car club breakfast meet... Shoppers in the store and the management complained that too many Classics were in the carpark."
• "No point going if you are disabled with a dog, you have to go down steps or go out one door and in again to go and order."
• "Its a shame its outdoor as it was raining on and off during the day and all the equipment was wet."
• "Today's experience was not good, customers fine with self distancing but the staff were awful."
• "Unfortunately there was an overwhelming amount of English mustard in the sauce."
• "The staff behind the counter were young ladies, perhaps inexperienced, who may want to work on their customer service and people skills, as warmth, friendliness and communication was lacking."
• "Disappointing to see a so called 'DOG FRIENDLY' garden centre have so many rules including - don’t let your dog smell shelves and if your dog urinates then you will be told to leave and your dog isn’t allowed to bark."

Accessibility & Parking

Pros:

• "Nice amount of social distancing in place, sanitiser available and big bonus plenty of car parking spaces."
• "There is a large car park with easy access to the garden centre."
• "Brilliant place to visit, ample parking, disabled parking, ramp and toilets."
• "Good Disable access and toilets."
• "There is parking for Blue Badge holders close to the entrance/exit."
• "The new look is fabulous, with more covered outdoor areas and a larger, hard-surfaced carpark."
• "A few people in store, but all practicing social distancing and wearing masks too."

Cons:

• "No point going if you are disabled with a dog, you have to go down steps or go out one door and in again to go and order."
• "The only thing you fall down on is the doors to the toilets. I am in a wheelchair my husband pushes me."
• "Most things seem expensive and pulling-out back on to the main road can be a bit scary!"
• "Unfortunately if you are coming up from the coast or you want to exit northbound, that's the difficult bit as you have to cross over the southbound traffic."
• "No staff enabling social distancing and restricting the numbers going in."
• "It appears your car park facilities hardly meet health and safety standards by not being lit up after dark."
• "Would have given 5star but the cafe have taken the all day breakfast menu off, breakfast now closes early 11.30."