"Helpful staff and great selection of gardening materials and the food Hall is good."
"Great garden centre. Darren and his staff are so helpful and friendly they can't do enough for you."
"Debbie couldn't do more for us today with professional advice and clear information."
"Staff were pleasant and restaurant was very clean. Will come back again."
"Great service from Colin who helped advise us when we were choosing a garden bench."
"We were so impressed with the exceptionally high level of service and customer care we received from four of the Cafe staff."
"Please pass my thanks to Fred from your outdoor area. He was lovely today as he helped out my mum and I with some heavy pots and bags of compost."
Cons:
"Paper all over the floor. Excrement all over toilets."
"Very disappointed with our visit today... Staff seemed a bit despondent either standing chatting to each other or going about their business with no look out for the customers."
"I went in to buy some cheese and had to go and find someone to serve me. However the man I found seemed clueless and had to go looking for someone else to help me."
"Went to the till where a staff member was patronising and rude because we did not notice a queue here sign."
"They have a good selection of brands and a lovely cook shop also the variety of plants is good but the staff all seem to hate the public sadly."
"Shop assistant who served us got terribly muddled with sale prices and we had to go to a manager to get it sorted."
"Extremely poor customer service at the restaurant, I explained I don't like coleslaw and all the sandwiches had been premade, and she told me to eat round it."
Food and Restaurant
Pros:
"The price was very reasonable. Didn't have anything fancy but the food was piping hot and wholesome as well as very tasty."
"12 of us went for afternoon tea for my mams birthday it was great everything was lovely."
"We went today for afternoon tea, great food, excellent service and really good value for money."
"The cafe is also amazing with great cakes and desserts for those wicked treats!"
"Been today for high tea with my wife. Treat from our granddaughter for our anniversary. Sandwiches.cakes and scones were excellent."
"The food in the restaurant is excellent, very good value and we enjoyed the jacket potatoes we had on our visit."
"The cafe is fabulous too, I can never resist the food & a cuppa."
Cons:
"Scrambled eggs left a pool of water over my lukewarm food."
"Quality of food was fine but they were so short staffed that the queue was large and the wait to pay meant everything was luke warm by the time we were able to eat it."
"Visited to day for lunch an seem to have reverted back to making sandwiches toasties etc while you wait, hence by the time you wait for drinks and pay the meal was cold."
"Only disappointment was the cafe, same problem as last time I went there, we had a toasty each was not heated enough, the cheese was still solid."
"So decided to have breakfast at dobbies, service so slow food was cold by the time we ate it, not enough food cooked and available please speed up your servers and folk on tills, service ridiculously slow"
"The cafe is understaffed the food is not good we had undercooked ciabattas and a child’s meal that was microwaved or heated to a degree of hotness that was ridiculous and actually dangerous for a toddler to eat."
"Food was acceptable, though one of our party had the fish/pasta thing, which was over-salted and inedible."
Cleanliness and Maintenance
Pros:
"The toilet facilities were clean."
"Easily accessible, with plenty of disability parking."
"The Little Seedling soft play is well maintained, friendly and clean."
"Great day out with our grandson a snack in the cafe good selection of food for us and child great tropical fish selection."
"Dog friendly, nice Breakfast and cracking customer service from the girl Sam at the food restaurant, she was patient, friendly, upbeat and smiled from start to finish."
"Lovely staff. Cheerful, engaging, patient and helpful, making sure that the table I chose to sit at was clean."
"They have a great selection of plants, seeds and everything the gardener could want."
Cons:
"Glad we visited the toilets first...if that's the level of cleanliness seen in the public domain, I dread to think what the kitchens are like."
"Rest of the place looked devoid of stock with empty areas."
"What a shame, was most disappointed. The last couple of times I have visited, the shelves have been empty and it has a look of being closed down."
"The play area/equipment was clean but the eating area was dirty, floor desperately needed sweeping esp as we were walking with no shoes on."
"The cafe is absolutely filthy, with food all over the floors, food ground into seats, and cobwebs hanging from the windows."
"Plants not very well cared for. Play area nice but looked neglected."
"This place is extremely run down and dirty now. The staff aren't engaging and you can tell they don't want to be there, especially in the cafe."
Value and Pricing
Pros:
"The price was very reasonable. Didn't have anything fancy but the food was piping hot and wholesome as well as very tasty."
"This is a lovely garden centre with a range of things to buy... Definitely a place to visit."
"Visited Santa and they went above and beyond and fulfilled our special request helping us to keep the magic alive for at least another year."
"A mini Sainsbury's, kitchenware, garden furniture, aquariums and fish, plants both indoors and outdoors, Edinburgh woollen mill on site, toys and books for the kids with a zip line."
"Love visiting here with my elderly mother. They have a good range of products, lovely little sainsburys in store with fantastic offers."
"Great Dobbies Garden Centre, lots of lovely gifts and beautiful flowers and lots of great prices."
"First visit, amazed at amount and quality of plants."
Cons:
"Not my favourite gdn centre sadly... Prefer smaller individual nurseries as a keen gardener..it has to appeal to everyone I knew but I'm find generally pricy."
"This is a great place to browse but always way over the top expensive to buy."
"Cafe variable quality and slow service."
"Typical garden centre..bit snobby..everything over priced example £3 can of coke £3.50 plain scone £5000 for a hanging basket."
"Nice place but I don't know how they justify the prices. Much more expensive than you can get elsewhere."
"It was quite good, nice size and basic range. I mark it down a star from 5 as it's very basic typical commercial garden centre nowadays focussed on expensive garden furniture and household objects."
"The cafe is a different story. It's expensive, understaffed, and poorly managed."