Ambleside Bistro and Garden Centre in Solihull

Lovely Garden Centre and Coffee shop but spoilt by the filthy toilets and lack of toilet tissue! This is very off-putting for people.

Staff were too busy talking to each other by counter. Terrible service. Not good. Had to ask for everything and tables not cleared. Staff need training and to be managed maybe. Would not recommend, sadly.

Lovely bistro, food is great, you will not be disappointed with the omlette, the staff in the Bisto are always pleasant and willing to help you, and with a smile too, which can be very rare in places like this. we are never rushed, and staff never come over to you every 5 minutes asking if everything is ok, which is very refreshing as other restuarants i have been to, they constantly come over and ask if everything is "ok" and they always seems to ask you, when your mouth is full of food........ if i require anything, all i do is ask, and they either have it or not, i then drag my partner round the garden centre and the gift shop, we do not have any health issues but anything heavy, staff always offer to take it to your car, which again is very refreshing. thank you to all staff, you are doing a great service. Elle

Food is great, excellent value but the whole visit ruined by horrible staff. Very unfriendly , not welcoming and doing you a big favour by finding you a table. Do not get up to use the toilet, one practically chased me to make sure i wasn’t leaving without paying. Accompanied by her trusty iPad to warn me of the bill. She hadn’t noticed I’d left my friend and my coat at the table. Staff need retraining !!!! Way too intimidating.

First time visitors last Friday…popped in for quick hot drinks and cake.very impressed with decor, quick friendly service. First impressions count….Will definitely go again.

Myself, my sister and sister in law who haven't been all together for a while, booked an afternoon tea here today. We told them no egg sandwiches which they were fine about, but didn't offer an alternative to the egg. we had Cheese, Ham, and Tuna and there wasn't equal amounts of them. Then came the cakes which were plenty full but they only gave us two jam portions and two cream portions! why were not sure. When we had finished we asked for the cakes that had not been eaten to be taken home. Instead of taking away the cakes from the table, they bought is two foil contains with cardboard lids. very poor. Needless to say we will not be going back.

Called in for Lunch with my wife and daughter noticed on the menu they were charging £1.49 for hot water to go with your tea 😬 Asked for a salad and said my wife and daughter were sharing,a very condescending lady said we don’t do sharing. At this point we got up and left never to return, worst place ever.

Plant selection was not very good they died the day after being bought, when I came to ask why, they were abusive and refused to give me a refund, would not recommend this place to anyone in a 50 mile radius

Saturday 28th May 2022, My husband and I decided to visit ‘Ambleside Garden Centre’; we had not been there for some years. The garden centre had been much improved, although in saying that their lovely gift shop had been reduced and a selection of clothes and handbags had taken their place. They had re-vamped the small coffee shop into a seated restaurant serving lunches which looked nice. The selection of outside trees, plants and shrubs was excellent. However, there selection of indoor plants was abysmal – does no-one have indoor plants anymore? My husband and I looked round here for an hour but we did not purchase anything, we had been hoping to purchase an aspidistra for our house.

Very disappointed. No choice offered for sandwiches although asked on attending, told Cook decides. The sandwiches were salmon and cream cheese and cheese with Branston, only 1 of party liked them. Would have expected a choice of cold drink to be included in the costly price of £65.00 for 4 teas served on 2 tiered plates.

I regularly meet friends at The Bistro for coffee. We like the spaciousness of the venue. The coffee, although expensive for the size of the cups, is excellent. We usually need 2 cups each to satisfy us, which comes to £5.90. But hey ho - it is what it is. The staff are always cheerful, chatty and accommodating, which is why I was taken aback today when I asked for the background music to be turned down. If not turned down, perhaps something more appropriate to a Sunday morning coffee. I was met with several responses, none of which I felt were befitting good customer service. “We can’t as the manager has set the volume and it’s his playlist.” This I might have accepted but it was followed by “We like it. We think it’s jolly and cheerful.” The average age of the staff was about 25, whereas the average age of the clientele on that day was probably 70 - myself included. Who is the music supposed to be for? Staff or clientele? Given the staff shortage, I would have thought that staff would be too busy to notice the music and as for the customers, my guess is that conversation is pretty near the top of their list of priorities on meeting friends and family at The Bistro. May I be so bold as to suggest that the manager puts more thought into the type and volume of the background music he selects for his playlist or if it is even needed at all. I accept that it must be difficult to create an atmosphere in such a large space but playing inappropriate music at an uncontrolled volume is not the way to go - in my opinion.

Although the garden centre is small the bistro is very good. Good choice of snacks, light bites or main meals.

Extremely disappointed with slow service, highly priced coffee, cold toast and tea cake. No toilet paper in ladies toilet and lack of response when this was reported. Could not access wifi, girl said password had been changed and she did not know new password. Plenty of staff hanging around but obviously not interested in serving customers, all they were doing was chatting with each other. Need training in customer service. Could not recommend. For a good cup of coffee, reasonably priced, go to Asda!

I took my cycling group to have a cup of tea and cake...they were so welcoming. Even let us park our bikes inside. The food was lovely and the resturant is such a pretty place. Really enjoyed ourselves. Will be recommending it to everyone.

Always enjoy going to Ambleside the staff are brilliant , always friendly whether in the shop or the restaurant. Large selection of plants and thankfully came through the pandemic. Good menu choice , highly recommend a visit .

Went to see what plants they had my mom was happy she brought some grasses and daffodils Very good value. Decided to have a bit of lunch 2 omelettes lovely prawn sandwich very nice coffees lovely very nice hour and half out.

We ordered a takeaway afternoon tea for last weekend and it was fantastic. It had to be pre-ordered and we chose our sandwich fillings from a list. All were lovely and fresh. The cakes and scones were lovely with a good assortment (we had a tea for 6) . I would not hesitate to order one again. We have used this restaurant many times and cannot fault the food on any occasion and the staff are always friendly (unlike the garden centre). A special thanks to Kate who showed great customer service skills and was just brilliant.

Due to the difficulty times there was a wait however the staff were helpful and pleasant Sandwiches were find fresh and tasty Looked busy and the staff were all on the ball Do hope that they get through this virus time and come out smiling

Arrived and waited,waited and waited , so finally asked if we may sit down.We where offered various tables. After two attempts managed to get a menu , to then be told they stopped serving at 3.30pm . We left at 3.40pm. Would have been our...

Three of my girl friends booked Ambleside nursery afternoon tea to celebrate my special birthday. I have been coming here for years, so when it closed down in 2017 I was disappointed. Imagine my delight when it reopened, with a refurbished bistro. The afternoon tea...

We have been many times, the service as always been excellent .Staff very friendly. We have been twice for afternoon tea and have found it to be very good value. We are going again this because its so good !! Well done keep up the...

A most delightful afternoon tea as you would get anywhere. Booked for a sit down Special Offer Afternoon tea in the Bistro having never been in the restaurant area before. Delightful area within the Garden centre is a super safe and covid regulated Bistro. The...

This was once a pleasant and quality garden centre. What we found today was simply rubbish, The space has mostly been taken over by a large eating area and lots of the previous quality departments have gone. The farm shop held really poor quality fruit...

Visited here many times over last few weeks and found food to be superb. Visited today having booked tables for 2pm we never received our food until 3.10pm during which time we had drank our tea and unfortunately had to pay for refills even though...

We ordered a fish finger sandwich priced at £6.50 - when it arrived the bread looked fresh but the fish fingers were of a cheap quality, catering cheap quality! The fish inside the batter was GREY, the fish fingers were no more than half a...

been here a few times and enjoyed every visit. Food is lovely have had lunch,sandwiches and baked potatoes all good.

Called in for a coffee and snack after a walk around the lakes. Whilst the scone was nice, the coffee had flavour but was absolutely cold. At £2.75 think I should have returned it. The surroundings were lovely, very christmassy. Pity about the coffee.

Service incredibly slow and amateurish. Went for lunch and waited an hour for a sandwich and coffee to arrive. Even then the sandwich arrived first and the coffee 15 minutes later! Food was poor quality for the price £6.95 for a sandwich which barely had...

Myself and my husband visited at lunchtime to have a little look around the Christmas decorations - which were lovely. However, this review really is more based on a rather strange encounter with one of the staff (owner maybe? I’m not sure) It was raining...

From the moment we first saw the table, beautifully decorated with candles, crackers and even an illuminated snow-globe, to the minute, two hours later , when we put down our coffee cups with satisfied sighs, our Christmas lunch for 10 was faultless. The starters set...

Went on a Friday lunchtime. Ordered 2 small Lattes and 2 Prawn Sandwiches. 45 minutes wait for the sandwiches, and had to ask for the coffees after the sandwiches arrived. Lots of people grumbling about the very slow service. The prawns were fairly tasteless, not...

Popped in for lunch today. Katie the restaurant manager made us very welcome & our food was served by a delightful young man called Tom. Our meal was very tasty & will certainly be visiting again to try the Christmas menu. Would highly recommend this...

I like others who have written reviews on here, used to visit this establishment before it changed hands. The food used to be excellent but not any more. My Mother and I both ordered Eggs Royale. Both dishes were served on one small split muffin which hadn’t been toasted. Two small eggs on each with a tablespoon of salmon trimmings, and this is not an exaggeration! It was then topped with what tasted exactly like SALAD CREAM! Now either the cook( I cannot say ‘chief’) needs to go to Specsavers or they have’nt a clue. 3 rocket leaves finished the dish. Only positive note was the coffee, supplied with a mint. Unfortunately though we will not be back.

Great day yesterday for a family members 60th, staff were really helpful, plenty of food and tasty, couldn’t ask for more, I have never been there before will probably take my mom for her birthday.. Thank you to all the staff everything was well presented.

The place has obviously changed hands. The restaurant has expanded and the place is full of low quality junk for sale.

The afternoon tea is £19.95 for two people, which is an excellent price for what you get!!! The very nice waitress explained what the afternoon consisted of and she let us swap some of the sandwiches to suit our preferences. The presentation was beautiful and everything was delicious! The waitress looked after us by refilling our teapot and boxed up our left overs so we could bring it home with us. Will certainly be back again soon to try the savoury afternoon tea! Highly recommend!!!

Visited a couple of times with friends & family and I have never been disappointed. Customer service is always excellent and the lady behind the counter is always pleasant & helpful. The newly decorated restaurant is spacious and quirky. Food and coffee is excellent too.

We really wanted to like this bistro and support a local business. We ordered four meals, nothing difficult. It took an hour. The restaurant wasn’t even terribly crowded. The chef was in plain view and we watched him eating away the whole time. The staff seemed apathetic until we complained and tried to rectify it with the offer of free cake but we didn’t have time to hang around any longer! My father and daughter order chicken pie and it was slopped on the plate and looked more like beige stew. Such a shame.

Four of us had the afternoon tea which was amazing value at £19.95 for TWO people. The sandwiches were fresh and varied. The cakes were just the right size portions with beautiful flavours and were very moist. The scones topped the tea - they were large, warm fruit scones which were delicious, we all agreed they were the best we had tasted. The service was quick and very courteous. Other customers were also enjoying the Saturday afternoon tea in the restaurant. Highly recommended. Will be going again definitely.

My husband and I popped in to Ambleside for lunch and chose the Afternoon Tea option, which was £19.95 for the two of us- an absolute bargain for the quality and quantity of food you get!

Have visited on a couple of occasions, have enjoyed what we have eaten. Menu could do with a bit more variety and found a little expensive for what we ate. Will use again when passing as have a feeling it will only get better?

Hot food stoped serving at 3pm so decided to have the afternoon tea for 2 however there was 3 of us and only one drinking tea. They didn’t charge extra for myself having a coffee or family having a lemonade most places would rip you off!..it was £20 which I thought was great a lot of places charge over the odds for afternoon tea...the scones were delicious! I brought extra to take home and the staff were lovely..

This was our second visit to the new bistro but unfortunately was very disappointed , we decided to bring family that were over from Australia for afternoon tea , it was appalling in my opinion the food didn’t seem very fresh the sandwiches lacked presentation just cut in half when better presentation would have been cut in quarters I serve better afternoon tea at home. The first time we came for afternoon tea it was prepared by a gentleman had much better filling in sandwiches was well presented and much fresher. The new bistro lacks any atmosphere unlike the old one was very quaint and homely. The staff however were very polite and helpful .I would not recommend this place to anyone needs a lot of improvement to the food ...... very disappointing over all .

Went in March and gave it a "Very Good" review but on our return this week we were very disappointed.

Coming through the garden centre with flowers in bloom, hanging baskets being watered and entering the beautifully set out very newly decorated bistro, things were looking up. As the only customer in the empty 70+ cover restaurant, it was a little soulless but the setting is very well manicured and the background music is very relaxing. Some lower tables and easy chairs and you could spend some very relaxing time drinking coffee and reading the paper here!

After waiting 50 mins for a sandwich at lunchtime my husband and I cancelled the order and requested a refund and complained to the Manager. A very poor experience particularly as there were few customers in the bistro. A return visit is definitely not on the cards

Visited bistro for mother's day today. Very disappointing place, a room too large lacking any real warmth. We just wanted some nice cakes and a drink - the choice was a joke, a scone or tea cake and that was it! It was Mother's day might it be an idea to order more options in? They could not even toast the tea cake even though they had a large kitchen! To be fair what we had was nice but with another fantastic larger garden centre at Earlswood with a proper stocked lovely cafe it's a mystery why anyone would come here, we won't come back again.

Sandwich is two triangles with a few leaves a cherry tomato and a dozen chips. Plastic ham and cheese and margarine for £8.95. We asked to speak to the Manager and our waitress was rude and dismissive telling us to go to him as he was busy. We asked again and she said that if we wanted to speak to him we had to go to the kitchen hatch. We took our sandwich back and the Manager was very rude and dismissive and simply stated that ham was expensive and he didn’t want to argue with us. We went to the counter and asked for a refund, which we were given with no apology or acknowledgement. The room is heartless, bare and not inviting, that might be due to its newness as I’m not sure when it moved from the conservatory? Such a sad and disappointing loss. The old cafe whilst a tad expensive was a friendly and lovely place to sit. The food was always good, whether a full meal, sandwich or cakes.

Usually when I go for a cooked breakfast I feel that I've eaten enough to last a week, this is not the case here. The food is very well prepared and well presented but the portions were not over generous, don't get me wrong I didn't leave the table hungry but not particularly full either,

Visited for a Sunday lunch following the reviews on here, but was disappointed. The restaurant lacked any atmosphere or ambience, it’s a square empty box.

Fabulous Sunday Lunch & Special Party Menu. The new menu is stunning, beautifully presented & exquisite savouring tastes. Alex & his team worked so hard to make this day a

Lovely place, comfortable sofas to lounge in - but incredibly loud ‘boppers’ pop music playing to a clientele with an average age of about 70. Talking was difficult ........

Visited the new Alexanders Bistro for breakfast today. At first good impressions and looked like good value for money but

Stopped for a morning coffee and scone as happened to be passing on way to Dickens Heath. Visited here last year to check out the garden centre but not the bistro and was pleasantly surprised by the large scale and open plan serving and seating areas. The kitchen area was also on show which is generally a good sign to give customers assurance of cleanliness or otherwise! The coffee was nice and hot unlike the tepid temperature I often find in some places and the scone was fine too. Perfectly acceptable based on our brief stop and modest food and drink requirements so will visit again when next passing by or going for a walk around the nearby Earlswood lakes in better weather

Popped in today for lunch today and was pleasantly surprised by the new bistro, staff friendly and welcoming, food was amazing especially the home made soup, and mushroom risotto. The fish and chips were crisp and really tasty. Excellent quality, well presented and good value for money. I’ll definitely be back.

Excellent value for money. Good selection of food and service.Been there twice and will definitely return.

On our way to visit the Earleswood Lakes we called into Ambleside Bistro and Garden Centre for coffee in Alexanders restaurant they serve a lovely latte with a piece of chocolate the restaurant has been re sited and enlarged lovely friendly helpful staff well worth a visit.

Well we decided to pop in, after not having been for a year.

Very disappointed, service good but breakfast disapointing. Breakfast came with half a mushroom plus two slices of cold tomatoe (not cooked toms but fresh) asked for toast and was charged £2 for one piece of toast, half a slice each. BG

Pleasurable visit to Ambleside Garden Centre followed by outstanding food in Alexanders Resturant. Nice variety of Christmas decorations in the Garden Centre and a warm welcome and great service in the restaurant. Highly recommend a visit

Fabulous Sunday Lunch. Beautifully presented. Beef was tender & the Yorkshire Pudding looked so pretty with the black & orange carrots. The whole meal was delicious as was the Apple Strudel. Congratulations to the 2 Chefs. We will certainly come again.

What a surprise called in to have a look around

We called to buy plants and thought we would try the new restaurant for coffee and cake.

Ambleside used to be a lovely little garden centre with a superb conservatory where the food was served. I’m not sure why it closed down suddenly, but it apparently reopened about a year ago.

Was originally shut down in Aug 2017, this lovely garden centre with a nice café was re-opened just before Christmas 2017 by it new owners.

Went for celebratory afternoon tea with friends, prebooked including one gluten free.

Went into this little beaut by off chance as walking round the garden centre we fancied a coffee we sat down and our lovely waitress served us ... all I can say is wow we just didn’t have coffee we had food omg it’s amazing I had pan grilled chicken with broccoli and new potatoes with a beautiful mushroom cream sauce .. omg it’s just amazing and to top it off I looked around and every hot drink that people have you get a biscuit with WOW .. everything was a great price the chef is amazing all the staff was so lovely nothing was to much trouble ... thank you will be back very soon .

Recently visited again with my family, having been quite a while ago. Seemed very much improved. Great range of unusual plants. Bought some lovely gifts and cards. The manager was very knowledgeable and helpful. Will definitely be visiting the cafe again, great food! Would highly recommend

Love coming here with my friends and family. It’s a really lovely chilled out little bistro with a great menu.