Capital Gardens in Haringey

I wish I could say the café had improved at all since my last negative experience (and review) in December last year, but it has not. The menu is still limited with chronic stock control issues, service chaotic and half-hearted at best, and overpriced (who on earth expects to pay over £9 for a cold sandwich and a tiny handful of crisps and salad at a garden centre?!) Today I ordered a cake, a hot chocolate, and a sandwich. In the queue behind me was a family of four who each had a cold sandwich and a pot of tea - a much larger order, as well as being placed after mine. The server didn't listen to my order properly, and only put through the sandwich - itself a surprising £9.75. I was not given a receipt, and given the price I assumed my full order had been taken. That one cold food item - a mere third of my order - took over 20 minutes to arrive, after the family of four behind me in the queue had been served, finished, and left! When I pointed out that most of my order was missing, I just got a surly response from the server that it was all that was on the receipt, and if I wanted more I could place another order - no apology for his mistake, the extraordinary amount of time it took to bring up even the one bit of the order he remembered, or anything. The whole experience quite spoiled what had up to that point been an enjoyable and successful shopping trip. The only saving grace was that the manager promptly refunded me following this experience, but the café seems to have gone really downhill in the last 12 months - I can only assume it must have recently changed management.

Has had consistently poor selection in the café for some time now. Staff seem friendly enough, but is being badly mismanaged especially re stock levels and variety. Gives the impression of having just given up.

We hadn’t been to this cafe for over a year and it looked like the management had changed as I think it was vegetarian before and now there were some meat dishes. We had tomato and basil soup that was really nice. Served with some bread that wasn’t very special. We also had a chicken and mushroom slice that was lovely. The seating area wasn’t that warm but it was OK considering the very cold weather outside.

The cafe here is missing such a great opportunity. It could be popular as it’s a great location, however, I’ve hd better food at a petrol station! Drinks were fine, but my bacon sandwich on mothers pride bread was with margarine with ketchup already added, along with a side salad and crisps. Not good sandwich and strange combination. I only ate here as I was so hungry. Everything by looked old from the croissants to the greggs like sausage roll. How about some smoked salmon bagels as a suggestion. No wonder we saw no one else eating.

I regularly go and they have a very good selection of shrubs and perennials as well as garden tools etc. Also good selection of bags of compost, gravel etc Lovely atmosphere. Only downside is the food isn't very good but I can spend ages there, a day out