Dobbies Garden Centre in Swindon

Pit stop in the cafe. "Please wait here to be seated". We did. eventually someone signalled us from a long way away (it's a long, narrow space) so we went in. Our order was taken by someone who believes he is a comedian. Coffee came, and a pot of jam. Nothing else. Eventually went to the servery to chase up. "I'll have to check your order" and someone proceeded to do so. I think I was being accused of falsely claiming I had paid for the rest of my order. Never again.

Terrible service had to wait as only one chef absolutely crazy. Food poor lettuce brown and coleslaw was just lettuce and onion

Dismal experience. The food was bland and luke warm. The atmosphere was hectic, loud and chaotic leaving me feeling harassed and exhausted by the end of our meal. This was only surpassed by the state of the toilets! They were appalling...desperately in need of a clean. A couple were totally blocked. Quite revolting I'm afraid.

Staff always seemed to be short handed, however, very professional and pleasing as they are, quick to take your order and food is presented soon after. Tasty enough for the Limited menu on offer.

Excellent all round. Steve is an asset and cares. His passion is wonderful. Steve's attention to detail is an excellent skill. Our food was excellent.

Came in for a gluten free lunch. The food was excellent and the customer service was outstanding. Steve made us feel so welcome and he really looks after everyone. Our order was complicated and detailed but he was extremely attentive and patient. We felt loved. I can't wait to come back. Fish and chips was fab and cherry scone was amazing !!! So happy 😊 thanks Steve 👍

I tried for some days to call Dobbies, without success. It said online that the last day they were serving cream teas was the 13th March. I wanted to check this as a friend, whose birthday was yesterday, was here from Belgium and had expressed a wish for cream tea. The phone voice gave number options but when I selected one the phone rang for a long time and then reverted to the same female voice giving the same options... I went in person yesterday, the first opportunity to be in the area and enquired in person of the supervisor/manageress. She did not know about the date issue but said they needed two days’ notice for a cream tea as the cakes needed to be taken from the deep freeze. She suggested Dobbies in Cirencester as an alternative as they were larger and may be able to provide without prior notice. I was loathe to drive to Cirencester on the off chance so phoned immediately to be faced with the same problem as the Swindon restaurant. Same female voice giving options, long ring tone then same voice repeating message. Extremely frustrating and disappointing and certainly the web site needs updating and improving as does the telephone system. I gave one out of five because two staff members in Swindon were apologetic.

Awful! We went to Dobbies for some lunch to celebrate my dad’s 70th birthday and we were astonished by how bland the food was and how slow the service was. We initially had to wait 35 minutes for a server to even take our order then a further 30 to get the bill. We asked staff on numerous occasions if we could please be served and were told 3-4 times ‘someone will come over’ and no one ever arrived. Not a nice experience considering it was for a special occasion. Avoid!

Very disappointed with the afternoon tea. Very disorganised. The wrong day had been booked after going in myself to book. We arrived we were sat on a table at the back of the cafe. When the waiter came I said I'm not really happy sat here he said oh maybe u should be sat down the front and moved us. The sandwiches were disappointing. Egg also cheese and pickle. So many macaroons seemed they needed to fill the top tier up. All round disappointing.

Wow what can I say about the breakfast with Santa, the energy from the elf Steve all the way through to the amazing manager Cheryl, food was amazing hot and fresh and tasted fantastic. Cheryl and her team are a credit to Dobbies, thank you for making it such a special time for our family. Merry Xmas 🎄 f

Being a dobbies card holder, I received a free tea and cake voucher for my birthday. You wait like a lemon to be seated when there are lots of vacant tables. I had to beckon the lad over to take our order (after sitting there for about ten minutes). The tables were dirty and had lots of dirty plates with uneaten food on them. The only good thing about my visit was the cake!! Why is this Dobbies so poor when the Dobbies near Cirencester is exceptional!

Disgraceful service. Lovely girl took the order of 2 coffees but other than that waited for half an hour while the barista was chattering out side. I had to speak to 3 people before they got her back in and her attitude stank. Last visit here for sure.

Well that was an experience 😳 From the time you walk in and made to stand at the doorway, A member of staff then stands by a table and shouts the leanth of the restaurant for you to go and sit, We ordered our food when it comes out well what a sorry plate that was, no cutlery, no butter for the toast and no drinks, I asked for cutlery amd our drinks and was told they are short staffed, Not a good environment to sit and enjoy the rubbish they give us , let's just say I left hungry and a lot of money down and nearly two hours of my life I'm not getting back🤣 I do have a photo but won't let me

I had a very nice chicken Caesar salad for lunch, and I couldn't really fault it. What I did find mildly disturbing, was the guy shouting at new customers for coming into the restaurant before he was ready for them. They were clearly short staffed today, though this does seem to be a common occurrence at Dobbies restaurants. Only last week I wrote those same words in another Dobbies review. Anyway, I suspect because they were short staffed, they wanted to control who came in so they could sit them down and know what order to take their orders in. Trouble was, with so few staff, it was easy for new customers to just walk in. When Mr Angry saw them he's literally shout as them from across the restaurant to get them to stay put until he gets to them. I suspect Mr Angry was quite stressed but he also displayed a lack of people skills and tact. So Dobbies Swindon (and Dobbies Derby) please sort your staffing out so the staff don't get so stressed. Its very off-putting and this is now 2 places we won't be returning to.

I ordered a Double Egg Mayonnaise and Watercress Sandwich and it came with no watercress. When I complained I was offered lettuce as a substitute which was unacceptable as a lot of the lettuce in the salad that came with the sandwich was brown and I had to remove it. A lady at the table next to me complained her young son had found hair in his pizza, was told he should have complained before he started eating it. Very poor service indeed, won’t be coming back.

from what we witnessed there were queues of people wanting to sit but were left waiting , when we finially got seated , service was SLOW! Felt sorry for the staff - some who seemed more efficient than others! I gave up and tried counter service as only wanted a can of cola but they wouldn't allow this!! So had to wait and waIt!!! Appalling experience.

Went for a coffee and after eventually being seated had to wait and wait and wait for order to be taken then again for Luke warm coffee to be delivered. We can’t fault the chap, he’s absolutely brilliant and hard working doing the cleaning, ordering, delivering and taking payment whilst one young female wanders around aimlessly doing not much. Come on management either employ more staff as what you have is not enough or see your previously loyal customers go to Cirencester where coffee and cake has been back to self service for months.

After waiting ages to be seated, I then had to wait a further 10 mins to get served. Breakfast has now gone and there are no 'breakfast style' items on the menu at all. Toasted Teacakes should be an all dayer surely and perhaps at least a bacon sandwich? Had to suffice with a croque monsieur. That's been delivered, still waiting for the tea! The food will probably be cold before I get the tea. I can't eat without a drink. Absolutely terrible service, I don't know whether they are short staffed or just idiots but I definitely won't be coming back.

Visited with friends for a Sunday morning coffee , very disappointed with the poor service and general disorganised chaos. Why there is still a need for table service when customers would quite happily obtain their refreshments at the counter & take it to a table and free up staff to focus on making the drinks etc is beyond me. The current arrangement meant that although table orders were taken reasonably in order of arrival, subsequent delivery of orders was rather random .Many customers endured long waits, one seated near us chased up his order after 40 mins and it wasn’t even in the system. I had to go and ask for someone to take our second order which then took half hour to arrive. I doubt many customers were happy- we observed / overheard several complaining and we too returned our first drinks order as they were all lukewarm and the coffees were not a full cupful. The queue of people waiting to be seated was at one point quite long, most gave up and walked away ! We felt a little sorry for the staff who were clearly a little stressed at times ( not good for customers to witness ) , however a bit of hands on management probably would have gone some way to improve the situation and prioritise what was needed . We ( and many others I suspect) will not be rushing back here again, if at all.

I'd like to review the food here at the Restaurant but didn't actually get as far eating anything. My wife and I stopped here for a journey break hoping to get a coffee and a stack. When we entered the restaurant where there were many empty tables. We went to the food counter where there was no queue and a server at the till who was standing doing nothing, only to be told it was table service only. We sat at a table and waited to be served....and waited...and waited. After ten minutes, I spoke to a server who was passing and was told he was currently serving tables at the other side of the restaurant, and would 'get round to us'. At this point the server at the till was still doing nothing. We waited another ten minutes and eventually left in despair. There were several servers in the restaurant who appeared to be be very busy and were working hard. The server at the till was still doing nothing This place is totally disorganised and needs to review the way they serve people. Don't bother to stop here especially if you're hungry.

Attended for a pre-Christmas Festive lunch earlier this week. The service was not the best, but that said, all the staff that were working were working very hard and couldn't be blamed. Maybe management need to look at the staffing level. When the Turkey dinner arrived, it wasn't very hot, the turkey was thin sliced and perfectly formed which made me very suspicious and the gravy followed about 5 minutes later and was served in slices it was so thick. That said, the Christmas pudding was very nice and couldn't fault the hard working staff.. Shan't be going back, the Cirencester Dobbies has a far better restaurant.