Dobbies Garden Centre Cirencester in Cotswold

Lovely to look at all the Christmas goodies.🥰

A great place for coffee and cake, even a meal if you wish, and to meet up with family or friends.

Visited on Saturday 9th November: Waited for more than 10 minutes to be served at the cafe - no apology for the long wait, no hot chocolate available, no offer of warming cheese scones and only two people serving who really didn't seem to care . . . Haven't been in a while and won't be hurrying back.

Feeling quite confused about a fleece that we bought on Tuesday,as there was a 20 per cent discount day on ,so paid £32.00 for it Bought it back today to exchange it for a different colour but the same fleece.Was told that because today the discount wasn't on any more I had to pay an extra £8.00.The cashier said that if there was some wrong with it I would not have to pay the extra money.Such a shame as it's a birthday present, just that son didn't like the tan colour.

We had a lovely trip to this garden centre, spoiled only by the rude and lazy woman at the till. It was near closing time, I asked for a bag and she grumpily took one out and threw it on the table. I remarked that I didn’t think all my shopping would fit in there and she simply threw another one at me. My husband is sight impaired, so I was trying desperately to juggle the shopping into the bags, and realised I wasn’t sure she gave me a receipt. I said I couldn’t remember if she gave me a receipt and she very aggressively said she already gave it to me!!! By this time I was angry and upset. I hope Dobbies take action to prevent this woman abusing other customers, she has really let down the whole team.

The seats in the cafe dog area are filthy, simply disgusting.

Food has gotten loads better love it roast dinners are looking tasty I seam to always hav a Panini so couldn't say but there paninis are really good, great kids meal menus Christmas is a bit early not much Halloween stuff but all stores are the same nowadays it's not even November yet 🙄

Lovely garden centre and great cafe/restaurant. Plus the benefit of having Lakeland next door.

What an incredibly disappointing "Luxury Afternoon Tea" and Cafe! for a Birthday. In advance in our party a few required gluten and vegetarian to separate in which they didn't when served. we were seated to a reserved table with all our plates and teapots dirty. All of the food served itself in which I sat on behalf of everyone was even worse than ready made food that from the sandwiches, cakes and snacks! At the end we did make a gentle complaint especially as it was for a Birthday, but when we made a complaint the manager didn't hear us at all to reason and their apology just followed a box of cakes which ended up being just as poor as the other cakes? We are disappointed regarding the circumstances and wouldn't recommend.

Always a lovely place to visit with friendly staff! ☕️🍰 The cafe and restaurant have great food and drinks. Would recommend to anyone looking for a great garden centre! #gardencentre #cafe #restaurant #greatfood #friendlystaff

Service in restaurant has got quicker and all down to Lizzy she is a Trojan and always helps to see a smile The food was tremendous not too much and just right ,the drinks came before the food which is ok but the deal for the over 60 is great and the cake was a added bonus Recommend it and the queue is very short in week

Good coffee and cake lovely staff, good sale clothing many good brands and also so called designer goods. Excellent free coffee's for card holder members.

I literallly had the best iced coffee I’ve ever had in my life, my whole existence if you will, made by this stunning stellar diva called Aidan, I am wishing him every single success and bestow that ultimate happiness upon him and I need him promoted yesterday!

Great garden center friendly service amazing food very lovely lasagna best I've ever had and very welcoming towards young children and its dog friendly 😀

Nice garden centre with a wide range of choices but please avoid the cafe. My daughter and I visited yesterday and it was a complete disaster. We ordered a baguette, dessert and drink each. The baguette was stale, my daughters came with half the top missing. The drinks were awful, afterwards we were told they were out of syrup and the desserts were dry. We literally left after a mouthful of each. To compound things of to the side of use an elderly ladies chair broke and she fell and the staff just stood behind the counter and laughed. Disgusting food and disgusting behaviour. Thank you for your reply Karen, it seems from reading your reviews you just copy and paste these generic replies and nothing gets done.

This is a great store with a Waitrose plus Lakeland within and a really nice cafe. Plenty of parking for our motorhome and lovely staff. Our needs for wellies were desperate due to the heavy rain. Sadly our travelling funds are depleted somewhat due to their high prices for us poor northerners!.

Only popped into lakeland and used the toilet in dobbies. But both looked good and dobbies seems big!

Monday lunchtime, popped in for lunch with optimistic hope that it had improved. As ever bad service, not good food. So no change then. Dobbies restaurant never fails to disappoint.

Good food in the cafe. Very poor plant maintenance in the garden centre. Shoddy looking reduced plants throughout made it look miserable. Did not buy anything here.

First visit very clean and tidy store / staff very helpful lovely display of flowers and stock on the shelf plus clean restaurants /cafe and toilet

Popped in and decided to have some lunch. The prices were a shock, very expensive *8 pounds for a sandwich! My daughter had a toastie (which was luke warm) I had a scone which was cold and quite hard. There is no way they are homemade as the menu suggests. It took so long to be seated and get drinks (I actually collected our drinks as I'd watched multiple staff members walk past them) so didn't bother complaining. Staff were pleasant but you could tell there was a lack of communication and they clearly did not want to be there. Won't be going again!

Great garden centre with a Lakeland and small Waitrose inside.

Big outlet with entrance and exit some distance apart. Few disabled spaces. Outside garden plants and pots, landscaping and fencing. Inside other outlets/retailers plus cafeteria. Need a good hour to browse the lot before a coffee.

Travelled 30 miles to this Dobbies to get our monthly free coffee and because it was after 2 pm wanted buy 1 cream scone get 1 free to be told they didn't have any this was 2•10 pm when the offer started,this is the 3rd time this has happened also one cup was not filled to the top.Also all the tables had used cups and plates that had not been cleared even the full tray trolley had not been touched people coming into restaurant had to move trays to other tables together a clear one we were sat 35 minutes there and saw nobody clear anything is there any management in this store,why can't you keep a tray of cream scones back for selling after the 2 Pm deadline it is not good here or is it because the staff can't be bothered to go into the kitchen and look

An excellent value for money breakfast. Served really quickly. We were greeted very warmly and out waitress was friendly and helpful

Went to the Restaurant, the chairs are very stained, they are white fabric but doesn't look very welcoming. Food was okay, I would suggest ingredients were on the cheaper side, cost of a panini is on the higher side compared to other establishments I have been to. Salad had no dressing and when I asked for some was told there was none available, use the mayonnaise which unfortunately I cannot consume. Made the lady who took payment aware she said it was a supplier issue and would inform the manager Overall staff were very pleasant and nice, food was prompt.

Excellent Company with very wide range of Garden Plants and ancillaries ......the bonuses are Waitrose food and the The excellent Coffee shop....

I had afternoon tea booked here in Cirencester for my 60th birthday and I have to say a big thank you to Ben and his staff for doing a fantastic job. They laid up the table for me which was so much better than I imagined and nothing was too much trouble. Thank you again Ben x

I like this garden centre Great salad selection some good deals too but big queue for the checkout!.

Restaurant/Café needs someone to run this a lot better. Long wait to get a table even though half empty then 20 mins to order it then took 1 hour for pot of tea to arrive and another 7 mins for cooked breakfast . Breakfast was very good So 2 stars could do better

A good assortment of garden and pet products. Also good selection of food in the cafeteria..

Good around garden centre slightly more expensive than most

My husband and I have visited Dobbies of Cirencester for a number of years now and always enjoyed their cakes. Unfortunately we had a really bad experience on Sunday as my almond croissant was really stale. I complained and was offered a replacement cake so opted for the carrot cake which was acceptable. The lady behind me in the queue also purchased a stale cake which she returned. People in the queue also complained about purchasing stale cakes. This is not acceptable and makes you question how the rest of the restaurant is managed. My stale cake cost me £3.49 and makes me question whether I will shop on Dobbies again! Very disappointed!!

We had a Luxury Afternoon Tea for our 50th Wedding Anniversary at Dobbies Garden Centre Cirencester. It was really great and sumptuous, a veritable feast. The whole experience was made more enjoyable by the staff on duty that day. A big thank you to Jackie and Kordian. Thanks again to all involved in making our special day an unforgettable experience.

Think someone needs to water their plants,may 31st at 3pm racks and racks of plants just drooping and bone dry.alot of expensive plants laying on their sides some half out of pots.shambles.

Good shop lots of plants and other goods

Cafe looks beautiful however the crockery looks filthy. Teapot, milk jug, cup and saucer are badly stained brown. Either the dishwasher needs an upgrade or an all round renewal of crockery is in order. The service is very good and the drink itself was very nice. Come on Cirencester, you can do better than this.

My wife and I were enjoying a first class breakfast on the morning of 26th April only to have it spoilt by watching a dog doing it's pooh right in the entrance to the restaurant and then because of were our table was also had to watch staff cleaning up after it.on speaking to the waitress in the restaurant felt that she found it amusing!

Only one member of staff at the tills. Ended up empty handed

Had a full English breakfast each. Was quick and tasty. The waitress was lovely and good with my child. £36 for 5 of us

Lovely garden centre , plants looked after

Very busy today due to school holidays, but well stocked and a wide choice

Great choices and lovely cafe/restaurant. Friendly staff

Good range of certain products, especially house plants, bird feeders and food. However it is not acceptable to charge £5 more per unit of fat blocks than you can get delivered to your home from Amazon for free. That's almost double the cost and a £4 increase on what they used to cost around a year ago. Also the service at the till was not friendly and impacted my enjoyment of the visit.

My daughter and I decided to have lunch here and we're sorely disappointed, when our sandwiches eventually arrived my bread was dry and the salad had no slaw and even if I did want to eat the salad which had so much raw onion on it (which I hate) there was no cutlery to eat it with. At no point did anyone come back to be able to ask for some. Very poor, wont be going back for the amount they charge.

My wife and enjoyed a meal in your restaurant today which was very good. Good customer service is not always acknowledged and I have to give a big shout-out to Alex who was polite, courteous and very efficient. Well done and thank you.

Drove to this Dobbie's just to see what plants they have in at the moment. They did have a big selection of Dahlia tubers, some special dinner plate ones👌 It has a huge car park here and I noticed that there is electric car charging stations being currently installed😀 Great to know for the future👍

After some really poor experiences here in the past, I really enjoyed my brekky here today. Staff were fantastic - friendly, efficient and really lovely. Food was tasty, piping hot and great value. Much much improved. Cakes looked delicious. Everything was clean and tidy in the dining area. Very efficient service. We'll be back xx

We were quite disappointed in this visit, not a great selection of items in store, hardly anything in fact, store looks like it's closing down - long wait at coffee bar as only one member of staff making drinks, what's going on?

Terrible long wait at the cafe. Only one poor girl alone making up coffee/ tea /till. Very average selection of plant pots . Plants more expensive than other garden centres I visit. Spacious and easy to park though.

The cafe is a disaster. Always trays of used cups/plates everywhere. 20 minute queues for a coffee everytime I've been in. Today the crockery was filthy, particularly the milk jugs which look as if they've never been washed.

Went for breakfast last Saturday, chose Dobbie’s as had Xmas shopping to do. How can you get scrambled eggs on toast wrong?! It was inedible, bland, soggy toast and the eggs I am sure were the type you get pre mixed or packet. Seating a fiasco too. Will not be going back!

I visited the Cirencester Dobbies at the weekend & we visited the Cafe, a charming young man served us Cordian - he was so pleasant & polite making sure we had everything we needed & brought our orders straight out, as we had never been before & were unsure of the ordering system. Coridan served us from our table making it a lovely experience. I informed the manager he is a pleasure to have on their team and would definitely recommend the cafe & would visit again! I informed the manager that Cordian should have some recommendation for his excellent customer service he gave us as he made our visit a pleasant experience & having lovely staff makes such a difference, thank you Cordian from Rachel, Sara & Alison.

Christmas at Dobbies Cirencester

Went for afternoon tea. Eventually seated, ordered. 20 minutes later scone arrived. Told no clotted cream left! Took back, said we’d still have tea. Another 10 minute wait, warm tea that had been on the side for a while was delivered. Very slow service (despite not being too busy). We don’t even bother with the self service queue now as the queue is always so long (mainly due to just one staff member doing all drinks - crazy system). Note, this review is only based on the cafe - the garden centre itself is great.

Visited today to do a little Christmas shopping and have some lunch as we do every Christmas. We do come at other times. The toilets were disgusting at 11.30am. Toilet paper all over the floor in most cubicles and an over flowing sanitary disposal unit. Mirrors filthy. However the cafe was unfortunately no better. Dirty tables with dirty utensils which when we asked for replacements were equally dirty. Filthy glassware with lip marks on it. To finish us off, slimy, black, rotten salad leaves. When we mentioned this, the Team Leader said I don't eat salad so have no idea if it's acceptable. Shopping experience no better, empty shelves and many items not priced. Such a shame.

Really unhappy today with the service we received very under staffed, my family came in expecting a really nice meal our food was cold some stuff frozen missed some of the food off could not eat it all I was looking forward to a lovely Christmas dinner that’s not what we got! Frozen roast potatoes not what I was expecting what so ever! If I go to the kebab shop my food is hot!

We visited the restaurant on the 19/11/23. The queue was short, and were quickly shown to our table. After waiting 15 minutes we had to attract someone's attention so we could place an order for 2 coffees and 2 breakfasts. The coffees arrived arrived 40 minutes later, we waited another 1/2 hr and there was food being served to the tables around us. We asked the waiter where where our food was, he wondered off, and didn't come back so we chased our order with a waitress, she came back to inform us that the food would be out shortly. A few minutes later the original waiter returned to say the kitchen doesn't have our food order and there was nothing he could do about it as they were no longer serving breakfast. At this point we had been in the restaurant over 1-1/2 hrs. We then asked the original waitress who was in charge, we were pointed towards the manager, who advised we could go to the till for a refund. We then to queue at the till for a refund as several other customers were also complaining and requesting refunds. The service we received was worse than appalling. If they can't cope with the volume of people in the restaurant, they need to inform people they will a delay before they are seated. I wait of over an hour is totally unacceptable for a cooked breakfast, especially as the restaurant wasn't full. We will not be visiting the restaurant again.

Visit today 22 Nov 2023. We'll normally I give a reasonable and fare marking but this is unbelievable. Wasing up everywhere a bacteria hazard waiting to happen .plates to the left of me plates to the right.one old man unable to keep up. The table doesn't get cleaned. Just can't belive what I'm seeing . Half hour wait for two coffees Had a coffee with my daughter as a member of dobbies they were both free two per month you know. So I bought a cake each. We sat and chatted with no rush. On leaving I picked up a lovely plant Bird of paradise. Normally you don't see them for less than £100 but this was half that. Wonderful two hours with my daughter. April 1st visited dobbies and enjoyed two meals at reasonable cost and as a club card holder had two large coffees for free to go with the meal. We'll cooked fish and chips crispy excellent service. Forgot to add with the club card you get 10% off plant purchases July visit, had English breakfast in the restaurant. Was given the menu which gave a choice of various items to eat My wife and I had the full English without black pudding. We were not offered an alternative. Picture of which is shown. Cost £14 per person. Tasted freshly cooked and oil was clean not quite like the picture shown in the menu. Came with no cutlery or butter for the toast.

Just been into dobbies waited 45 minutes for a hot chocolate and scone, the chocolate was lukewarm. Its not the staffs fault its the poor setup, I will think twice before going in there again. Wouldn't recommend.

We went for lunch there and had the beef & ale pie. The meat was lovely and soft in the pie plus a mix of vegetables. Their Christmas trimmings were all in the making stage around the store.

Visited 18/11/23. Decided to have lunch but what a disaster it was. We were seated at a table and told someone would come and take our order….. well eventually. We ordered 3 fish and chips with 3 pots of tea. The fish and chips were lukewarm as were the drinks. In all took us 90 mins for lunch. Trying to attract someone’s attention was impossible except when we decided to pay. She asked if everything was alright and I explained about the lukewarm food and drinks all she replied was “sorry about that” and took our payment. Won’t be going back anytime soon.

My husband and I queued for over 30 minutes for two drinks and a cake today (16/11/23) There was one young guy doing his best and going as fast as he could with the endless queue of people.We felt so sorry for him. There was another coffee machine in the main restaurant area where a guy there was certainly not overworked so why some of us couldn’t go to that one I don’t understand but a female staff member said no it wasn’t possible. Don’t encourage us to join the Dobbies club for 2 free coffees av month when you can’t deliver a good service.

Went for coffee and cake absolutely ridiculous waiting 25 minutes for this seating arrangement terrible only low seating available no good for a lot of older people the breakfast area had coffee and cake but only served breakfast there 6 staff stood doing nothing and yet you have to queue for coffee absolutely rubbish will not return

The wait for our coffee and cake was completely ridiculous. 1 man serving and a queue almost round to the toilets. Many members of staff waiting at tables but no one came to his aid, despite him obviously struggling. A less than satisfactory experience.

The "service" was unbearably slow. One member of staff on the till, one making coffees. Half an hour queu

Ridiculously overpriced in the shop areas now and as for the café, a totally dry (single) crumbling scone with rock hard butter (no clotted cream in stock) didn't' go well after waiting for 30 mins in line for 2 staff (both a bit slow) to serve us and then miss things ordered off the tray. Most of the scone ended in crumbs on the plate and floor! Dreadful quality. Plus £1.25 for a tiny box of raisins is a p.ss take. Shall be avoiding Dobbies in the future. Oh and don't bother reporting this review to the Store Management, they obviously haven't acted on previous reviews! I wish I had checked them before wasting my £. Got asked 3 times if I had/wanted a Dobbies card. You must be joking!

It’s safe to say the previous poor reviews regards Queues, Cleanliness and sorry to say but on two occasions this week the attitude of staff are correct, on our first visit we stood waiting for a table in the restaurant for 37 minutes, at this point I approached a member of staff to ascertain approximate wait time, we were told that they were extremely busy and that we’d be dealt with as soon as possible, there were many empty tables and even more tables that needed cleaning, bearing in mind we witnessed staff stood around chatting for a considerable amount whilst stood in the Queue we found this response amazing. On our 2nd visit this during the same week (Gluten for punishment) we attended the restaurant again and due to no seats in the cafe area we sat in the first seats available in the restaurant, within seconds we were informed we could not sit in this area and myself and elderly father in law were removed immediately and told to stand in the cafe queue, on the basis that a table in the cafe would be available by the time we’d been served! This again is appalling customer service, my father in law is in his late 70’s with spinal issues, standing in the cafe queue for 45 minutes really isn’t an option, however the member of staff had zero compassion and we were moved on. Safe to say the poor customer service wasn’t a one off it’s breed in to the staff.. Early in the week we also had the delight of their internet system dropping out and them not being able to take card payments, surely in this day and age they could have a 4 or even 5g back up.. not sure how a company of this size can survive loosing an afternoon of card payment revenue, I mean who takes enough cash with them to pay for afternoon of Dobbie wandering. Also worth mentioning that the dog friendly and not dog friendly tables in the cafe are within feet of each other, my son has an dog allergy and there is nothing to stop a family with dogs sat right next to us..

Quality and quantity of our lunch was fine, however service was slow.

Never waited less than 20mins queuing to get a coffee. Always seriously understaffed which is a shame.

Although the food was nice, the service in the café was extremely slow and they were out of stock of a lot of food, even though it was only 12.30

Very poor service, called for a coffee, had to wait over 30 mins, only one serving, why don’t the open the other coffee machine or get 2 people serving, tables needed cleaning, no seating, food on floor, don’t recommend

Excellent products but very expensive

We ate in the restaurant and the service was slow and the food was just passable. It's a shame how it was all a bit of nothing the cakes are small for the price.

It seems that many of the reviews are very dissatisfied with the service, cleanliness and time waiting for a table . Not only would I strongly agree with this, but when we were eventually served, there was no fish, jacket potatoes or the afternoon special of a cream tea !!! We left and will definitely not be returning ! Also, there was no apology from the staff.

Having waited 15 mins to be seated, when we went to our table we saw that over half of the tables were empty. We waited another quarter of an hour to order our drinks by asking a passing waitress. Several of the items on the menu were not available and had we known this straight away we would of decided to go else where. We collected our drinks from the counter ourselves as the hot drinks were getting cold. Ceaser salad was all little Gem lettuce, Lasagne was over cooked and peas were like bullets. We were giving the restaurant a second chance but we wont be back . Very disappointed with it now , as previously we have had good food and service.

I went to Dobbies today and was shocked with how badly it's run. It's important to say that the staff they have are brilliant but there are not enough of them. When we got to the cafe, we decided to just have tea and cake as not only was there a long queue for the restaurant but there was a really restricted menu. The poor guy on the coffee counter was on his own at 1.30pm on a bank holiday Sunday! He was doing a great job but had to keep leaving the counter to get clean cups etc to serve customers. There were trays of used china all over the place, no clean tables and in the whole two restaurants, I counted 4 staff. I'm not sure why they staff the restaurant so badly when it's the busiest part of the business? I counted 8 staff in the outdoor plant section. It doesn't make sense. We won't be visiting at the weekend again.

Popped in for a coffee... sorry, but I won't be returning. They really could not organise a row of flowers, let alone run a restaurant.

Very poor service in the restaurant had to wait one hour for our food

Just left the restaurant at Cirencester after waiting 25 minutes for the waitress to acknowledge we were there. Instead of taking our order she decided to start cleaning tables. Very disappointed this is normally a good place to eat.

A good choice of gardening equipment and much much more.

Disappointing breakfast, first served and it looked like yesterday's scrambled eggs.

Breakfast dissapointing as if you don't like anything on menu you cannot have anything else to the it's place should be able to have substitute.

Great plants. I got exactly what I was looking for. Very polite service at the checkouts also.

I'm at the moment in Dobbies cirencester restaurant for breakfast (first time) the place is super clean, the breakfast is deliciousthe service is second to none, the waiters is very polite and helpful 👌

A large garden centre with a good range of wares. All the usual stuff you'd expect plus plenty more. A good place to spend a couple of rainy hours.

Great garden centre just outside of Cirencester, good cafe that serves a wide range of meals and afternoon tea and cakes as well.

If your relationship is trouble and you want to go somewhere to talk and won't be disturbed? Then this is the perfect place... as it will be a long time before you are seated let alone your order taken and even longer to pay so you can chat knowing you will be ignored. Seriously food is OK, staff friendly when you see them. Seats dirty.

First time of coming here. Huge selection of everything but quite pricey. Reason for 2 stars is for the coffee if you can call it that .Our cappuccinos tasted like hot milk with chocolate sprinkles on the top.Disgusting.

Can’t see anywhere online where it says that the cafe stops serving at 5.25pm. Can easily drink a coffee in that time before it closes at 6pm. The coffee is very good, although finding a clean table is a task.

Dont bother with any Dobbies unless you are prepared to wait for a few hours, having found the appalling level of service and cleanliness in Gloucester, Cirencester and Ashchurch, I will not be bothering again or renewing my card. Customers are left waiting for almost an hour and having to clean tables themselves.

Great quality and varied plants and super expensive. The cafe is clean and the food is good and not too expensive. If you've got a big bank account then this is place to shop.

Excellent garden centre with restaurant and a Lakeland shop.

Fabulous place, great cafe (if a little pricey - but children eat free before 3pm, so that's handy) also waitrose, lakeland, regatta & cook shops inside. Plus a fabulous aquarium

Has I think absolutely everything you could want for your garden and then some.

Ordered fish & chips, fish was very hot and crispy but the chips and peas were tepid - wife ordered the quiche, hard and dry very unpaletable. Long queue for a table, though it could be seen many tables unoccuppied or not cleard and prepared. All round not impressed.

Good car park, a fine selection of plants, polite, friendly staff. Very busy road at exit.

Good size garden centre with great restaurant. Very friendly staff

Our local garden centre. Always a good selection of goods at reasonable prices. Get a Dobbies card and get 2 free coffee or teas each month.

Mad selection of sweet stuff. Had fun in the fish area checking out the spinny fish, got a kiss from one of the big ones (only joking ;)) When we were getting snacks there was friendly Waitrose lady giving us insane reduced deals Will be coming back tomorrow Respect x