Gardener's Retreat in Colchester

Had to sit out in the freezing marquee area as dogs are no longer welcome inside. Whilst there is a cart with treats and a water bowl in there, it was just too cold, particularly as the service in the cafe was so slow. I did get an apology for the length of time it took for the hot drinks to be made, but despite pointing out how cold it was in the dog friendly area, no solution was offered until another customer complained to a different member of staff, who said she'd put the heating on!!

Took my mum for Afternoon Tea and it was "WOW" - lovely fresh sandwiches with plenty of filling, tasty savoury tart and amongst the sweet selection was strawberry tart, chocolate sponge and the frutiest of scones served with Tiptree jam pots and clotted cream. Needless to say there was to much and we were given a box to take some home to eat later. Staff were very friendly and checking we were OK, we also met the manager Marc. Thank you all we will be back very soon. 5* service & food

Poor, sold my sausage roll to another customer, 2 of us ordered sandwiches without chips. Still get charged for chips. 2 of us ordered chips separately and paid, sandwiches turned up on own as requested. Why not tell customers, to keep chips and not buy extra ones. Requested manager who did not come out and talk to us but sent a message 😕

We ordered 2 hot drinks, 2 ciabatta toastie - they'd run out of ciabatta so asked for bread toasties. We waited 15 mins for our drinks and was told sorry the cream had sunk on the hot choc, they've been sitting on the side a while! Then our food arrived and my sister's toastie was overdone on one side, the fat wasn't crisped on the bacon so had to pull it off. It was very messy to eat as the bread was falling apart. Didn't realise there was a kids play area here too so a bit noisy.