Hearts Delight Garden Cafe in Tendring

Our child was very much looking forward to this as Elsa was going to be there, we were very disappointed, had to wait an hour over our time slot for a start , then to see Elsa and Santa for five minutes each , what a waste of time and money over priced and not really what was advertised, would not do this again.

It's lovely here. Ĺoads of plants and gifts. Really nice cafe with a good menu for lunchtime and some delicious cakes! You can easily spend an afternoon here browsing and in the cafe.

Took my autistic grandson to hearts delight Santa , it was lovely for him , everyone took their time to talk to him and make him feel comfortable , Santa was very patient and answered awkward questions extremely well, as did the elves and snow queen , he loved looking round at all the Christmas stuff afterwards ,said it was the best day ever ,

Cold Panini. Lacking taste. Stoggy soup . Fish fingers and chips were okay for grand daughter. It’s not cheap either . Very disappointed

Had a lovely lunch with my other half, good friendly staff, well done 😁

The cafe here has wonderful truly home-baked offerings and I highly recommend the quiche which has been a staple here for years. Normally there are veg AND meat options served with a generous helping of perfect little potatoes and salad. Cheese scones are big & tasty too. Larges selection of cakes, tray bakes & I had a huge slice of an amazing Bakewell Tart that was the best I've had ! Takeaway is available which we had cakes from many times but there is always a shortage of boxes whenever we have them and have to sometimes leave with the boxes wide open because they cannot close for too much content. The nursery itself has a good selection of seasonal plants that is not massive compared to some nurseries and sells house plants. People have said that it's expensive but I wonder if things like overall size, QUALITY or quantity is taken into consideration as their plants are well established excellent quality making them easier to get off to a good start and plant cell quantities can differ from one place to another to it's worth remembering this as I find their prices on a par with other nurseries generally. Some great garden furniture also for sale as well as many many pots, gifts accessories and of course Christmas decorations!

Enjoyed spending my reward points ..good variety of plants and cashier was very helpful with packing

I’d avoid attending just before closing as you’ll be accused of being a school parent and viciously ushered away. Seriously lacking in customer service. Rude, Rude, Rude!

Had a nice clotted cream scone and coffee.

We ordered breakfasts with a tea and a coffee. The girl at the till messed the order up three times. She was new so that’s fine. She then said she would write down the extras. In a nutshell, the couple who came in after us got given our order. They then queried a couple of items that weren’t what they had ordered. Surprise surprise. We just sat until one of the girls came over and said she had messed the ticket up. In a restaurant with only three tables occupied? Eventually, my wife’s breakfast came out and I asked how long mine would be (we’d been in a basically empty restaurant for 45 minutes). The server had no idea how long. I asked her to take my wife’s order back so that we could eat together and she huffed and took the plate back. As other tables filled, we saw the same server almost give another table someone else’s order then corrected it. Our food arrived. My wife’s sausage was actually on my plate and they’d forgotten my baked beans. The food was tepid. We did not receive an apology or an offer of a drink. Zip. Nobody came back to check on us. This has been a good place to eat but I would say avoid it. A calamitous circus, a comedy of errors. Unfortunate.

I have eaten here on a number of occasions but te last tie i came they had changed the way of service . You used to get served whilst you waited in the short queue for your drinks, but it had been changed to table service??. We gave it another try today 3/9/24 and noticed the staff selecting food that you had ordered and then placing it on another table behind them(UNHEATED) whilst they had finished filling the plates. By the time the meals were served to our table the meal had cooled off a bit, thank goodness for the crust on top of the pie, because all though my wife had a jug of gravy, it was not piping hot as it used to be. My thought's are that there is not enough staff and serving has to be altered

Alot of plants on sale, all past it really. My biggest gripe here is:Why put the wheelchairs at the exit point??? Why not put them in the entrance part instead of a huge amount of trolleys??.. The floor is very uneven & walking around isn't great if you have mobility issues. Being in a wheelchair wouldn't be easy or very comfortable either. Notice to say take children out of trolleys due to uneven surfaces. !!!! Most folk who visit garden centres are usually semi or fully retired. Didn't see children despite being school holidays. They do sell a small selection of fruit/veg/milk & cleaning products if needed. You have a one way system so you must walk the whole way round. I think they are trying to do the place up whilst still open!!!! Probably be another 6 months before l visit again to see what improvements have been made.

Just been charged over £6 for a black americano just because I asked for a strong one. Charged me for two drinks. Still wasn’t that strong. Poor quality coffee.

Not been for years. High quality plants but expensive. Would be nice if you could find an assistant amongst buyers to help about any plant queries. But only saw 2 girls at till.

Went here for coffee, the lunch with my friend. Lots of table seating in coffee shop. Wide selection of food on menu. I had butcher's ham salad with brown bread my friend had quiche and salad, she did ask for no potatoes, but they came on the plate anyway. Wasted food! The restaurant has a dog friendly area, with doggy treats. Will come back again, next time try the breakfast menu, which is also extensive.

Does not appear to be as high a standard as recent years.

Disappointed. Arrived Sunday 14:20. Told no more hot food.

Good as usual and helpful staff

Disappointed with the size of the breakfast 1sausage 1bacon 1 egg and beans and 1 toast hardly a full English as advertised in the menu

Very nice garden centre, not the cheapest but good quality. Very friendly and helpful staff. Disabled access, and wheelchairs available.

BEST scones for miles ! ,,,,,,,,,,,walnut and stilton cheddar cheese and fruit with tiptree jam def be back cannot fault

Turned up too late for a hot lunch so we decided on a sandwich. A lovely little girl brought it to us. Bread was as thick as a brick and very stale and probably days old! It was served up on a ridiculous small plate. We tried to eat what was edible which was the one tomato and a few pieces of cucumber. Paid £24.99 which I thought was a rip off. Definitely will not be going there again!!

We went here as used to have a big selection of succulent plants. Unfortunately they only had a few and they looked like they were dying, in fact most their plants didn't look that healthy compared to other garden centres. Such a shame as used to be a nice garden centre. On the flip side their staff seemed nice and polite and inside the shop had lots of nice things. Though their prices for somethings were very expensive, for example I wanted a set of secateurs and seen some in there that were the same make exactly to the garden centre near me, but were £5 more expensive at £29.99, compared to £24.99 at Parkers Frinton.

I managed to buy all the plants that I have been looking for for weeks; Alyssum, pale blue lobelia & several ilex crenata to replace all my caterpillar eaten buxus. They have a great range of ilex crenata in many shaoes & sizes. I hadn't been to Heart's Delight for a long while, as it's a little off my beaten track but I shall make sure I go more often from now on.

Friendly staff. Very tasty food. Love walking around the garden centre

I only visited their cafe during a cycle ride, but intend to return to view the whole shop. The cake selection in the cafe was vast and the portions were huge. I also had the hot chocolate which was lovely. The atmosphere was nice and the service good. Will definitely go back for more cake.

Nice small garden centre with friendly staff

Good visit. Nice range of plants,reasonably priced. Restaurant was nice, very helpful staff. Will visit again

Not as impressive as some garden centres but prices of plants very good. Also the restaurant food is really good and worth the queuing always busy.

Lovely garden centre. I enjoy popping in the cafe every week. The food is always so nice and fresh and the staff are all so lovely in there.

Good range of plants and excellent cafe for coffee and cake. Hot food looks good too.

I just want to say the coffee shop staff on a weekend are lovely esp the young lady with long, dark plaits...very smiley and welcoming. She is an asset to your cafe 👍👏

Very disappointed with this garden centre sadly. I'm a garden designer / gardener moving to the area and paid a visit yesterday to check out the plant selection. Was really disappointed to see all the plastic plants for sale, including a plastic Acer!! Why not sell a beautiful real Acer? Fishing plastic waste out of the soil is the bane of my life. We are in a biodiversity and climate change crisis and the last thing we need is even more plastic polluting our gardens. Garden centres should be promoting sustainability, not contributing to pollution with their products. Unfortunately I will not be buying from here or recommending it to my customers. It's a real shame as I love to support local businesses.

Terrible service. Don’t have half the stock advertised and staff just watch you loading heavy stuff after purchasing

Very good Santa experience in lovely surroundings at a really good price and great value compared to others.

Staff are nice and garden centre lovely but..... we waited 30 minutes in a queue for lunch. Whilst waiting a young member of staff brought some trays out. They were filthy and on lifting, one tray even had dirty napkins/empty sugar wrappers on. Tables were not wiped clean and chips were undercooked. Such a shame.

Nice place lots to see very commercial for Christmas cafe nice good selection food hot nicely presented quiet busy place staff helpful reasonable priced

Good venue, friendly staff, will use again

An okay local garden centre, some parts could use a refurb as it looked a bit neglected. Cafe wasn't brilliant, very watery latte and undercooked chips however the cake was good. Plenty of parking spaces but is only one lane for 2-way traffic.

Just had a lovely meal for my wife and myself. The food excellent, very reasonably priced, very clean and airy, great staff, food hot and well cooked, we will be back

Visited for brunch. Decent value, nice food and friendly staff. Wide variety of cakes which were all nicely displayed. Very nice

Great Xmas display wife love it

Lovely place for plants, Xmas gifts and decorations with great cafe and helpful staff, what more could you want, first class

Great selection of plants and gardening equipment

Car park is inadequate, plant selection is ok but mainly sells more nik nak stuff. But the biggest disappointment with this garden centre was the restaurant… staff are friendly but the food is awful… tried food there before and was disappointed but we have it another go as we all have off days but it was just as bad… the baguettes are as white Casper the ghost.. barely cooked and felt raw, I asked if they did crispy bacon but no only what’s on the hot plate which was more thick fat than bacon and not cooked enough. We will not revisit.

More Home & bric-a-brac. The Garden Centre part was sparse with many dead or dying plants. It's such a shame as it used to have a very large range of plants, bushes, and trees. That said, if you are looking to meet up for breakfast or lunch, or simply a morning/afternoon tea or coffee, then give it a visit.

We went to the cafe about 2.30 and noted that most of the food dishes were empty. We were a bit late for lunch, but the service was very good and two meals were made for us, with no fuss. Great service. Thank you.

Horrible dry cake and have a clue how to make an iced latte. Basically made a coffee and bunged some ice cubes in it, you are meant to froth the milk. The woman clearly had never made one before and it basically just tasted like watery milk. Definitely won’t go back.

I always find something quite lovely here. Sometimes it's plants sometimes it's an antique sometimes it's lunch! 😊

Fantastic food in the cafe. Highly recommended

Cafe stop, good food, bit warm inside in the summer months

We went to Hearts Delight for lunch today. Cafe and garden centre have super friendly and helpful staff. Not my first time there every time I go I'm never disappointed.

Honestly disappointing food quality terrible scone was undercooked. Friends had some quiche which was also very disappointing. Won’t be visiting again

An enjoyable breakfast - sausage, bacon, tomato, egg, beans, hash browns and bread. The cappuccino could have been frothier.

Customer service zero. Accosted by rude blonde worker, after looking around outdoor area. She just about accused me of walking in when closed. It was barely 3 pm door open and no closed sign !! She unpleasantly told me she had locked the door behind me and I will have to walk around the whole building to leave. Certainly won't return. Lots of nicer garden centres around!!

Dirty Toilets the hand dryer in the mens had not been cleaned for months and the taps my husband used the gents never again.Plus we stopped for a cuppa and a sandwich before 12pm but was told we can not have a bacon sandwich as breakfast was finished most places will do bacon sandwichs at any time we have been to place that accomadate customers at all timeswe were not asking for breakfast. 'One member of staff on the catering side she asked for help as a long queue was told by the other member staff she was busy surely customers come first . The prices were expensive as well for what we had. It is a shame as some reasonable plants at not bad prices .But will not be going back there.

Visited on the afternoon of 28/04/2022 and enjoyed a walk around bought some plants. Then it’s when we arrived at the till to pay it got dark. The young girl serving looked so miserable and did not smile once. Customer service goes a long way for the chance of a customer returning. Maybe the management should train the staff to smile.There are plenty of other garden centres in the area that have a good customer service….

Plants all look healthy, and well watered , got a really bargain buy cardigan for £10 . And great to see the restaurant is open again 😀

Oh dear...for a relatively expensive coffee and scone it was terribly disappointing. Scone obviously left over from yesterday..stale and hard. Coffee was appalling. Very disappointing.

Wonderful food in the cafe and fantastic festive gifts and decorating items to buy.

Get here early to grab a coffee x

Shop is nicely spaced out, and appeared to have plenty of plants for choice. But i couldn't find a member of staff to help me, the only person I found was one lady serving on till. The queue was too long to wait so left. Car park has confusing to get out.

Good nursery, shame about the cafe. The member staff who served us could even raise a smile

Excellent garden centre. Great range of products. Large selection of healthy reasonably priced herbaceous and shrubs.polite and knowledgeable staff

A great shop, good quality plants and gardening items plus a lovely variety of Christmas gifts and decorations. Lots of beautiful and interesting jigsaws too, something for everyone. I bought some great presents for a 3 year old.

When to see father Christmas. Very little stock and all spaced out(unlike our last visit 2018) the cafe was cold and uninviting (wall had been removed ) unsure what they are doing with the place. Seeing the big man. Wa great he was amazing 50/50 on the elves (some did not seem happy) we will probably see if there is an improvement or if it's still going downhill next year

Visited today with the family we all had a breakfast from the cafe which was very nice their is an assortment of cakes & the homemade scones are highly recommended our compliments to the chef we will be visiting again

Today we decided to visit hearts delight to shop enjoy christmas section,and to have lunch, we have been there many times and always enjoyed it ,great customer service from entry to leaving . Sadly todays trip was very different we arrived late morning had a look around the different sections there was much less choice then normal but with current situation with pandemic could be why We ate in the cafe ordering quiche and salad, the quich e was not cooked though,very soggy undercooked base needed bit more cooking the salad was not fresh the lettuce leaves wilting and brown around edges. I purchased a fruit scone to eat at home this to was also undercooked sadly I really hope today was just a one off bad day as no complaints other visits,the pandemic has affected retail very badly and maybe this is whats happening,. Iam hoping it soon gets back to its usually excellent cafe so we can enjoy and recommend it and will live up to its name hearts delight again!!

Went in for lunch with my parents, we all had a panini each £5.99 which is more then it’s worth in my opinion. These were heated up, in the process of taking them off the grill the server got one stuck down the back, did eventually manage to get this out and another of the servers thought that it looked fine to serve, we of course said no and got another off the shelf. By this time the others had gone cold, one was reheated and the other was left cold. Then she made the coffee and two hot chocolates, and they were warm/cold. None of it tasted nice. The servers weren’t wearing their masks, just had them hanging off one ear. Cost £26, what a waste, will not be going back there or advising anyone else too!

Overpriced and not very welcoming wouldn't return

Great breakfast for the price, staff very friendly and helpful esp the cook - definitely recommend and will come again.

Lovely garden centre. The have everything including in store clothing range & a good range of garden furniture. There's also a coffee shop & snacks cafe.

Lovely staff. Good choice of plants. Yummy coffee and scones

Very helpful Good products and plants lovely cafeteria

Had lunch on the cafe, bit expensive for what you get, but the food is nice.

Very disappointed no house plants it looks like they are closing down

Staff are always friendly here, shame the restaurant was still closed. But the Christmas event which is always fantastic here was well under way.....cant wait

Bought a fairly expensive companion seat and asked if I could have the one that was assembled rather than the flat pack one. Very helpful assistant said yes as he ws the one who would then get the job to assemble another for the show room. However when I came back to collect it the lady manager was very annoyed that this had been allowed to the point of being quite rude to me. When I pointed out that as a widow on my own I would never have bought a flat pack to assemble and that without her helpful assistant she would have lost this not inconsiderable sale she replied that it was not company policy to sell assembled garden furniture to anyone. May I suggest that this policy gets reviewed, I would have been happy to pay extra to have it assembled. If Hearts Delight wish to keep my custom I think they should also review their attitude to their customers. I shall go elsewhere in future.

Expensive, poor selection and not very well laid out.

Green field now a housing estate, cafe closed. Whole place a bit shambolic as ever !!!

Stayed a couple of nights - excellent food in restaurant and all the staff extremely friendly and helpful. Good location with plenty of easy parking. Rooms dated but understand that they are due for upgrading - delayed due to the pandemic - when done it will really enhance the place. We shall return..

Refurbishing restaurant.looking forward to our next visit.

Well stocked reasonable prices only criticism was the long wait at the till only 1 person working

Bought some expensive garden furniture here, paid in advance and due to supply problems the date we were promised, the furniture hadn't arrived. This is only constructive criticism but it would have been nice to have been better informed of the situation as in the end I had to pay £300 more for a set that was in stock with no room for negotiation. The whole thing took two months from ordering to delivery which was an extra £40!!!

Always worth a visit. The staff are so very helpful.

Still restaurant and TOILETS SHUT

Brilliant customer service. Love this place.

Brilliant place, I live their wide selection of plants especially cacti and succs, even carnivorous plants 😁

Went to Hearts delight today to buy some leyon garden furniture .Beth was there to answer all our questions and was very knowledgeable about the products . Hearts delight was very good on its prices £100 cheaper than I had seen elsewhere .They did charge a delivery charge which I explained to Beth I didn't want to pay and Beth explained I would have to pay one of life's little setbacks 🤣. But Beth arranged the delivery 2 hours after purchase what amazing service .The delivery guy was Very friendly to.we love our new furniture will be drinking many gin and tonics on them . Would highly recommend Hearts delight .

We were looking forward to a coffee & cake at Hearts delight but the Cafe & toilets are closed for refurbishment until late Summer until early autumn . A strange time to do it when they haved been locked down for so long . The plants didn't look particularly healthy either .

Very nice place to visit. Good selection of plants and other bits and bobs the gardener needs

Lots variety in stuff, had everything I needed

Lovely garden centre, an abundance of plants. Was let down by the very poor quality of a garden arch we purchased from there

Unfortunately the cafe wasn't open today. But still a lovely place.

My first time out here and I was impressed, very large area of every kind of plant, trees bushes, every area was something different you won't be disappointed. Reasonable prices!

Good plants and garden stuff, being rearranged at the moment.

Always love to go there when I visit my friend, apart from plants they have other things on sale like garden furniture and orniments , pictures clothes , Very helpful staff

This is one of my favourite garden centres! I always love visiting. They have such a great range of plants-I always find something different and unique here. The staff are friendly and professional and the layout/presentation of the place is lovely. Highly recommended!

Bit untidy today. Looks like a refurb may be going on. Very pleased with reduced items bought. Always quality goods from here.

Great variety of plants, pots, garden furniture, tools, etc and a lovely coffee shop where you can relax after all that shopping.