Heathlands in Wokingham

Been meaning to try out the new Squire's Café for some time and my husband and I finally made it on Easter Saturday. We were met by a woman at the entrance of the café who said "Can I help you? I thought it was obvious that we were there for a drink and possibly something to eat. We got shown to a table in the near empty café and the woman who greeted us left us with a menu although we had already said that we only wanted a tea and a coffee. My husband ordered a decaf coffee latte which he said was not as good as the one he has in Nero's. My Birchall Mao Feng green tea was a teabag served in a teapot and was tasteless. Not a patch on other makes of Mao Feng green tea I've had and not as good as the green tea I get in Nero's or Starbucks. Halfway through our drinks a waitress came and asked us if we would like anything to eat which we didn't. Perhaps she thought we might change our minds. When we were finished we looked around to see where we could pay and finally managed to catch the eye of the woman who greeted us. She came with a tablet and proceeded to tap the screen a number of times and eventually came up with a total which she showed my husband and offered the the card payment device. Seemed like a laborious process for a couple of drinks! So we were very disappointed with the café experience and will not be going back other than for plants which they appear to have a great selection of.

Oh dear this place is struggling. Constant bookings only sign up even though half empty. Very slow laboured service from a rudderless young team who look fed up with the chaos and lack of leadership. The food is average but not worth the effort of chasing up staff to order or pay the bill. It started with great promise but is now on my avoid list. Needs money investing in staff and training before the down turn spoils its reputation.

We had booked lunch on the website for 3 people but received a text to say there would be no meals as there was a shortage of staff, but tea and cake would be available. We went anyway, but again (and in a visit the week before too) it was so very cold. We had a lady in her 90s with us and she was not comfortable sitting very long in there. The tea and cake was nice, but I think Squires must have gone out on the streets and hooked in any available teenager as waiting staff, as they clearly didn’t have a clue. Tables were piled with empty crockery and when someone did eventually come and clear the table they took two plates and didn’t come back ! I hesitated before I put this review on because we have been here regularly and it has always been so good, no complaints at all. Hope the management read this as I’m sure we weren’t the only ones disappointed.

This garden centre is a few minuets up the road from Sandhurst where we live very convenient. There are much bigger garden centres around but for us this is the best. The staff are very friendly and helpfull and clued up on everything. We now shop every week in the in-store Butches shop the meat is top quality and again great service. The food hall has a large veriaty of goods expensive but good quality.Again staff very help-full nothing is too much trouble for them. Instore bakery very dissapointing not enough variety.The Cafe is excellent eaten in there quite a few times with my wife and family and the service is always good staff very friendly and the food big portions good quality value foe money for what you get.

Unfortunately our visit today was very disappointing - having looked up a new garden centre online to try we decided to head over to Squires in Wokingham as it looked great on the website. We headed for the restaurant on arrival and we’re met with a sign to say the restaurant was being renovated and therefore it was a limited snack menu. It would be a very good idea to state this on the website! We didn’t find the staff over friendly and we opted for a cream tea each - very disappointing - it was served on a flimsy paper plate, the tea was in a paper cup, we had to go back up and ask for the cream and butter - unfortunately the cream looked curdled and powdery. Totally disappointed and it was enough to put us off returning.