Meadow Croft in Chelmsford

I think this is our favourite nursery cafe. It's a bit dark inside and can be a bit noisy as it's so popular but the staff are great, offering table service, which is so convenient. We were between jobs so just stopped off for some toast and coffee. Very nice. Extra butter and marmite. Yummy.

Very nice garden centre and great discounts on the app

Lovely garden centre and wonderful home accessories

Very attentive staff in coffee shop. Fantastic selection of plants reasonably priced. A definite place to visit again.

We had booked afternoon tea to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We were served by Diane who was a delightful waitress; warm and friendly and helpful as all who dealt with us were. It made it a memorable experience for us. We always have very good service at Meadow Croft Kitchen whether it is for breakfast, lunch or, as now, afternoon tea. It was a tasty selection of sandwiches, scones and cakes and good value for money with all the teas and speciality coffees. We know it was half-term but a quieter corner for this afternoon tea would have made a great time even better.

Lovely garden centre and a good cafe

Nice range of products .Staff were friendly.

Sorry to say our experience was not to good expected more, firstly the coffee wasn’t hot the our meal turned up before the main meal, they took it back and returned the meal after the starter, the meal looks like it sat under the heat lamp as the chips were cooked to a crisp, the ham was of poor quality and they forgot the peas,not a good experience

In the depths of this lovely garden centre is a fabulous restaurant unlike one in any other garden centre. To start with every member of staff had a friendly smile for everyone, so nice in this day and age. We did queue to be seated but not for very long. The menu was a joy to read, my daughter and I are both vegan (I’m not above the occasional cheat but my daughter is very strict) and that can sometimes cause problems. Lots of places use tomato based vegan meals like pizza or pasta but Meadow Croft Kitchen had plenty of options. Even if you are just stopping for a coffee you should be tempted by their glorious cakes. The joy of being offered a choice of three was amazing and not a chocolate brownie in sight (thank heavens). Fabulous coffee too and they also had coconut milk! I can’t praise this place enough. Did a fair bit of shopping in the garden centre too - it’s a lovely place for unusual presents. Thank you x

Great place for flowers and plants. Lovely restaurant as well. Great choice of food.

Had the breakfast banquet. You have to book in advance, and we had to book about a month in advance. The food and service were excellent, even with the restaurant being almost full.

Lovely garden center, plenty of parking with generous sized spaces Nice range of plants and tools. Lovely staff too.

Lovely pleasant time at meadowcroft. Had nice and well presented lunch. Professional staff 👌

Just enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea, made by Carli and served by Sheldon, thank you ladies for making us feel so welcome.

Firstly would like to say the staff here are great, always very friendly and provide a good service. We had breakfast here many times last year, sometimes a few times a month as was a real favourite of ours. Took a break over Xmas as with the Christmas market in the garden centre it was too busy. Visited last weekend for breakfast and sad to say it’s gone downhill and unlikely we will return. Please note - not all vegetarians are vegan!! There is a vegan breakfast on the menu but not suitable for vegetarians who still wish to have an egg for their breakfast. I asked the server if I could have an egg instead of avocado to solve this - “yes but I’ll have to charge you (£1.50!)” - even though I’m taking something off to add it?!?!? Would be better if the menu had a vegetarian and a vegan option for breakfast. My husband (annoyingly is fussy) and likes certain parts of the breakfast - this used to never be a problem and he could ‘build a breakfast’ of 6 items - in the 10-15 times we have visited previously this has never been an issue but apparently they don’t do this anymore which is a real shame. Also our food came out almost immediately, drinks followed about 5 minutes after which seems to be a common thing after reading some other reviews. Would be nice to enjoy some of my coffee before eating! And if the breakfast can come out within literally 2 minutes of ordering then does make you question how fresh it is. Genuinely disappointed as this has been one of our favourites for breakfast in a long time.

Great cafe. Many special offers.

Nice service and my modern cafe.

Met a friend for breakfast and it was delicious! One of the best breakfasts we have had locally. Lots of vegetarian/vegan options. Very friendly staff. Clean, airy environment. Would highly recommend.

Had brunch here staff very good but the breakfast I had the sausages were rock hard so spoilt it for me.

Great garden centre good restaurant has a miniature golf course good shop and helpful staff

Great experience in the new dining area, fast efficient service. Great food and lovely cakes. Need to look at the mushrooms on the full English as they are a bit rubbery, try cooking them fully submerged in rapeseed oil with garlic thyme and rosemary for 40 mins at 140 degrees

This Christmas wasn’t as good as last year. Different layout, better for food but didn’t seem to be as many Christmas huts. Disappointed with the choice on offer this year

Super friendly staff and a lovely place to go

Great garden centre with a nice cafe

We only visit here around Christmas time, but as with most local gardens centers the range of goods this year(2024) was much smaller and considerably more pricey. Worth a visit but very much depends what you're looking for. The German hot dog stand was charging laughable prices.

We come here every year from quite far away specifically for their Bavarian Christmas Market. It's outstanding. The staff are great and even if the place is busy they have stewards on hand to get you parked. Highly recommended around Christmas

Amazing garden centre and absolutely delicious food in lovely cafe. Small park and mini golf too! Almost a family day out 😀

Good menu although a bit pricey restaurant was really busy so food took a bit longer to arrive however food was excellent nice and hot. We were served by Keith he was very polite and attentive. Although we didn’t have any dessert afterwards the cake selection was exceptional. We will definitely return again and would highly recommend this restaurant.

Have visited several times and it’s a firm favourite of mine. Can’t book but the queue goes relatively quick as there are a lot of tables inside. Favourites of mine have been the soup and sandwich and the egg baguette. So many choices of cakes, best one to date has been the Bakewell cake plus there are several vegan options. Only small niggle is the hot drinks are small for what you pay and also don’t keep hot in the earthenware crockery.

December 2024. We decided to go earlier this year..... oh my, it was fantastic!! Lots more to see & buy all wonderfully laid out in a quaint village setting. Definitely recommended but don't leave it too late!! Lots of authentic German crafts on display, not the cheapest but lovely quality. We were disappointed that all the German sweeties & biscuits were all sold out before our visit though.

This was our first time at Meadow Croft Kitchen and we couldn't have been more impressed. We had a lovely welcome from the lady at the desk and all the staff were very attentive. The food was first class and nice sice portions too. We can highly recommend this restaurant and very much look forward to going back. Kindest regards, Ron & Sue

Went with friends to visit the German Christmas Market and check out the gift area as well. I always enjoy visiting here all year round.

We recently visited Meadow Croft garden centre/German Christmas market for the first time and we were really impressed. There's so much to see and so much choice in gifts, etc. All the staff were very pleasant and helpful, which made the day a lovely experience. We also had lunch in the Meadow Croft Kitchen. The meals were superb and the service from the staff was second to none. Thank you, Ron & Sue

We had a lovely experience at dinner at the Meadow Croft restaurant, enhanced by a lovely young lady called Ruby who was attentive, polite and an outright gem. The Sunday roast was absolutely delicious and enough of it to fill you right up. We were a little disappointed by the German Market, last year it was very effective and full of lovely stalls, this year it failed somewhat with atmosphere.........

Firstly was taken to a table that was dirty so we had to stand and watch the history clean it before we could sit. Another member of staff came and took our order, we got our food before our drinks arrived which was unusual quick, on tasting it was just warm not hot as expected so at the check back I informed the waitress and she said sorry I will get fresh food for you. The second meals arrived nearly as quick as the first lot, they were hot this time but microwaved within an inch of overcooked. Extremely noisy environment, could not hear each other talk. Didn’t even get a teaspoon with my pot of tea. Very disappointed. We won’t return.

Very cute Christmas stalls. Restaurant had great service and food. Clean toilets

Being the festive season, we went along to see the Christmas display. This year they had changed the layout, etc., and it was even better than before, with a lot more space, even more stalls, and delicious German market-style food!

Went to see to see the german Christmas market. Parking was organised well. As you enter the centre you walk around all different Christmas themed items, this leads to an open undercover space full of german themed, and Christmas themed items. Very nice. German food for sale from a very clean food bus.

Food selection of plants. Many grown at their own nurseries. Very nice, waitress service restaurant on site too.

At the moment German Christmas Market taking place.

Had a lunch and mooch around the Christmas market

Had a lovely Christmas afternoon with grandchildren bought lots of lovely gifts we look forward to this adventure 😊

The garden centre is fantastic but we go for the Christmas Market!! We were made aware if it november 2023 and plan to go each year. Not only is there so many things to look at but it's also a magical outing for the kids! They really go all out with the German Market with all handmade items you can purchase for yourself or as gifts. Then you can walk through their decoration centre where they have trees and decorations everywhere! Also there is no pressure to purchase, I tend to do a walk around with the kids to get some ideas and then go back again for another visit and make my purchases. Plus all the treats and sweets and hotdogs and fries! The centre has its own cafe as well which has pretty impressive food; although it is popular so you may have to wait to be seated at times! I always forget to take photos as I'm always too busy looking at everything!

I've been going there for a few years to visit the Christmas market etc. This year, they have redesigned the layout. I presume to get you to walk through the garden centre part first for potential sales. I'm not so keen as it seems to have lost the atmosphere. The German market doesn't appear as big in the new location but the prices, in my opinion, are bigger! We used the restaurant for lunch, which is still good value. Lovely coffee and hot chocolate. The brie,walnut,onion chutney focaccia was very nice. However, on the busy day we had visited, it was full, and the noise was excessive, and it was difficult to hear the waitress and for her to hear you. I felt sorry for the staff working at that noise level. I think the acoustics need a re- think!

Loved the place. Great day out.

My friend and I visited Meadowcroft Garden Centre for afternoon tea on Monday 9th Dec 2024. The car park was like a mud pit. As I got out of the car, my feet sunk into the mud and it splashed up onto my tights and shoes. We waited in the queue but as we had already booked, asked one of the assistants if we could come in and take our seats as it was 11.50am and freezing cold. We were told that it wasn't yet 12pm so go back and wait in the queue. I had ordered one afternoon tea with a selection of cheeses and the other one vegetarian. The vegetarian one consisted of two quarters of dry egg mayonnaise and the rest of the sandwiches were cheese as requested by my friend. My friend was disappointed that there wasn't a table cloth on the table or any nice China cups and sauces or plates. We had heavy earthenware teapots and cups which didn't really represent an afternoon tea experience. The cake selection wasn't very attractive either. It was extremely noisy in the restaurant and we found it difficult to hear each other over the noise in the restaurant. It would have been much nicer to have afternoon tea in an area away from the main restaurant as it was for a special occasion and we didn't get that feeling.

🎅🎄German market this year so much smaller, less to look round, not the same atmosphere at all.❄️☃️ VERY DISAPPOINTING 😞 Shame because all staff,restaurant and food were lovely as always.😊🎂☃️❄️🎄🎅

First time coming to the German market and I thought it was brilliant well set out lovely atmosphere and the staff are lovely and very helpful thank you for a wonderful experience 🌲🎄

Kitchen is amazing in here! Staff are wonderful, Ava was our server.

Lovely German market for Christmas. Great selection of gifts and food. All the bits you need for a special Christmas

New restaurant arrived last autumn 🍁Well worth a visit, good food at reasonable prices, nice new venue and has an area to hire for functions. Also have special evening events. See their website.

Lovely garden centre out in the country very nice restaurant well worth a visit

Excellent German Christmas market

Extremely busy, German Market offerings were quite generic and expensive. Great selection of other Christmas gifts and decorations - wax melts were awesome. The parking attendants were so well organised - no issues parking despite the number of vehicles arriving/leaving.

Friendly and helpful staff in both the garden centre and cafe.

Excellent especially now the German market is open

lovely lunch, food excellent, staff very helpful and friendly

Lovely garden centre. Restaurant very excellent. Xmas German market on. Lots of choice. Worth joining the Garden Centre membership.

Wow, what a difference in 2 years! Meadowcroft Kitchen has relocated and matured into a great venue with a coffee & cake shop, a large restaurant and a function room not to mention the garden tables The restroom facilities are brand new with a seperate baby change area. The German Christmas Market is now in full swing. Trees and plants as well as everything garden is still there and growing along with the gift and food areas. If you are stopping for coffee & cake make sure you allow plenty of time to enjoy it and also to look around. This place just keeps innovating. Check back regularly. One last observation about the food. As you get older your ability to gorge your way through magnificent breakfasts and meals fades. Please consider removing the ageist Childrens menu and rebranding it as a Smaller Plates menu for all ages offering smaller portions of everything. Thank you.

1st time coming here and what a great atmosphere. The German bar was tasty. Highly recommend the hot chocolate. The stalls were a litte expensive but they did have certain offers on. Loved the little boards of information. Has a few photo corners for your socials, which was fun. Good parking

Visited today and really enjoyed the German Christmas market,fantastic atmosphere and produce for sale,definitely worth a visit.

Best Christmas Market, the staff are all amazing, the perfect festive day out for the whole family. Loved the Bavarian curling 5+

Just gets bigger and better, love the new restaurant, excellent service.

Great German Christmas Market, every year.

Love this place. Cafe is great really busy but served quickly and efficiently. All very tempting bought Xmas goods and new mats

The best garden centre around, by far. The staff are lovely and it's an amazing place to visit all year round.

So many plants to choose from, gifts etc for Xmas but a little disappointed that the German market took up so much room the traditional Christmas displays were quite small

Quaint garden centre that goes all out for Xmas trading.any decorations and gifts available with Bavarian bar and curling available on late nights

Amazing place. Cafe was excellent. Probably the best garden centre I have visited

Wonderful Christmas German market.

Great and Quick Service from Becky!

We went to see the German Market, and it was absolutely beautiful and so very festive! Also, the whole garden centre was packed with beautiful Christmas decorations of all styles and varieties, it was an absolutely lovely afternoon that we spent there, I highly recommend it!

Lovely cafe and delicious scones!

This year the German Christmas market has changed, its nowhere near as nice as last year, everything is overpriced, the position of it is different, and if you want a coffee and german food its outside which was freezing. A big disappointment this year , big shame as it was lovely last year.

Brilliant restaurant, and a wonderful Christmas market.

A lovely German Christmas Market not been here before, but will definitely go back , well impressed

Unexpected visit to the garden centre, but was pleasantly surprised with how much was on offer. Great little Peruvian market, and it's definitely worth a visit.

Great place for Christmas decorations and lots of fun activities for all the family. Also had coffee and a cake in the restaurant. Would highly recommend a visit, but it is so good it's extremely busy but not overcrowded.

Great selection reasonably priced, friendly staff

Very busy but lots of tables. 5 of us in our party and with lots of waiting staff, it was a quick service. Ordered 2 x fish and chips. The batter was so hard you couldn't cut it and the fish was overcooked. We sent it back. I ordered ham egg and chips for £16.50. It was not worth the money. A few chips 1 slice of processed ham and 2 eggs. Not good. Even with the 2 meals taken off it came to £90 for the 3 remaining meals and coffees. Quite expensive gor a garden centre. The staff were very good someone from the kitchen came out and apologised and took the price of the meals off. I feel it was too busy for the cooking staff which is a shame because we won't be going back

Excellent, a nursery well worth the time

Christmas German market fabulous.

1st time visiting here, very impressed really nice garden centre, will definitely go back again.

Great place to eat, friendly staff and good food

This is a very nice garden centre with a lovely restaurant. Staff are very helpful.

Staff in restaurant very helpful and d polite. Food not so good I ordered a vegan breakfast and it came was served with bacon. Staff very apologetic. Prices are exorbitant I was charged £3 for 1 slice of toast. Tomatoes were not cooked just put on the plate cold. I feel £14 for a breakfast and had to pay for £3 for ONE slice of toast was robbery. I thought duck turpin died a long time ago. But I can't fault service from the staff.

We like garden centres for coffee and cake. First visit for a couple of years to Meadow Croft. Very impressed with the cafe/restaurant. It's table service with polite staff. Garden centre good as well.

Nice place and reasonably priced.

Speaking as maybe a bad person who only visits Meadowcroft Garden Centre once a year ( PS a garden centre is a garden centre and all very similar and there are similar establishments much closer to my home town) but we travel some distance to Meadowcroft once a year for the sole reason of enjoying the German Christmas Market .I have visited the German Christmas Market for many years and on this occasion in November I brought a neighbour friend whom I had previously told it was fantastic experience and we all look forward to a ' day out'. Previously walking into the German market was previously a fantastic experience with a wonderful colourful entrance and immediately immersed into a German market which was as good as anywhere. Sadly upon arrival this week we were extremely disappointed, the usual entrance which used to be adorned with fantastic flowers and a fantastic ambience of German Market ( as Monty Don on gardeners world say ' breath in look at the flowers and enjoy the moment ) now there is nothing upon arrival to greet the visitors. The entrance takes you into a greenhouse full of garden equipment and machinery, various bits and pieces manky winter pansies and cyclamines and stale bulbs which nobody is interested in, myself included in November. The German market is now relegated to the rear of the garden centre in a very cold and unfriendly location. The moment when you used to , in previous years, walk in and think how wonderful and enjoy the sights and stalls of the traditional German market has now passed . I used to like and sit down and a 11.00 am cup Coffee in the German market stall .Now the coffee stand is located outside in the garden facing all the winter elements rain included far away from the comfort of the German Christmas Market. I enjoy my 11.00 am cup of coffee but don't particularly wish to stand up outside in the cold at a market stall or queue for 90 minutes in the garden centre cafe (the queue for the indoor café went right around the outdoor centre ) I think probably most of the German Craft stalls are the same every year but this year there was simply no atmosphere and I did not not purchase anything not just in the German Market but in the garden centre as a whole and I left the whole place feeling underwhelmed and disappointed Very disappointed particularly as I had invited a friend who had not been there before and probably this time next year will not return .

It was ok, we had to wait an age for a seat in the restaurant, but Food was very good. German market was ok but better last year

Been to this German Christmas Market many times over the last few years and loved every second of it. This year though we left feeling truly underwhelmed and disappointed. The market has been moved to a different part of the garden center and is a lot smaller, in addition to this the majority of products being sold were not Christmas and/or german. Here's hoping for better next year.

Unbelievable place. German xmas market. Everything for gardening and xmas.

We had heard good things from family and friends about the food here, and we were not disappointed. There is a great range of options on the menu and the food was delicious. All of the staff were friendly and welcoming, especially our waitress Nikki who couldn’t have been more helpful and did everything she could to make sure our visit was perfect, thank you. We will definitely be returning.

We came for the Xmas market etc which was nice quite subtle and all that but nice! The food and drink was 10/10 so good. Love this places. Prices very reasonable minus the teddies! Second visit for food and drink today and was not great. Bringing score down to three as an average

Extremely busy, we just got in the overflow carpark! Only a small queue for lunch and in within 10 minutes of waiting. Lunch quality very good as usual. The German market was usual standard, nothing different. Christmas stock in the garden centre is very good.

Fantastic quality plants that are produced locally. Really friendly staff who can offer advice. Lovely restaurant with a great choice of food & drinks. The gift shop area has something for everyone.

Could not go in as they would not allow our lovely dog to go in

Very loud, lots of kids, although it was half term. Prices very much more than competitors, not reasonable, e.g £4 for cappacino in average cup! No table booking, hence long queues waiting in the cold However, Ava was very good, efficient, and we got everything we ordered. But will not come so often now as prices cheaper elsewhere and not so busy. Management take note!!

Very busy in the car park and in the restaurant.

The Christmas market this year really is special.