Meadow Croft in Chelmsford

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!

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

Had a lunch and mooch around the Christmas market

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.

At the moment German Christmas Market taking place.

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.😊🎂☃️❄️🎄🎅

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

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 🌲🎄

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

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

lovely lunch, food excellent, staff very helpful and friendly

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

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.

Fantastic choice of plants, pots, gardening bits. Great German Market, lovely displays

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

Great German Christmas Market, every year.

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.

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

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

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

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

Christmas German market fabulous.

Great place to eat, friendly staff and good food

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.

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

Nice place and reasonably priced.

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.

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 .

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

What a great afternoon tea we had today. It was the first day of the festive afternoon tea and it was delicious. So fresh and well presented. Amazing choice of fillings and great delicious cakes and scones. Lovely staff too, so helpful. Would definitely recommend.

We went for Sunday lunch with my mum who has Dementia. She is very impatient due to her illness but we had the most understanding lady serving us. Even though it was extremely busy she took time to listen and understand my mums needs, which really helped the rest of us enjoy our lunch. Thank you so much Sheldon.

Too busy, too loud, slow service. The queue was huge to wait for a table and you can’t book. The food was ok but not as good or hot as expected due to the volume of diners. It’s a lovely place but it’s become a victim of its own success. The staff are no longer as attentive, instead catering for the masses. Today I witnessed a waitress stress warnings about peanuts being in the kitchen to a mother of a child with allergies. The restaurant has no peanuts on the menu yet the mother was told by the waitress that peanuts are all over the kitchen!!! Repeatedly she was told there are peanuts everywhere!! Warning for allergy sufferers. They do not seem to take care with major allergens!

Excellent garden centre ror all you need plus lovely food meals

The garden centre and gift shop is great. But the cafe/restaurant closes at 3:15pm!!! I don't understand why it closes so early, the perfect time for an afternoon tea and cake is between 3:30 and 4pm.

We went today 26/10/24 Went through the front doors look like a garden centre just plants and flowers no Christmas decorations Hardly anything there this year was a little bit disappointed ☹️

Great garden centre! Excellent Christmas decorations and wonderful cafe.

Fantastic garden centre ,German Christmas Market was great ,but expensive ,the rest of the gift department very good ,good selection of Christmas decorations . Great restaurant. Would recommend a visit

Very nice garden centre, very clean and restaurant had a wide variety of food to choose cooked fresh ,staff very nice

Food was nice, German Xmas was lovely, little expensive but unique pieces

This is a lovely garden centre recommend any one to go there they have a restaurant

Lovely place. Friendly staff. Good quality plants. Excellent restaurant and amazing shop. The Christmas market is wonderful too.

Atmosphere busy , service to cafe tables a bit slow , but food is good and garden centre an additional extra to peruse. Very popular but needs to be more organised to be pleasurable during busy periods.

Went for the German Christmas Market, will go back in November when the whole place is decked out in a Christmas extravaganza.

Excellent shop plenty of parking spaces no queues easy viewing good quality goods friendly helpful staff and at present the German Market is avaliable worth a visit

We only visit Meadow Croft for the Christmas Market. We always enjoy our visits.

We had a lovely lunch at the Meadow Croft Kitchen on Friday. Ava was very attentive and really looked after me, as I have dietary requirements. Thanks Ava and the manager who also made sure everything was alright :)

I like the layout of this place, not too large but a great selection of plants and home wear. The parking is easy and fully accessible. Staff are very helpful and knowledgeable. The German Christmas Market take it to a whole different level, but at any time of year it's a great garden center. Now with an outstanding restaurant.

Great place to go especially now they have the German xmas market

Good garden centre with good displays for non plants and Christmas ideas.

Great garden centre with a great restaurant and German Christmas market

Great market from Germany and christmas displays all you need !

Beautiful garden centre, German market is delightful and we finished it off with a delicious lunch in the restaurant that has a lovely ambiance. Will definitely be Back!

The German Christmas market was smaller than I expected, but the items on sale were what you would expect to find if you were to go to Germany. A better layout this year, but staying true to the German ethos.

Great Place to go ,fod in the cafe 5 stars

Some beautiful and very usual bits but quite expensive. The food was also a bit too fussy for my tastes

This year's German Christmas Market is not as good as last year, no atmosphere, stalls, food etc to far spread apart, and like most places an increase in prices, the staff however are very helpful and friendly.

Rating 1: Wow! Bought a lovely delphinium for a reasonable price because the nursery where they grow them from seed is just opposite. Locally grown flowers- how super. Massive range of plants with enthusiastic people to help. Cafe is waitress service with bright, happy, smiling and engaged young people serving. Fabulous 👌 Rating 2: German market is a nice idea (even though it's only October ...) The serving team in the restaurant continue to be happy, helpful, smiling and efficient 💗 Bought winter flowering pansies today- beautiful array of colours 💐

German market packed with gifts and the German sausage is great.

The Christmas market is back, plenty to choose and you got to have a German hot dog and beer

I was very disappointed this year with the German market. I came all the way up from Cornwall to bring a friend after I told them all about it only to find it's completely lost its charisma and charm. It's just another Christmas market at a garden centre. The whole atmosphere of being indoors/outdoors as you walk in is gone. It's lost its magic this year. I'm sorry I came all the way. What a shame the way it was set up had to change

Great cafe, the app freebies are pretty good, great Christmas market if a little pricey.

After visiting the last several years, this was the worst. Changed entrance with no blackout ceiling which made it feel more of a Christmas market at night. Same products every year. Nothing new that we saw. We was in there a total of 20 minutes. Took longer to get there. This will be our last visit for sure. If it's your first time, you may enjoy it.

They have a German Xmas Market set up and it is fab. Went in for nothi g. Came out with a lot. And I'll be going back. Heartily recommend.

Went there for the Christmas market as I have been for the last few years. This year the entrance was through the garden centre, which in my opinion took away the ambience. The German Market was okay, but extremely overpriced. Having said that, once I got through that and into the Christmas dept within Meadowcroft, their display was lovely and very reasonably priced. I even bought a few Christmas decorations 😀