Novell's Restaurant in Tonbridge and Malling

I had pie & mash. The pie was tasty, as was the mash. The veg were a delight. The gravy was far too salty & the pastry was soggy. You might say they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. She had pizza. Thin. Tastless. Floppy. As for atmosphere, somewhat spoilt by one endlessly screaming kid. Not their fault. Faultless fast service. We used their online ordering service which worked excellently.

Very busy at Lunch time but for obvious reasons. Great food, always enjoy coming here expecially with my 93yr old Grandad. He loves the Fish and Chips

Popped in today for an English breakfast. You can order and pay via the touch screen, and the food is then brought to your table. The breakfast was very nice.

Lovely place to eat. Good selection of food.

Bright, airy and a pleasant place to meet friends. The food was excellent

Excellent food choices. I love the new ordering system.

Handy place to meet up for a snack with friends

Excellent service,value and taste.

Lovely food but they are very popular so expect a queue especially at weekends

Good food and helpful staff service Good

Before the pandemic, this 'restaurant' used to be of an acceptable standard, but now it's so laughably bad it's giving Fawlty Towers a good run for its money. You basically can't order any food after 3pm, a cut off time the staff interpret to mean "we're closed" by 2:40pm at the latest. Large numbers of menu items are frequently unavailable, and you can order a cappuccino only to learn, after paying, that coffee isn't available, "but we do have tea". One of those businesses determined to give Britain a bad name by constantly managing down expectations and running down service levels "because we don't have the staff today". Frankly very disappointing for such a large and popular garden centre that receives coach visits from far and wide. Avoid like the plague and go to Otford for lunch instead.

Great place and food well cooked and delicious...no wonder they are always so busy..

Had a bacon roll ! worst one Ive ever had bacon completly dried up had obvìously been cooked earlier and left on a warmer for ages !!Husbands egg roll was runny and not cooked properly ! Awfull on all counts !!!

We had breakfast here for the first time and with the app got 25%off. It was good food and a great price. The staff were super helpful too. The only downside was that we couldn't get the discount at the electronic station and had to go to the till instead.

Went for lunch with my other half. Chose pizza margarita and cream tea for myself and I was very disappointed. Pizza was very soggy, prevail tomato puree in taste. Scone was dry and crumbled on the knife. My other half had liver with mash and Greek salad and loved it. Like the new service in place and can order either from your table through your mobile, till or screen.

Nice coffee and the roast dinner looked amazing so we're coming back next week for a Sunday roast!

Love this place so much to look at

This restaurant is forever changing, and not always for the best. We waited a couple of minutes to be seated; this was all fine, the lady hosting was friendly, welcoming & explained the routine perfectly fine. We ordered at a tablet like you would at a McDonalds. We ordered minutes between each other, only cold sandwiches, but the wait between our orders being delivered was not expected & annoying. The sandwiches were fine, I had the Brie with the “tomato & chilli chutney” which looked and tasted just like sweet chilli sauce. They come with a full bag of crisps, which was nice, but we had ordered chips on the side not realising. The coffee wasn’t good. I could see a barista machine, and from online research expected a good cup of coffee. It was served with a wooden tea spoon… wouldn’t return in a hurry.

Always friendly and reliable. Food is well prepared and speedily delivered.

I went with a large group of elderly people. We had to queue for tables in the lunchtime rush but the staff were very helpful, the service was great and the food was served very quickly once ordered 👌

Very busy but the staff work exceptionally hard to keep the tables turning over

Poor food quality, cold and took too long. Despite ordering everything together drinks came out and by the time food arrived had finished drinks. The 3.50 bacon roll was small and not worth the 3.50

Nice airy restaurant. Staff were busy but service was quick ,polite, and efficient. Food was tasty and reasonably priced. A bacon,egg,hash brown roll £6.95x2, 1 large latte and 1 refillable soft drink for £20.

Food was lovely. Gets busy, go early. Enjoyed the breakfast roll and chocolate brownie. Big cups of coffee.

Nice little breather from being "Dragged" around the Garden Centre by my Wife...😂🤣😂

Easy to order, good service and reasonably priced.

Service was good, food came out fast and drinks were hot.

This is our go-to place before Christmas. I had the Skinny Decaf Latte with a Vanilla shot It was one of the nicest I have had in a while. It was not cheap compared to most but a welcome pit stop. We also had a hot chocolate with cream, marshmallows and a caramel shot. The portion size was disappointing and no caramel taste. So my advice, stick to the coffee and Biscoff biscuit. In terms of the store it's had a bit of an upgrade so you can order from a site and get table service. This was a bit slow but better than joining a queue like the old days

Clean & efficient, menu has lots for everyone.

Fabulous, excellent service. The food was delicious very good value for money. Thankyou

We met a friend and his 4 month old son, for coffee and cake. It was very busy but we were seated promptly. The lady seating us was excellent, advising how we could order, as we couldn't get the App to work. The food was good and came fairly quickly, as it was very busy. There were plenty ofstaff, keeping tables clean and ensuring tables were available as there was a constant queue.

The first thing that struck me was the dirty trays. I had been in here a few years previously but was not impressed then either. Now they are trying to run it like a mcdonald's. We went to a tablet by a wall placed our order and sat down. 15 minutes later I decided to ask what had happened to our order. The women behind the desk said they was behind on the drinks but we would get it. I said a 15 minute wait for our order was a bit long and how comes we could not just go along with a tray and pick up what we wanted like before. Her reply was if you don't like don't come back. So I replied I won't. Finally after 20 mins we got our coffee and cake. Coffee was OK but cake a tad dry. I will never be eating or drinking in there again. I also noticed the lethargic pace of the mainly young staff. Having been in catering most of my days, I would of gave the place a minus rating . Because it was so poor in service .

Updating my review (Nov 2023) from the previous year (which I have kept below!). They have updated this restaurant now, so that the counter where cakes / coffees were have been removed, allowing more tables which is a good thing. There are now 3 ways to order - your phone, their tablet, or traditional till, which is much better as you have options that everyone can use. The menu is updated with allergens which was great for us (one of us is dairy free), and thank goodness, coffees + cakes came out relatively quickly. Staff much better today as well. Cannot vouch for what its like for the hot food! ************************ Don't bother. Expect to queue without the queue manager explaining anything to you apart from that food is a 25 minute wait, even if you are first for the lunch service unapologetically. Then expect to wait 45minutes. You can't even leave as you pay up front on the cafes app. When you get served expect for your food to come separately and with no cutlery and items forgotten.So frustrating as this used to be a garden centre staple that we all loved to visit, the restaurant cafe at the end of our visit. So disappointing .

We were greeted by a lovely lady who explained the ordering to us and helped us find a seat. Ordering was very easy There seemed to be staff available when ever you needed them They even checked if we needed anything during our meal and had a chat Food was very nice and good value We have visited a few times before the revamp and wasn’t that impressed as it was so chaotic But there’s such an improvement since they have had the restaurant redone. The restaurant is bright and airy. The staff were organised and food was great. We will defiantly be visiting again.

This is a really lovely restaurant. You wouldn't think it was in a garden centre. The majority of the team are young and really friendly. The food cannot be faulted in any way. It was lovely. Was happy with the price of food and drink. Very nice experience 👌

It's just OK. Could be better. Queue for a table, only somewhat shown to it. Order via app or self service device. Easy enough to order. It was busy so some wait times were long. Food was OK, but microwaved to within an inch of its life. Soup bowl was extremely hot, food should be heated then transferred to a cold bowl or plate. The cheesy chips were dangerous, you could really burn yourself on the bowl. Brisket roll was let down by horrible cheese as was the cheesy chips. Overall a typical experience at a garden centre, overpriced for what you get.

Fish and chips today was as good as anywhere. Juicy mouthfuls of fresh fish, coated in a crispy crunchy tasty batter. Accompanying veg very suitable... thank you everyone involved!

Terribly poor all round. We were sat at a wobbly table, which I eventually fixed by wedging a menu underneath. We ordered 2 breakfasts and tea for 2 at over £20 something, at the touch screen thing... After waiting 20 mins we asked politely for an order up date. They were running behind..We asked for our tea,then to at least have something. Tea arrived and was awful, cheap muck like dishwater. After asking again for our order after another 20 minutes(and a visit to the counter to demand a free drink), our breakfasts finally arrived ,minus 1 toast and 2 butter.We had waited near on 50 minutes. The food was anemic and not too hot...poor quality. Never again .Don't bother.

Nice food with nice staff, most are youngsters soo far all have been polite with no issues. Fair prices with nice desserts. Nice that you can order using your phone, hassle free.

Oh dear, what was going on. Long ques to get in your not allowed to just go and sit outside without queing. Had to wait for a table . Order with an app or screen. There is no phone signal, so my code for my food order payment came through as I was on my way home. Luckily, my daughter-in-law has payment on her phone. Gone are the days when you can just go in, sit down, and have a coffee. Food finally arrived after 30 mins. How long does it take to COOK a salad. I was lightheaded by the time it arrived. Allow yourself an hour before you actually want to eat, as this process is ridiculous. Saying that the staff were trying to be helpful and friendly but need organising. 2 staff could be showing people to seats 2 staff carrying orders to tables, but they were all doing all jobs it was chaos. I have been visiting here since I was a little girl. I remember it long before it was camershalized Won't be returning !!!!

Fish & chips swimming in grease. 3 mouthfuls then gave up with dinner. Cutlery diry a nd had to find clean knife & fork. No one to complain to.

My family took me here for a birthday celebration lunch. Would it be cramped and seething with children? I was very pleasantly surprised. It is huge, and the tables are spaced well apart. It was very busy, and we had to wait a few minutes for a table to be cleared, but once seated, it was a lovely experience. The method of ordering and paying is brilliant; either using a QR code or, for dinosaurs like me, face to face at a counter. The food was brought to us very quickly and was plentiful and delicious. The staff were all smiling and pleasant in attitude, and the whole experience was a joy.

We came for a brief visit because we were told that it had been refurbished and was much better than before. We were disappointed because in our opinion it was worse if anything and the prices were more than similar establishments in the south east area. Just another average cafe.

Food arrived quickly but the quality was that of a cheap cafe. All had been precooked and warmed up. Not worth the money, however staff were friendly and helpful

Great experience, greeted by friendly and helpful staff member who showed us to a table and gave us menu's. Lot's of choice to choose from, ordering very easy three options via staff till area, kiosk self ordering and QR code order. I chose the QR code order which was very simple and easy to do from the table. Ps some mobile networks suffer from poor signal in the area they do provide free WiFi to use. Drinks arrived quick so did food which was very nice good quality. Very happy, all staff very helpful/ friendly service excellent.

Good value food,a nice place to eat.

Would have given a five star rating but the Latte was luke warm

Lovely food, great staff, a bit noisy due to school holidays.

Interesting experience! After choosing a table you are advised to order your food etc via an app, but due to either poor signal or IT issues this proved impossible! Luckily a very helpful assistant was taking orders. My food order was delivered speedily & was very tasty but the beverages came from adifferent delivery station & I was halfway through my meal before my drink arrived. Staff efficient &helpful but lacking atmosphere due to the almost warehouse - feel delivery service.

Woefully slow, and staffed mostly by youngsters who don't seem to care much. Like many people there, we waited far too long for a simple order. Seems to me like they've made the self-service process nice and simple for themselves at the expense of customer service. Must try harder.

Nice food but portions too large.

Good selection at a reasonable price

Good food, nice selection and good service

The Beef was very tasty but go cold very quickly Ham Eggs and Chips wa a good size portion but again both meals could have been hotter

They used to serve very nice pizza from big pizza oven. We came here today and realised they refurbished and restaurant is all changed. Expecting the same standard, we ordered pizza bit it was terrible. Its like some frozen pizza from cheap supermarket, it doesn't justify the price as well. Will not eat here again. Such a shame, their pizza was worth visiting miles away but not anymore. Staff and service weren't too bad.

Nice clean easy to use food stop

Really nice reasonably priced restaurant. Had a gorgeous Greek Salad for lunch.

Haven't been a while but it was a nice breakfast. Good service. No complaints

Service was excellent and the food was great 👍 👌 😋

Good garden centre environment but waited 40 minutes for sandwiches ( even though customer who’d been infront of us when paying got his quickly) and then got them after prompting staff. Toastie was cold, BLT seemed to be made from precooked bacon slices? which looked anaemic as though they hadn’t seen a grill or pan, with not a sign of brown or crispiness to the fat.

Ordered lunch today, two jacket potatos with Bolognaise, and two pots of tea. £21.75. £2.25 for each pot of tea, (1 decaffeinated) plus .25p for 1 soya milk, and £8.50 fo the jacket potatos. A bit steep I thought. Ordering is by one of three methods - by App, in person at the till, or using their touch screen terminal, which I did when the App wouldn't work. The food was served only slightly warm. They agreed to heat it up on request, but came back only slightly warmer. So don't order any hot food there! The tea wasn't very strong.

I went to shop and have breakfast with my family this week. Garden centre is incredible. The restaurant very poor. No children’s breakfast menu. I ordered a bacon roll. Roll was stale and the bacon was cold with congealed fat. The girl on the cash desk was reading a book - not noticing she had people waiting. The children’s play area is far too small for the amount of people taking children expecting to pay money for food ! Too many tables for play space. Sadly we will not return.

Visited at 11.20 on a sunday morning waited 20 minutes for two drinks !!!! Could understand if we was waiting for food but not for two drinks , people asking for refunds and walking out ! Better when you queued and got drinks straight away...

We visited on a Sunday afternoon, it was not overly busy and we were seated immediately. There is both inside and outside seating. It is at best a standard garden centre restaurant, being reasonably clean and presented. It looks the part but hardly lives up...

We had hoped to visit the coffee shop at Polehill garden centre for a girls brunch / cream tea, but it was closed and the restaurant was the only option. We had to queue to get in and then were shown to an outside table,...

We were only in for a drink and snack (coffee,baguette and cake) everything we had was fine served politely and quickly by the waiting staff. We have not been in for a while and they have reorganised and redecorated this restaurant, we approve of the...

Have had great meals here in the past but recently it has been awful. Today the jacket potatoes were hard and the filling of coronation chicken was tasteless. There was no milk brought out for the tea and we were not offered salt and pepper....

We were on a day trip to the garden centre and enjoyed a Christmas lunch. A very nice lunch, bit of a queue to get a table and then to order as the wi-fi didn't work in the outside eating area (under cover in a...

Superb Christmas traditional lunch here today. Everything was very good about it and the Yorkshire Pudding on top made it uniquely, deliciously special. Thanks to all involved!

We visted today 25th November.2021 This was for my Mother who is in a Nursing home as a Christmas meal there were 7 of us .We were extremely disappointed with the meal.The meal were not warm the spouts were not edible carrots the same .The...

We had a lovely afternoon in the Tiki hut 🛖 the sandwiches were lovely & cakes .staff were amazing especially Valley, will definitely do it again thank you.

We waited more than 1 hour for our meal. We had to find the way to open our bottle of beer. Bad service, no enough staff.

Bank holiday Monday on a cloudy and chilly day. What can we do? A visit to the garden Center was decided. Pohill garden Center is easily the best garden Center in the south east, beautifully set out and displayed. The restaurant and outside dinning area...

Ordered on the app, yet people who ordered at their table served first. Chips delivered to table, and after 20 minutes asked for the rest of the meal. Manager (who looked like he had been dragged through a hedge backwards) was weak and unable to...

We love polhill especially  my 80 year old mum who is disabled. I have to push her wheelchair to show her around the shop We visited  the restaurant the signs at the entrance are not very clear ..Anyway we have to queue up takes at...

had a lovely afternoon tea here in a Tiki hut, Rachel was so good ensuring special dietary requirements were met and the staff on the day were lovely I cant remember all of their names but thanks to Bobby and Demi who were great will...

I fully appreciate that restaurants have had to adapt during Covid but your staff clearly have not been trained adequately and cannot cope with the numbers. I stood in the queue today for 15 mins with my toddler son before I left. There were plenty...

Had A tiki hut booked today for the breakfast. And I must say I was so impressed with the breakfast, service and the comfort. Was A lovely set up. Heat lamps and blankets provided. I would highly recommend it. And will be doing it again.

Friendly staff good food Clean and excellent service Little chilly outside before was allowed inside 17 May

Today we had a very lovely cream tea in the new Tiki huts, the hut was very comfortable and a lovely setting along with a good selection of finger sandwiches cake scones tea or coffee. Would highly recommend

My husband and I had lunch at the outside restaurant today..service very good food good..the only negative is although it's well organized it was a little chilly..could benefit from some outside heaters xx

Today I was absolutely appalled with the experience from this cafe/restaurant. Firstly, we had to wait half an hour to be seated and that was just because the lady doing hot drinks couldn’t keep up. There was barely any staff and it was so poorly...

This review is based on Novells cafe & restaurant. I visited today with my two young children (aged 1 and 4). We had to queue for at least 25 minutes just to be seated at a table. We had to have our temperature taken -...

Queue forever, no menu information until you’ve been in the queue forever, to find you don’t like anything on offer - could be better organised.

We were both impressed and reassured by the measures put in place, social distancing, test and trace and temperature taking. it enhanced our experience as it felt clean and organised and was therefore relaxing and enjoyable unlike other place s who enforce few standards. Great...

My mum lives locally so we often pop in here for lunch and always find staff helpful and welcoming, a good variety of tasty food, recently refurbished seating and generally a great atmosphere. Just one complaint, the food is always lukewarm. 😔 We went today...

Completely laughable experience. Pretty much self service except when you pay and even then you are barely acknowledged by the staff. Waited at the hot food counter just for toast before realising there are a couple of toasters and a display of bread further down...

Stopped in for a late lunch yesterday. The food was delicious as always. Cooked to perfection and with quality ingredients. Never any issue with staff and in fact I’d like to mention both Jackie and Demi who were super friendly. The staff were run off...

We visited the restaurant after our trip to Santa. We found the food to be very tasty and although it was busy we were able to find a very pleasant corner table. The staff were friendly and there was a wide choice of food. Excellent...

HUGER MUGGER WAITRESSWe went to pol hill on Sunday to see the Santa grotto.The kids really enjoyed it,after that we went to have lunch in novells bakery.The waitress told us it will be a 25 min wait for drinks and food her tone was very rude and unfriendly.we were sitting on table 23 ,the food came after 30 min.she totally messed up our order forgot the one baguett and chips,when i askedher she was bemused and said we all make mistkes and walked away.The bagueet and chips came after 20 mim which she didnt appoligize whichi thought was a bit rude.When i went to pay the bill i asked the for a refund because we had to wait for 50 min to have a baguette and chips.She refused to give us a discount said we had all the food and was moaning behind my back in a stentorian voice which was very annoying .Will not be coming back

The lady chef was working her butt off in the bistro to get a packed restaurant their food.We ordered the 6oz burger salad and fries. When it arrived it was well prepared and delicious. It was also reasonably priced. I was very pleased with our...

A great place to eat or just pop in for a coffee.Food is a bit pricey but delicious. Staff are so lovely and welcoming, especially the two ladies on the till at weekdays. Darren,the manager works really hard and is always helping out in every...

Went for a roast 8th September and the vegetable dishes were very poor broccoli and cauliflower was warm and well undercooked the cauliflower cheese (?) no cheese taste and was hard even the small pieces and the roast just about had colour and were cooked...

Utterly appalled with the service today at Polhill, been coming for years and spent A LOT of money over time, and travel almost an hour to visit with my Nan today who hadn’t been before, along with my two year old, my mum and my 7 week old puppy (who fits into the palm of my hand) and all staff around the centre fussed over him, and we was there shopping for an hour, before visiting the restaurant, the lady at the food counter saw my puppy who was in a baby wrap around my chest to keep him warm and safe (isn’t allowed down until 18 weeks, and can’t be left alone, and certainly couldn’t be left in the car) and she served our dinner, two women at checkout also made a fuss of him, took our payment, we have four hot meals, various drinks and, we sat down on the table right by the door (raining extremely hard) he cannot go down can I reiterate so he was literally in his wrap and could only see his head, and the so called manager appeared within seconds and was rude as anything and told us to leave, and couldn’t give a reason why, no signs saying no dogs, seen dogs before within the garden centre, you also have a pet section which encourages people to bring their small dogs. The manager still refused to give a reason and just said health and safety (I have read online there isn’t actually any health and safety issue with a dog being allowed on the premises) it’s a personal preference , I visit many cafes bistros pubs and food halls who happily allow pets. As I say I cannot leave him at home, or in the car and he is SEVEN weeks old!!!!! And was attached to me. He would never come out of his pouch whilst out and about due to his age. So what an absolute WASTE of food, and time. Absolutely appalled by the service today and now very upset that somewhere I have visited so many times , I now will never ever visit again, and very embarrassing for my family and myself for the way the manager approached us and the situation and was so heartless. NO CLEAR SIGNS TO SAY NO DOGS ON THE ENTRANCE OF CAR PARK A. Just to add, my puppy is a support dog for my generalise anxiety disorder and is being trained to provide comfort to his owner when in distress. So thanks

Literally can’t fault the restaurant. Spacious, hot reasonably priced food with great service! First time there and would totally recommend to anyone.

I visited Polhill today,20th June, and as on past visits went to Novell's for lunch.The choice is varied and all looked very tempting,but today I went to the separate counter and ordered a pizza,two sizes were available and I chose a small Herbivore.The man who served me couldn't have been more helpful or friendly.I saw the huge pizza oven behind him,and looked forward to mine.He gave me a buzzer to keep until it buzzed and politely said it may be ten minutes,which was fine.I got a drink,paid for it and the pizza,then joined my friends at our chosen table.In time the buzzer went off and I took my receipt and collected the pizza,the man was again very friendly.The pizza was very hot,fresh,and delicious,I thought good value too.After eating it I returned to the counter to tell the man how delicious it was,he seemed very pleased!...well done,and I will definitely try another on my next visit.....Stuart...

Always used to go here and it was always busy...Had a breakfast which was lukewarm and something I could of had in a truckers cafe..the place was almost empty which makes you wonder if it’s losing touch ... it’s more like a low class cafe than a restaurant and the restaurant itself wasn’t very clean the windowsills hadn’t seen a duster for a while, tables still with crumbs from the customer before all

It’s difficult to rate 3* or is it 4* ? The food is good and cheap but it always seems like a cafe rather than a restaurant. Always crowded so must be doing something good.

We are frequent customers & usually enjoy out visits to the cafe. Today the cream of chicken & vegetable soup was the best thing we have ever tried here. Outstanding for the standards of the cafe. Compliments to the Chef & the rest of the staff for the great service. Once again, thank you very much & see you again soon!

Regularly use Novells restaurant when visiting Polhill garden prefer this to the larger one.