Stooks in Horsham - Phone Number, Reservations, Reviews

Nearly a tenner for a cheese sandwich! The chutney was tasty but the bread and the cheese were both cheap and basic. The selection of drinks was limited. So many better places to go…

Went into stooks and ordered chicken sandwich, cheese ham sandwich and caesar salad, coffee 2 cones = £43. The cheese and ham sandwich was ok. But the chicken in the sandwich and Caesar salad was cheap packet chicken. It was tasteless and rubbery processed chicken. With the sandwiches was served crisps. My husbands were ok but my daughters were all crushed and clearly was the remnants of the bottom of the packet! The coleslaw that came with sandwiches was no more than a desert spoon served in an egg cup. My salad was shocking for nearly £14. Portion small, tasteless chicken, bowl was half empty. Other half of bowl had a ramekin with garlic sauce … is this how they fill the bowl? If I put it on a plate it would be a tea plate size. Staff never spoke, when drinks arrived they were put on the table on the tray with no customer service. Guy on till was ‘next, what do you want!’ I know it was a Sunday but no manners at all. Over priced for food of a poor quality.

Oh dear what has happened? Turned up for a late lunch (just after 1pm) and pretty much all the food had gone. My friend queued up for hours to order a BLT only to be told they didn’t have any bacon, so ordered a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich and my bacon and chicken Caesar salad. They had bacon for this apparently. When the food arrived the sandwich was made from cheap thick slice white bread, cheap plastic cheddar and slimey ham and a slice of tomato. A handful of Walkers ready salted crisps and a thimbleful of coleslaw …. for just under £10. My Caesar salad had a good amount of precooked, presliced chicken, a handful of bagged salad, shop bought croutons a bit of Parmesan and some ok Caesar dressing all topped off with a good shake of artificial bacon bits from a tub… for just under £14. Yuck. What happened to the home cooked food that felt it was made with care and passion? The prices have gone up and the standards really down. I used to love bringing my friends and family here, don’t think I will now. Such a shame.

The food here used to be excellent then it went down hill, then recently it got a lot lot better again. However on our recent visit it had gone very much down hill again. The menu was much reduced, the restaurant was two thirds empty and yet we were told that there would be an hour wait for food even though other than jacket potatoes everything else was salads. We both had Tuna salad which was very nice but which was supposed to come with olives but they were conspicuous by their absense, and when we asked for mayonnaise we were given a thimble full. We love this place so dearly hope it will return to normal soon.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to what Stooks considers £9:50 worth of sandwich to look like. To be honest you would be better off going to the supermarket nearby and getting a value meal, it would look better, have more filling, you get a drink as well and it's half the price.... I am not sure who prepared said gastronomic delight, however they seriously need some coaching on presentation and content. I fail to see how any establishment can charge that amount of money and think it is acceptable to produce this. As for the rest of our lunch, one overcooked armour plated jacket potato with the skin of a Rhino, two pieces of cake and two cups of froth masquerading as Latte's later, I had spent £34.00!! To be fair the Jacket filling was tasty and it came with a little salad, but it was far from what I would expect, again for £9:50. I have not gone as far as terrible as the cakes were not bad at all. As other reviews have said the place is going downhill fast, it may not have hit rock bottom yet, but it does not have far to go. Best advice, save your money and go elsewhere.

Not very pleasant, dirty tables, uninterested staff who speak to you with no interest at all. The member of staff on the till curtly told to get a table & come back with the number to order. Very expensive £16.40 for two drinks & two cakes which were mediocre. Sloppy staff… our tray of drinks and cakes was plonked down at the end of the table without a word. We would not recommend and would not return.

This place is some kind of dystopian nightmare. Where front it back and 2+2 equals 5. I have lived down the road for almost 30 years and seen it grow and grow. Now if you go in you have to walk all around the one way system (250 m) to return to 5 m from where you were originally. Outside there are big advertisements for the coffee shop/restaurant. But no entrance. That would be too helpful. I went into the large entrance for the Garden Centre. Just inside the entrance I asked a lady, 'how do I get to the Coffee shop.' You guessed it. 'You have to walk all around the one way system.' When I asked if there was a simpler route. She said, 'we are primarily a garden centre. Not a coffee shop.' Then why advertise Sunday Roasts in large lettering outside. After asking this question I turned to leave. But was told I had to walk around the large one way system to get to the exit, when 5 meters from outside originally.

This cafe is so pricey, it’s about £10 for a sandwich. It was very busy today and only one table available so I just let the Waitress know we had taken the table and it wasn’t cleared yet, I was just letting her know so it could be cleared not criticising but she snapped at me saying they are really busy that’s why and she was very rude. Not impressed at all, there was no need to treat a customer like that! Will not be returning!!

Too busy as usual so difficult to get a table inside (it was raining heavily outside so hardly tempting at 10 degrees and very wet) I ordered a jacket potato with tuna and mayonnaise which arrived after a short wait of 7 or 8 minutes, despite the place being full of lunchtime customers so that was OK. The meal itself was tasty served with a little salad on the side but the jacket was completely overdone, burned in fact and eating the skin was like chewing on a brick! At almost ten pounds I would have expected better, the staff were welcoming enough but on this and recent past experience, the quality of food leaves something to be desired.

I have been coming here years because we’ve loved it! Today we went and it was so disappointing. The staff are still friendly and polite but the prices have gone through the roof and the portions have got smaller! I ordered a goats cheese and beetroot salad and it was a bit of rocket, on a base of SIX beetroot slices with a slice of goats cheese on top, sprinkles of pomegranate seeds and splash of balsamic vinegar. It was tasty but TINY and for the price an absolute rip off. My husband had a sandwich was also underwhelming and again just under £10. I left feeling hungry and unfortunately won’t be rushing back there in a hurry.

Everything I come in here, I instantly regret it. Save your money. This place is terrible. Huge queue, dirty tables everywhere, one person serving and one doing hot drinks on a Saturday, slow service, and really expensive! Nearly £5 for a hot chocolate. With all the bad reviews, you think they would make improvements.

So I had read some recent reviews and was a bit nervous about eating here but my experience was pretty darn good. The only reason it's not 5 stars was because there was a 30min wait for food but I was told about this when ordering in fairness. Everything was piping hot, sausage was lovely and everything was very tasty. Service with a smile throughout and the coffee was also piping hot and came out very quickly. This is the first time I have been here and it certainly won't be my last.

Visited today for lunch, the cashier was very slow and the queue was out of the door. A second till was opened but instead of serving the people who had been standing waiting for upwards of 10 minutes, the new cashier started serving people who had just walked up to her. The drinks were brought to the table by an extremely rude staff member who didn’t even speak a word to us, he dropped the tray on the table and walked off. The food was brought out by an equally rude and miserable waitress. Stook’s is not a cheap place to eat or drink and between 6 of us we spent almost £80 so you’d hope that the staff would at least have the courtesy to be polite to you. We certainly will not be back.

On 20 December at about 1.30 pm, I ordered a tasty prawn and crayfish sandwich, but I became ill the following day. It is difficult to tell with fish; however, I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt that this was a solitary occasion. The staff were courteous.

Called in for breakfast, small full English, cold mushrooms, cold grilled/oven tomatoes, cold fried potato, cold plate, bacon cannot say how it was cooked, awfull, fried egg and beans ok. Very dissapointed.

Popped in for breakfast only to find due to technical problems only 3 cooked things available. Fair enough I thought, so opted for eggs on toast as the only vegetarian option. It arrived on a cold plate,toast with no butter/ spread & 2 fried eggs that had been just thrown on the toast. Coffee was ok. My friends didn’t fare much better. Toast arrived again with no butter. Staff were super dozy and had to be asked for condiments etc. Cost was a ridiculous £10 for the “meal”.Won’t be bothering with this place again.

The worst 'ploughmans' ever! No choice of white or brown roll, had to ask for butter, 1 'thin' slice of ham, few salad leaves, no dressing, 2 soft, obviously old pickled onions, 2 chunks of apple with bits of the core left in, only saving grace, the cheese was ok! £12.50 !!! Shocking !!

Went for breakfast at 10.30 , breakfast had obviously been cooked hours earlier, and when it arrived it was over- cooked and bacon and sausages inedible ( nothing like the picture).They did offer me another breakfast but by then it was too late. When I complained the next day I was offered two complimentary drinks- hardly a big gesture when the breakfasts cost £22.00

Food very expensive for a sandwich. The bacon was burnt, bread was burnt not a lot of choice. Service not too bad

Shocking Fathers Day … walked out after waiting an hour and half for breakfast! We received an apology and an offer of complimentary drinks after an hour wait but they didn’t arrive until we chased them ! Utter chaos! Under staffed, management totally lack any control or organisational skills. The water bowls for dogs are filthy !! I cleaned one in the toilet for our dog to drink out of. The drinks we had were served in dirty cups and saucers ! Horrible! The locks on the toilets by the outside seating area were broken! A Fathers Day treat ruined by totally shocking service and lack of food ! As a Blue Diamond member and someone who users the garden centre and has used the restaurant before I would NEVER eat there again !!! Shocking from start to finish!!!

Food wasn’t very nice at all. This used to be lovely but everything tasted burnt and the produce was of poor quality. I wouldn’t come back for breakfast again.

My friend and I went to this garden centre today and were really impressed. We chose to have a drink and some cakes at Kipling's Cafe...wow! We thought the cakes were so delicious...The Posh Pop Plum and Cherry Drink is also highly recommended. We are definitely going to return...it was nice too to see the cakes being prepared. Very good customer service as well.

We visited last Friday. There was no one in the queue, but had to wait a while to be seated. The staff member said, we are very behind with our orders!!so there will be a long wait. Why can’t we just buy a coffee, as we haven’t got long until we go to see an elderly relative and there’s no one at the counter? You can if you take it away ! But there’s no queue at the counter we said ‍♀️We could buy the coffee and sit on one of the tables that’s free, look. No if you sit down we have to Serve you and there’s a long wait. Ok, so if I get a coffee myself I can straight away, but I’m not allowed to sit down......why? New bridge garden centre you need to sort your restaurant out! Marks and Spencer’s, costa and other garden centres have social distancing and mask wearing but let you queue and buy your own food. You had long delays and we saw a few people leave as your system is not working! Just let us be adults and get our own food. You concentrate on clearing the tables and cleaning them........sorted Your staff were like headless chickens and no one knew who to Serve and who was next ‍♀️We left without ordering and went somewhere else.

This visit reminded me why I stopped visiting before lockdown. It's such a shame as a nice atmosphere, great location and usually the food is good also. Thing is, it took 45 minutes to get a coffee and cake and I had to chase it twice. Such a disappointment and let down. At least the staff are now being forced to wear masks though!

First trip out since lockdown and glad we picked stooks! No queues and couldn't see any whilst we were there. The service was great, very efficient and the cakes were yum! Portion size isn't a problem here. Possibly a little understaffed because the ladies were running round all the time, everything was being cleaned thoroughly even the menus. We will be back for more carrot cake!

The restaurant has a very nice ambience and the menu is varied. Staff are courteous and friendly and service at your table is very efficient. My only criticism is the COVID-19 cleaning regime. The tables are cleared and cleaned very quickly after they are vacated. Unfortunately, the staff were just cleaning the tables - not one chair was wiped over. It’s more likely that contamination could be from a chair, which is constantly handled, rather than a wiped tabletop. Also, whilst it’s a large space, when we visited there was no ventilation.

The coffee took ages to come.My breakfast was cold and I left the sausage because I don't think it was fully cooked.My mums cake was dry and nasty and she said it tasted days old.All around badly managed.We definitely won't be back.Only to the garden centre.

I visited with my boyfriend and had a lovely chat with the staff, I was appalled that Blue Diamond won’t provide their staff with Visors due to the cost! Some people feel claustrophobic in masks this is terrible. The food is delicious here the wait was long but we were not in a hurry. Come on Blue Diamond look after your staff!

One way system now in place, but to get to the restaurant customers have to go outside through the plant area. However, the signposts suddenly stop and it is not clear on how to continue to the restaurant. The restaurant itself is lovely. Large wooden beams, good atmosphere. The staff are very friendly and polite. The food, (homemade soup and homemade focaccia) were delicious. It’s downfall was the amount of time we had to wait for drinks. We asked 3 times if we could have our drinks, and they eventually came 30 minutes after we had finished our soup. Very disappointing. I’m afraid I won’t be visiting again until the service has improved.

Went to Stooks around 10 am today and thoroughly enjoyed my breakfast.I was bit unsure about going, with the current Covid situation. However, Stooks had good social distancing plans in place. There was also sanitiser and staff cleaning tables after each use.There was also table service which was friendly and prompt. Food was good and Stooks is a cosy, inviting environment.Would recommend.

Thought we would give Stooks another try as have been before and the organisation was awful. I so wanted it to be better... but alas no.Finding the way in by following the arrows that suddenly disappear.... go through an unmarked door and a lot of guess work and your in!Go to the counter... NO stand like a lemon with nobody to help you. Eventually gave up went and found a table outside... WRONG ... they find you a table...but there was nobody helping.Anyway a lovely waitress took our order eventually... dry scone but a nice cup of coffee.Lots of people wandering in through the garden exit confused like we were... sort it out Stooks.

Where to start..... Bank holiday Monday was always going to be a bit hectic but didn’t expect this level of incompetence. My family and I queued up for a table outside and were finally seated after about 20 minutes. We could see it was busy so said we were ready to order immediately. 20 minutes later our order was taken. Unfortunately we were not told what items were off the menu before spending time choosing. So quick change of plan and food/drinks were ordered. 30 minutes later nothing had arrived.... I asked a waiter if they could bring our drinks out. Finally two warm white wines and one cold hot chocolate arrived. 20 minutes after this we asked if our food was on its way....apparently not. Our order had been lost and the staff had attempted to serve another tables food to us in the meantime. FINALLY our food turned up after we reordered. ‘Any sauces’, we were asked. Just some mayonnaise please, we asked hopefully. You would have thought after almost a two hour wait some mayonnaise would have been possible. Nope!! Dear lord! The only saving grace was that we weren’t charged. Frankly we’d have liked some compensation for half our bank holiday being lost waiting for mediocre food and drinks served by staff who seemed completely ill equipped for the job.

We joined a que behind one other customer and had to wait ten minutes for a person to show us to a table. After about fifteen minutes someone else showed up and took our order, two scones and two coffees. Another fifteen minutes and our order turned up. I asked the person who bought it to suggest to the manager that there needed to be some direction put into the cafe as it was chaos. They agreed and told me there was no manager and suggested strongly that I wrote a letter of complaint to the parent comany who owned the cafe. They also said the staff were all unhappy with the way the place was not being run. All the time we were in there the staff were running round in circles getting absolutely nowhere and achieving nothing. Obviously it was not their fault that the place was in a state of panic and disorder - there should have been a manager in charge. Having said that the scones were really good but I wont be waiting there again - how can it possibly take more than half an hour to pour out two cups of coffee and put two scone on a plate?If time is not of the essence, this is the place for you.

We appreciate things are a little slow at the moment, but this was a complete shambles.Having been shown to a table, we ordered 2 coffees. This was at 10:27 and the reason we know this is because we filled in a Contact form.We sat there until 10.55 and still no drinks.. People who came in after us were being served drinks and food.I asked the waitress about our coffee and she said we would have to wait.We did so for another 10 minutes, but nothing. We then gave up. A gentleman on the next table was also trying to get her attention for the same reason.She saw us leave and there was no apology.It’s such a shame because this is a brilliant nursery, but definitely won’t be using Stooks again.

Advised 30 minute wait for two drinks. We didn’t stay. Service always a problem here and I never understand why. Such a shame.

Fine for a cup of tea and cake in the garden. My concern is that the kitchen and waiting staff are not wearing visors, nor are they socially distancing with one another. Lots of laughter and banter between them so not doubt lots of saliva flying around. May explain why the place was almost empty.When I asked why they are not wearing them the response was rather flippant, "we are advised to , but we don't have to and it is too hot". Such a shame as I like Stooks but will take my business to where they priorities health and safety.

My friends and I had a very long awaited catch up at Stooks on 3/8/20. Socially distanced. Everything cleaned. We took part in the “eat out to help out” arrived at 10am we had so much catching up to do, we didn’t leave until 3pm! Service was great (a little slower at points BUT they were quite busy at times and it was the first day of the eat out to help out so new to everyone on service ) very friendly and helpful staff made it an enjoyable 5 hours ! We didn’t feel hurried or in the way, we weren’t frowned upon for taking up a table for 5 hours, neither were we pestered to continually ordered because we were there for son long taking up table space. A relaxed, friendly atmosphere. They definitely adhered to all social distancing rules, cleaning regimes. Highly recommended especially the carrot cake with a coffee. ;)

We really enjoyed an afternoon tea to celebrate a family birthday. One of our party cannot eat gluten and the staff managed this dietary request excellently. The food was fresh and delicious with lots of very tastey treats, we couldn't eat it all so boxes were provided for us to take the rest home. The staff were very friendly and very helpful. Easy to book and very good value for money, thanks.

I can’t believe I’ve ended up in this place again. The service is a joke and I’m now bored of the waitresses of apologising! Today after they brought up the wrong dish it was-“Sorry the chef is having an off day” I just don’t get it why the service is so bad in this place as the food can be quite good. This place needs a decent manager.

As always, excellent breakfast and nice coffee. Lovely, friendly, smiling staff. Love the barn, really nice environment. Thank you

Good quick service plenty of choice of delicious homemade cakes and scones. Very tasty coffee. Clean and friendly

Really slow service Horrible coffee it was cold The food was shocking and the cake was definitely frozen brought in rubbish. The chef got chef of the year three times in a row. Just shows you how rubbish blue diamond is. Really poor management

Rubbish service and you need a new chef.what are you letting him get away with? Clearly comes down to management and blue diamond. Dirty John retire

thought we would have sunday breakfast and then look around the garden centre. Big mistake, breakfast took 40 minutes to arrive and when it did arrive it was NOT special. Very disappointing, will not visit for breakfast again. Great garden centre though.

I went to Stooks for breakfast as it is my local garden centre and wanted to give it a try....What a disappointment. The beans were microwaved and this dry, the black pudding was even drier (and not very warm), the poached egg wasn’t fully cooked and sloppy, The only good thing was the coffee. It was overpriced for mediocre luke warm and dry food!!Sorry Stooks, very below par, I could cook that better. I shall continue to go to Billy’s on the Road, a proper cafe!!!

The food is delicious but we waited 20 minutes in the queue to order and then another 40 minutes for our bacon avocado and cheese wraps. (We did ask for forccachia bread but it came in a wrap) so then we waited another 10 minutes. The food is worth waiting for but they really need to have more people taking orders or change it to table service.

This has been going on for years and it is getting worse. A total disregard for customers on the one hand and a complete failure to understand the amount of trade being lost. And that was before the deterioration in food quality over the past six months!I have never ever experienced such a ludicrously inept ordering process in any other eatery.Avoid!

I decided to take my elderly mother for a bowl of soup to warm up! Simple you would think. I wish I hadn't bothered. Where do I start?! Firstly the wait to just order took over 15 minutes. The free tables were all littered with dirty crockery and tables sticky and filthy. Three empty water jugs and no glasses. One knife we had to share and two spoons in a dirty holder. Trying to get the attention of a member of staff was virtually impossible and eventually when I did I got a scowl. Probably overworked and underpaid. No smiles to be seen anywhere. After waiting another 15 mins our soup finally arrived. A bowl of luke warm, green, tasteless slime can only describe what we were presented with. So disgusting we couldn't eat it. Staff were so elusive we didnt wait to complain. I needed to get my mother home and nourished!! At just under £6 for a bowl of soup and lump of bread I would have expected a lot more. I put in a complaint online over two weeks ago and have heard nothing hence my very critical review. Will definitely not be returning and would certainly NOT recommend

First visit and immediately you can see that there is little or no management. The service is painfully slow and the staff are almost tripping over one another. Such a shame as the coffee and cakes were pretty good but definitely not worth the wait. Please get a restaurant manager who has some experience and can organise the staff. They looked as fed up as most of the customers. Might then return.

I now rarely visit this garden centre if in urgent need for 'gardening stuff' & go elsewhere for food & drink. Shame as with most garden centres the café is often the reason for my visit. The food is nice enough & the coffee good but it's all overpriced & not worth the waiting for. Yummy Mummies from the nearby estates love the place & arrive by windowed van & 4x4 in droves, which can make for a noisy creche-like experience.Time this part of what is otherwise a splendid garden centre/out-of-town store is changed & handed over to a more efficient organisation.

If you miss the 11 am deadline food ceases to be served till 12 noon and when a rush of customers are clambering over each other to get to the pastries and not enough staff it's a very unpleasant experience. Queues are slow and some in the line up can be very impatient not sure hiwmthis can be resolved but it does not bide well when trying to get a sandwich during this gap or something other than a pastry. On the plus side staff do their utmost to cope with the constant long impatient customers. Elderly do not cope well standing for more than ten minutes for their food.

We went for a bite of lunch as we’d eaten there before and I had enjoyed the soup previously and the bread was lovely previously so I thought soup would be a good idea for me. But I was disappointed in that the soup wasn’t as good as it normally is it was heavily tasting in onion and not a potato taste as it was leek and potato. Also I don’t know what happened with the portion of bread but it’s shrunk by half and it wasn’t as tasty either which was very disappointing. My partner had a bacon Brie and avocado sandwich he said the avocado was hard and the bottom of the bread was soggy as it had been laid on a bit of side salad that it came with but he said the sandwich was tasty. The prices aren’t cheap, but it’s a pleasant restaurant.

Went Xmas shopping at Newbridge Nursery which was great. Stooks however who charges £6.70 for a Sandwich and when it's delivered its salty with a limp bit of salad. Really not good with so many places around to eat. That was on top of the 15 minute queue to get served. Give it a wide berth.

We've been several times and had coffee and cake and it's always been lovely. However today we went a had breakfast, it was awful and overpriced!! Very disappointing! Will definitely not be going back for breakfast.

Avoid at all costs. This cafe has great potential but is not run correctly. The service is appalling and the food terrible, and it’s not cheap either. Cold jackets and childs lunch options completely wrong, awful. So slow. Needs an overhaul!

I have been meeting a friend for coffee here for the last couple of years and the service is getting worse and worse. To have to queue for 20 mins for 2 coffees is not good enough. The cafe has all the latest facilities, but unfortunately the staff are either not trained properly or are more interested in talking to other members of staff.

Visited for lunch and couldn’t find a menu. There was a specials board on a table at entrance and we saw something we liked so ordered that. Since seen the menu online and it looks amazing. The homemade coleslaw was incredible. The service is slow to order (only one person taking orders despite long queue) and slow to arrive. But the food we had was really good. The restaurant itself is a great looking place but very cold to sit for a while, not sure if there is heating. Obviously a great place for mums and babies to meet but this made it very noisy. The food was great but the lack of obvious menu and atmosphere let it down.

Terrible service and extremely slow!

Very very disappointed with this tea room,

Some friends and me went for lovely cake's and drinks .And we walked around .Lots to see and the Xmas part wow

I have been meaning to comment before, but yesterday's visited prompted me to actually do it. It is now self service for cakes, which in theory should make service faster, but this is not the case. We queued for 10 minutes with only 1 person in front of us who took ages being served. We stood holding a tray with 3 plates of cakes on it for 5 minutes, as they haven't provided anywhere to put your trays, loaded with cakes, whilst queuing. The coffee service took ages and they got the order wrong. Three people were behind the counter, but service is so slow. It is also very noisy in the restaurant, as it's all hard surfaces. They now have 3 large plants in there, but really need to install acoustic panels to absorb the noise. The waitress was washing the floor before they closed, and was just dragging the chairs across the floor which added to the noise. Cakes and food are good, they are just being let down by a few things.

Whilst the food is of a very good quality it is also very expensive considering the portion sizes and the choices for anyone with a gluten and dairy intollerence are extremely poor. In addition the staff give the impression that they couldn't care less. It has certainly gone down hill since we last visited.

Been visiting this garden centre for years but I have to say, for refreshments I’ll be heading for somewhere else now. Today’s service was extremely slow, more so than usual! We waited 45 minutes for two sandwiches and a child. Quality has dramatically gone downhill, which is such a shame. Fabulous garden centre but I’ll be going elsewhere for lunch now...

Good menu, simple food Tasty meal of jacket with prawn and crayfish Good size jacket potato Medium price Nice pot of tea

We have visited stooks for the past 6 years since we moved to broadbridge heath.The food quality appears to be getting worse and it is becoming more expensive.

We visited Stooks this morning as part of our weekly pilgrimage for their fantastic cheese scones and we were not disappointed. Superb, as always.

Arrived to find the queue for stooks out of the door ... morning at 10am!!

Youbmust be doing something very wrong to serve up such a poor bacon sandwich on a Sunday morning. We will be voting with our feet next time and going to Billys.

The usual average service from willing but too tew few staff coupled with the usual high food prices, silly 'tv chef' presentation and retail marketing/sales hyperbole. This place was once a real plant nursery - until Blue Diamond took it over. Now it has become largely just another large suburban garden centre with an over-large range of irrelevant retail merchandise and costly knick-knacks. Incredibly there appears to be no online stock list so that you can't check in advance of an otherwise-wasteful visit to see what is actually available.

Visited, last week, with friends, for coffee and cake. We joined an enormous queue at 10.45 and service took 25 minutes. The cakes were ok, but a bit expensive.

About three years ago the cafe Stooks at New bridge was serving excellent food and salads. Now these are really not very nice sorry to say this as the staff and service is superb. You have a chef/cook who essentially cannot cook.

Ok, I’ve read the moans about the long queues. I’ve heard all about how long it takes to get served. I’ve read the moan about not being able to take dogs into the restaurant- please Stooks don’t ever allow that!!

We visited Stooks on a drizzly Friday lunchtime. No issue at all with our drinks and cakes - indeed, my Lemon Drizzle Scone was delicious but there a couple of missed opportunities: 1) the queue to place orders is painfully slow - this is because the drinks orders are made up whilst you wait - just take the orders, send the customers to sit down and bring everything to the tables for them; it’ll speed the queue up and get everyone away from the counter. 2) allow customers to bring dogs into the indoor seating area - contrary to popular belief it’s not illegal and will bring in more customers- we had to sit outside in the rain. Unfortunately the umbrellas don’t offer much protection.

Staff helpful,food very fresh and good choices their cakes are amazing good to have a vegan option for family and range of salads

Visited here for lunch with my mum, food is amazing, fantastic service and reasonably priced. Couldn't recommend highly enough

I hadn't been there for about a year for lunch so decided to give it another chance last Friday. I wish I hadn't bothered. I decided to have one of their salads but when I took a look at them, they looked worn out and unappetising. I decided to have one of my usual favourites there, a sandwich of crayfish and prawn on their "home made" focaccia bread. The bread was good but there were hardly any prawns inside the sandwich and not a sign of crayfish. My complaint on previous visits was the waiting time at the food counter but this time there was no wait but the food was mediocre. At least if they refreshed the salads it would be inviting to have them as if they are fresh, they can be good. But at 2 in the afternoon, they have seen better times. The place has a good atmosphere and the staff are friendly and welcoming. A shame. I shall not be rushing back there anytime soon.

Luckily, we went for Lunch with family who had been their before, otherwise, we would not have known weather to get a table first, or mingle with the crowd of quewing people who were apparently trying to get food/drink/menu who know's! The ordering system seem's chaotic and very slow, however, the staff are helpful and doing their best. Our food delivered to our table was very tasty, 2x Jacket potatoes, 1x Frittata, 1x Fishcake, all served with Salad, and 4x Soft Drinks, (Total £47.90) but you have to get your own cutlery, and menu....strange set up! Stooks Restaurant is located in Newbridge Garden Centre, which is wonderful, with plenty of parking, and well worth a visit.

The food is great here but the Q is horrendous to order & usually only one till open. They should do table service.

We have been here a number of times and it's always the same as you have to wait in a queue for ages to order just a coffee or tea let alone food. They have 2 tills but only 1 seems to be working. Anyhow after waiting over 10 minutes and I was 4th in the queue I eventually ordered 1 tea, 1 coffee and 2 jacket potatoes 1 with melted cheese the other with Coronation Chicken. Unbelievable they charge an extra 30p for cream in coffee but no extra charge for milk in your tea. This soon arrive at our table and the jackets were each served with a salad of mixed leaves, half a cherry tomato and half of a cucunber slice which I thought was a bit mean. It doesn't even come with a salad dressing. The jacket with cheese had a very small amount of cheese in it and the one with Coronation Chicken tasted most peculiar. All in all not a very enjoyable lunch and to be charged just 75p short of £20 for it was a disappointment which is a shame as the garden centre is probably one of the best in Southern England.

We used to go Stooks quite regularly for the Sunday roasts. The food was always good, but the set-up is less than ideal - you have to queue at the counter to order, which takes ages as you're always stuck behind people giving long, time-consuming orders. Then you find a table and wait for the food to arrive, which can also be a long wait (we waited 40 minutes last time, while people who had ordered after us were served first). Maybe they don't employ enough staff, or maybe it's just bad organisation.

We’ve been visiting Stooks cafe in the Newbridge Garden Centre regularly for the last eighteen months or so (once every 7/10 days). We now consider it one of the best cafes we visit.

lots of parking and seating in and out, very child friendly, very relaxing, no-one tries to huarry you out and lovely garden centre to wander round afterwards

Nicely presented breakfast but wasn't cooked that well. A bit more care could have gone into it. The bacon and sausages were very dry. The seating area is nice and spacious and has a nice country look. Good coffee.

This was our second visit the first one was awful but we thought a second chance as the first may have been an off day but No this one was even worse .It took 40 minutes queuing to get two coffees and cake there were only 7 in the queue all the people in front of me only had cake or scones hot chocolate nothing complicated.The staff are in need of training in customer service there was no urgency in serving they just plodded away,one person serving while one stands and waits for the order to get coffee or a piece of cake is very inefficient.Once the order has been taken and paid for they should straight on to the next customer without one just standing waiting for the other member to get the coffee.No service with a smile but to be honest I should think they get so many disgruntled customers they must be fed up.The tables were piled high with crockery no one was clearing them and wiping down .

A good half hour - probably more and then had to go in search of someone to serve our meal. The salmon was then very greasy and not really worth the wait. Deserts were good. Somehow don't think this place works when very busy.

My mum chose the lamb casserole, I had j p with chilli, sister had j p with tuna, it Wes all very nice .and hot drinks , went at 1 30 pm .lovely staff. Why do people complain I do not know xxxxx

So disappointing. Second time of having lunch here with such poor service we won’t eat here again. We knew there would be a wait as it was busy but as people were being served who had sat down after us my husband asked where our food was. They didn’t know what had happened to our order. They brought us the jacket potatoes we had asked for which had the smallest fillings and salad-lettuce that was limp and dry, a couple of pieces of tomato and same of cucumber. The drinks we had ordered to have with our lunch were long finished. No apology was offered but then it wouldn’t have made any difference to how we felt. There are so many good places to eat in Horsham we won’t bother going to Stooks again.

I keep telling myself not to stop off and have a coffee in this place as the service is always so slow. Recently they really excelled themselves as we ordered an Earl Grey Tea and a Mint tea. We were given hot milk with the Earl Grey and had to change it or cold and the Mint tea was just like hot water and when we looked there were only two mint leaves in the pot. The young staff member said 'I don't drink tea so how am I supposed to know how much mint to put in!!' And they charged over £2.50 for this. Toast came in a wicket basket - yet no plate, knife and nor butter. When the butter did arrive it was solid. Staff behind the counter were more interested in carrying out conversations with each other rather than serve customers.

Very popular lunchtime with full menu Jacket potatoes are good quality Also popular for tea and coffee

Stooks is great for breakfast whether you like bacon sandwiches or something different. Staff are always friendly. The only downside is that you have to queue for service which is not fast.

Popped in with some friends and the kids for lunch. It was very busy with a huge queue. That was fine, the cake was excellent as we're the sandwiches but we did feel it may be a little over priced. Never the less the food quality was excellent.

Very helpful staff and lovely tea for me

Coffee was decent. The rest: no. Ordered a frittata and got a flan, which my allergy prevents me eating. Do Stooks know the difference between a frittata and a flan? Ordered a burger with a green salad, the over cooked strangely-flavoured burger, turned up in a sweet focaccia instead of a bun and the green salad became a sweet concoction of orange and cabbage? We left most of it and won’t be back until they address their kitchen practises. £25 wasted.

Visited here for coffee and cake it can get busy the cakes are lovely all hand made and have to be tried service is good

Went to stocks yesterday and do on quite a few occasions but my friend and I both have a hot chicolate but they put the marshmallows in to it before the cream I always thought they were supposed to be scattered on the cream but next time I go I will tell them

It was busy and we did have to queue but counter staff were going as fast as they could. However many tables had used plates etc on that should have been cleared much quicker. it all looked messy.

Food ok but service is a disaster since it first opened it has not improved, gave it the benefit of the doubt when first opened some times you can wait up to 15/20 minutes to get served

Visited today for mums 93rd birthday. Booked a table asking for a view - thinking we might be by a window. No in middle of cafe by wall looking across the cafe.

You have to queue for ages to order food and then wait forever for it to arrive. Poorly organised. Food may be OK I will let you know if it ever arrives.

We booked a table, although it wasn't so busy, it was noisy. The mains and salad were excellent. Service was a little slow and having to queue to order desert tedious and affected the overall feel of the meal, making it feel like two meals. I must say though the cakes were as good as the mains if not better. Gluten free options a plenty. We will go again and readily recommend