The Garden Cafe in East Dorset

Lovely garden centre to browse around outisde, with plenty of flower baskets and interesting statues to look at. Very good layout and very spacious outside. Staff who work in plant area outside are friendly. Cafe lovely and large and serves very good quality coffee and excellent value for the size as well. Had the coffee and walnut cake on one visit, which was very good value and very well made. The vast majority of the cafe staff are always very friendly on every visit. The shop is interesting to look around, with a variety of items very suited to be given as gifts, as well as for personal use. Visited this Saturday afternoon just gone, and found the two young men working on the till to be very friendly, welcoming and polite. On previous Saturday afternoon visits, other young staff members were not friendly or welcoming in the slightest, so this visit was a huge improvement in terms of that. One improvement, would be that a bit of quiet background music could be played in both the shop and cafe, to add to the ambience.

Went 18 months ago for a cream tea NO gluten free Scones, found a cake in a packet WOW ! Yesterday went for a light lunch soup we thought advertised with scone guess what No GF Scones or bread or roll took five minutes to work out if the soup was gluten free it was but who wants soup on its own. Staff helpful they blame head office complaints all the time they said. Waste of time if you are COELIAC

Good coffee, terrible food. Had bread pudding. Took first bit back as could not cut it. Asked to swap for another piece and was told its because it had been sat there all day. Second piece was as bad. Lemon merangie was powdery and tasteless. Tiffin very hard.

The old John Brown's cafe was sunny, classy, and a pleasant place for a coffee or meal. The new Hilliers cafe is like going into a dark warehouse. Industrial ceiling, lighting and floor. Not worth going now. Staff are still friendly and the quality of the food is good (though pricey). But with that ambience it's no longer worth visiting.

What an amazing afternoon tea we had, everything was absolutely perfect!! Food, service such attentive staff highly recommended.....we will be back !! A surprise for my elderly mother, she thoroughly enjoyed her treat !!

Good food good prices. Good plants but can you be rather different by most garden centres and sell some different perennials so people come for that reason. As you are big growers. Sit Harold Hilliers Arboretuem which I have been going since before Hants county council took it over. Please grow and sell some unusual plants than the normal boring garden centres

This restaurant is now operated by Hilliers Garden Centre but on Trip Advisor it is listed under the previous owner John Browns,so is difficult to find on TA The name of the food outlet is the Garden Cafe. The facility is clean/modern and the staff hard working but the food is expensive compared with other local similar establishments. Our meal today was simple: 2 x Ham Egg & Chips + 2 Teas + 1 Scone and 1 Cake. Total cost: £27.46. The chips I believe were reformed frozen potato with poor taste, one egg was under-cooked ,the tea was in a small pot for two people and cooled rapidly with no additional hot water provided. There did not appear to be any person in charge with whom we could converse. All in all an expensive and disappointing lunch.

Not good at all, poor food, poor choices gone down hill since it was taken over by Hillers..... would not recommend

Well we used to go every week to the old garden centre and its restaurant but now the prices have risen dramatically since the take over,for instance I loved the sausage sandwich which at £4 was not cheap but not too bad,now that has gone up to a whopping £6 a 50% rise and other menu items have risen around the same. We shall not be returning to this place at those prices

Went in the cafe today and absolutely gobsmacked by the staff and food! It felt like we were an invonvenience to the staff, who were in an empty cafe and under no pressure. Manners cost nothing! I decided to go for the traditional breakfast....big mistake! £7.50 and as you can see by the photo, it was pretty damn awful. A thimble of beans, a cold tomato, dry bacon, 2 small sausages and the egg was rubbery. Wont be going back!

Extremely slow, very limited choice in the afternoons. Staff make as much noise as possible banging and clattering crockery. Noisy trolleys are wheeled by staff beside the cafe area. One to avoid..

Well not very good ...Three lunches were ordered ...Curry on specials board contained no meat but did not say vegetarian, meat pie contained gristle and undercooked meat with overcooked vegetables and the fish and chips was adequate but chips were soggy. Staff did not know about lunch deal for over 60s and I had to ask for the dessert and free tea. Disappointed with what used to be a venue for tasty lunches

My wife and I took my 88 year old mother who lives in Verwood to John Browns for lunch today . We arrived around 12;45pm and were surprised not to see the nice range of sunday roasts or pre made salads/ploughmans which we used to be served at the counter in the past. So we duly ordered from their menu , fish and chips, macaroni cheese and I had salmon fishcake with avocado and salad. We put our trays back,collected a couple of cup of tea and a can of Coke and my wife paid and we were given a number to put on table. There was a sign up saying there would be a 15-20 minute wait for food so we found a table and drank our drinks . 35 minutes after we placed our order the food arrived, fishcake did not contain much salmon , the macaroni cheese lacked taste and the only good meal was the fish and chips which my mum had chosen. There appeared to be plenty of front of house staff so we were surprised that the food took so long to arrive especially as the cafe was not very full and both my wife and myself were hungry on our way home to Hampshire a few hours later. I do not know if this was a restricted summer menu but we will not be coming back to eat at John Browns unless the sunday roasts return and are served up at the counter . Very dissapointed. Steve & Karen

Very friendly staff, food was good value for money. Restaurant was clean and an outside area which was lovely as the weather was great. The garden centre isn’t to big which was lovely to walk through.

When is free WiFi returning to cafe and you used to supply free papers both missed but 5% off and 10% on a Tuesday for over 60s is a good idea

Visited yesterday for afternoon tea with the Easter bunny. It was lovely, the children had a brilliant time and the food, service and drinks were faultless. Also well done to the Easter bunny and the Mad Hatter!

The restaurant was busy when we arrived, but if we'd known how long the wait for food would be, we wouldn't have stayed. We ordered a child's hot lunch and two jacket potatoes and had to wait 40 minutes for the order to arrive. When it finally came, at 2.10pm, my jacket potato was only lukewarm and not properly cooked, being still quite hard inside. If I hadn't been so hungry I'd have sent it back, but couldn't face a further lengthy wait for a replacement.

Visited for breakfast. Signs were confusing, not for us but by the look of it everyone else! Breakfast choices were different and interesting so why was everything on the border of being cold. Laziness I'm afraid. Nothing was cheap but could have been really good

We arrived about 12-00pm there was a few people but the wait was terrible one lady collapsed waiting, there was only one lady serving and doing everything. They need to get more staff or us the staff that are there Soup and sandwich are lovely

Food not bad, nothing amazing. Sandwich & coffee 10 pounds +. Environment a bit too like a canteen. OK if you are local to this café to meet up for coffee, lunch etc. Not sure if I would go again.

I take my disabled Mum here fairly regularly for lunch or afternoon tea. Sadly the most recent visit was disappointing. The staff are not to blame, but another apparent change in restaurant manager has slowed the whole process down badly, and the resulting stress placed on the staff means that mistakes are being made. Go back to the previous system and we will return.

Small portions of cottage pie but the vegetables were ok. However I am still hungry and the wait time for the food to come was not acceptable either, over 20 minutes in a near empty restaurant at midday. Cutlery was not clean. Manager was apologetic and helpful when my husband complained.

We came in for my husbands birthday lunch and he had a roast beef meal. Unfortunately the cabbage was really shabby, the parsnips and the small chunks of potatoe were crisped up to within an inch of life and a very small amount of carrots that were not very appealing. The gravy had congealed so the lady pointed this out as she stirred it up and flopped it on the plate. The portion on the plate would not have filled a child’s tummy never mind an adults. My husband told the till staff that he wasn’t happy with the price or the portion and they agreed so charged for a childs meal but at £6.00 this was still too much money for the size portion. Myself and my sister in law had cottage pie without veg as the veg looked so bad. The price of the cottage pie was £8.45 each and for tasteless stodge I felt that it was taking the mick to be honest. For 3 meals and 4 drinks the bill was £33.50. I have just realised that we were not charged for the fish and chips that my daughter didn’t really want, but had to have as she was told they didn’t have any prawn for a sandwich, then they didn’t have coronation chicken for a sandwich and then they didn’t have fish fingers for a sandwich hence she had fish and chips. The young lad on the till doesn’t even work in the cafe he was just helping them out. Come on Wyevale sort yourselves out please and look at the portion sizes.

Coffee good, location ok but food is very poor ordered jacket potato and salad the salad was replaced twice but still very wilted and also a bacon sandwich and the bacon was hard and dry must have been cooked about five hours before such a shame

I like this garden centre, it is nearby and dog friendly and the staff here are friendly and helpful but the food just isn't good. Today I had soup, which was just OK, but served with a ready buttered roll that was so stale it was rock hard.

fantastic sandwiches made to order. delicious soft bread and great fillings. festive menu orders are accompanied by song, raising everyone’s spirits. only marked down because of the price of the sandwiches.

Staff friendly & plenty of fare on offer . Excellent coffees & nice cake. Plenty of space and seating inside and out.

Good selection of sandwiches, rolls and hot food. Good fillings and good size. Nice internally and small outside area which is actually inside the garden centre !

Took a friend here for a lunch time treat. I chose a hot meal, and she went for prawn sandwiches, Honestly the sandwiches were lovely and came with a very nice. I had spaghetti bologna, which was fine, but not more than that.

Solía visitar semanal con mi familia y ahora sólo como último recurso, los precios han subido, la calidad y la cantidad ha bajado. En mi última visita con la familia (5) nuestras comidas salió por separado durante un período de 30 minutos a pesar de estar en 1 orden. La mía era la última salida me preguntaron que será devuelto como todo el mundo había terminado, pero se negaron, así que después de más de 5 - 10 minutos de espera tenía en caja para llevar.

Mi esposa y yo hemos visitado este restaurante varias veces antes de haber encontrado el personal amable y los precios bastante en línea con establecimientos similares en la zona de Dorset. En esta ocasión más reciente, nos decidimos por un almuerzo bastante luz en unos 12. 15. El servicio en la salida no fue particularmente activa, que no es inusual para este tipo de restaurante, bebidas calientes tome tiempo para renunciar, pero nuestro pedido comida fue tomado rápidamente. Mi esposa tenía un bocadillo tostado con guarda ensalada de hojas, que a ella le encantó y pedí la sopa del día (brócoli y queso cheddar) con un bollo de queso y la mantequilla (2). Este llegó a la mesa poco después de nuestra orden fue tomado y antes de mi esposa llegamos con nuestros cafés. La calidad de la comida era buena, aunque tengo que decir que la sopa no estaba muy caliente y la cantidad no particularmente generosas, llenar sólo aproximadamente dos tercios de un bowl de tamaño discreto. El bollo sorprendió 'cursi'. El restaurante tiene una apariencia limpia, con una buena cantidad de asientos en dos niveles y una gama de comidas y aperitivos opciones. Hay lavabos limpias adyacente.

El almuerzo se ofrece buena relación calidad-precio, el personal muy agradable, un bonito lugar para sentarse y disfrutar de un almuerzo con un ambiente encantador.

Visité este fin de semana con mi madre y mi hermana. Tuvimos una merienda para dos y un té helado para uno. Los tés eran adorables y no me puedo quejar, pero el personal dijo que era una opción de té o café de filtro...

We had a Groupon deal here for afternoon tea, what a good choice, the sandwiches were freshly made, ham and...

Visited today with friends, a few things on the menu not available so ordered Jacket potatoes - all a real disappointment, at over £6 each they were lacking flavour and quantity ! The chilli and cheese especially light in chilli( which had no flavour) and next to no cheese ! For £25 for a snack lunch things need to improve a lot ! Great staff - poor lunch

Great morning coffee and cake . Staff friendly had helpful. It was a Saturday they were busy and got through the que quickly. Good range of food.

Have been here a few times and not sure it is as good as it used to be. It seems to have gone down a bit although the staff are still very friendly and helpful

nice food ,great service,very helpful staff and pleasent surroundings,both shopping and restaurant great experiance,staff helped me find my items i needed

Nice pleasent garden centre much to choose from. The cafe offers good food, great cheese scones and good coffee, all the staff are most helpful and friendly.

My friend and I visited here every other week for a sandwich lunch which always looked fresh and was served with a small salad. Over the last couple of months the sandwiches have gradually declined in quality but not in price. Now it's just some thick bread with some OK looking filling all done up in a bit of plastic. We ended up with a sausage roll between us as there was only one left. This was the worst sausage roll I have had in a long time. We waited a long time for the ordered coffees only to see people behind us served first then we were asked what we had ordered! Such a shame that everything has gone downhill - we won't be going back!

We live 500yds from this Garden Centre and are regular customers of this garden cafe, I can honestly say, that since new management and staff have been put in place since early August 2016, the food has significantly improved, Most of whats on the menu is cooked to order and served piping hot. the staff are friendly, very cheery and very helpful. There is a more upbeat atmosphere both in the restaurant and garden centre. For any previous customers that have visited this cafe in the past 4 months, please try again, and you will find a more positive dining experience. Its almost back to it's best. Just needs the voucher promotions ie 2 main meals for ? Great Food, Great People, and a great place to visit.

food good, with choices available, served hot but with slightly odd process, liked the coffee top up

We used to come here a lot for breakfast, but no more!! On our last 3 visits it has got progressively worse and the coffee making abilities, were a complete joke!! 15mins to make 2 coffees, plus this poor excuse for a breakfast!!! We won't be back!!!

I have to say this is one of the worst "restaurants" I have been to. The staff have absolutely no customer service skills what so ever and can't even muster up a smile. That's what happens when you employ surly teenagers. I ordered a coffee with my lunch and was just stood there wondering if they would bring it over or if I should wait. I asked Imogen and said said "ooh it's upto you" a simple take a seat and I'll bring it over would have been sufficient. As she rang up the amount on the till she said "that should be £11.80" not good when the staff arnt sure how much your meal is! The coffee was bitter and covered in limescale. I waited for a while for my "panini" and when it came it was presented with undressed wilted salad and a pathetic dollop of shop bought coleslaw. Nobody came and checked everything was OK. We left a note on the receipt telling Imogen to cheer up! Safe to say we shall never be coming back and will be advising others to do the same!

Garden centre cafes have always been a popular choice when travelling about. We wont be calling here again. It used to be really nice with lovely food. Not any more. Staff were disinterested. Food was barely warn and very tired looking. Shame. Hope it was just an off day but dont think so. Shame.

The menu is terrible here now. Used to be a really good place to eat a good lunch. Now it is a very poor place to eat a very poor lunch. Staff all look like they are fed up. They used to be cheerful and friendly but not anymore. Hardly anyone in there - used to have to queue to the door - now there is no queue s there is no one eating there! What a shame.

I visited John Browns today with some friends. We went into the cafe for lunch. My friends son had the chicken chirizo pasta. It was stodgy and tasteless so he didnt eat it. My friend and I had sandwiches which were dry and the crisps were stale. The choice of food was very sparse, not what it used to be. There used to be a choice of paninis and toasties and main meals but hardly any choice now. I used to visit a lot but I won't be going back. Prices very high and definitely not worth the money. The atmosphere wasn't the same either because it was empty. You used to have to really hunt for a table. Such a shame a nice place is now ruined.

I have been visiting on and off for over 5 years as I only work round the corner. Never had a problem till Wyvale took over. Slowly but surely the café has declined. The prices have gone up but now when you have a toasted sandwich, no decent salad like you use to get, you use to get a small biscuit with your coffee this has now stopped, and today when I went in I asked where the newspapers were and was told they were not doing these anymore. I will not be going back here anymore, I cannot fault the staff they are always friendly and polite, but enough is enough. I think Wyvale have been very short sighted is all the cut backs.

We visit the restuarant regularly and have noticed the prices steadily rising on each visit.There are many garden centre restuarants within a few miles and they appear much cheaper than Browns Garden Cafe. The food is satisfactory but not of a quality that matches the price. The staff are very helpful and keep the place clean and attractive.

This used to be a great place to have a potter around and take the kids for lunch in the holidays. It's local to us so we used to come often. We came about six months ago it was terrible. Gave it another chance and regretted it again. Definitely not coming back to the cafe again. Overpriced, uncooked food. Stale bread sandwiches for children are definitely not okay.

Met a friend for a Coffee...it was Hot, pleasant service.. Ideal to combine a browse around the garden Centre.................

A lovely restaurant which serves a large variety of food. Took our three year old granddaughter and we all had a very pleasant time.

We dropped n for lunch (Thursday) enroute for Monkey World. Monday to Thursday they offer a main course, desert and small tea or coffee for £8 for over 60's. I had Chicken and tarragon pie, chips and vegetables, followed by apple crumble and custard followed by a pot of tea, what a bargain. It was all well cooked and a decent sized portion. My wife had the pie with sticky toffee pudding and coffee, the pudding was highly praised.

Food and drink is so way overpriced, for example £3.50 for a medium sized custard tart, bacon/sausage sarnie around £5. I would suggest that there are lots of other places around offering the same but much better VFM.

The food was unedible and made both me and my partner feel bilious We had the beef stew and dumplings mainly because the 3 other items looked worse .The staff didn't seem to know what they were doing eitherWe won't be returning

Despite having been first in the queue for lunch, we still waited 35 minutes for our fish and chips to arrive. Two enquiries achieved nothing and orders placed later were clearly being fulfilled before ours. To compound our disappointment the fish was extremely poor. One meal had hardly a fish fingers worth of fish hidden in the batter and the other was little better. Not recommended for quality or value. Very unlikely to eat here again.

We visited here New Years Eve. It wasn't busy and the restaurant was quiet. We queued for about 5 minutes and was served by a lovely lady who took our order - all our food was freshly cooked. We chose drinks and went to the till. This is where the only negative part of our visit happened. We were served by a young lady who wasn't really concentrating on us as she was looking around at a previous customer who she had served that she knew. She entered our meals wrong and forgot to ask for our club card. Eventually we sat down and only waited a few minutes for our meals which were bought to us by the lady who served us. The plates were hot and the food was delicious and there was plenty of it!! Nice coffee and overall a lovely time was had. Highly recommend the food and surroundings - we have a dog and we were able to sit with her. Wonderful garden centre and wonderful restaurant apart from the cashier :)

We had lunch here a couple of weeks ago, only wanted a snack so we both ordered toasted sandwiches. Despite there being very few customers we waited an age for the sandwiches to arrive. Mine arrived first at which point we were told that whoever had taken our order had gone on their break and consequently my wife's sanwhich had burnt and had to be redone. By the time her sandwhich arrived mine was cold.I hate to think what it would have been like if they had been busy.

Went back for lunch as meeting friends and was pleased to find a great improvement, the atmosphere was calmer and the food better. Would return in the future.

My wife and I were on holiday and we was driving around the area one morning looking for somewhere to have breakfast and shop around, we found the garden center 'Johns Woods' and thought "let’s stop here, can’t go wrong with Wyevale " Wow how wrong were we. The staff didn't have a clue what was going on, and clearly were not ready to serve anyone, we got there at 09:00 as stated on the sign was the opening hours , we selected our breakfast by a very nice chap (new starter) who wrote down our orders and said he would bring the food over, but when I got to the till to order hot drinks, the filter coffee wasn't ready, and there was no staff at the till , I looked around to see if someone could serve me when this short lady noticed I was waiting, huffed to herself, and stormed over and bluntly said " I have to do fu***ng everything around here " well I was very shocked, I said to my wife, " go take a seat let me finish up here " so she didn't have to listen to this foul mouthed woman. I paid for my breakfast and sat down. (the foul mouthed woman who served us was called Claire as it says so on my receipt)Then the young lad brought the food over, and I have never seen such a foul looking breakfast in my life, by now I was so disappointed and fed up, I just drank my coffee, had a bit of toast and left. It just didn’t look or taste very nice, even the beans looked anemic. How on earth is this place still open? Very frustrating, and while we was sat there in shock we could hear what I believe to be either a Russian or a Polish accent from a heavy set woman who was screaming orders at other people behind the counter. So unprofessional.

Our first visit since the take over of Wyvale. Massive disappointment! Sparse choice of menu. We didn't order the gammon as we would have normally as it looked like it had been sitting there for a week. We ordered the fish, chips and mushy peas. Everything luke warm to cold! Many customers around us were moaning about how awful everything was; dirty tables, grubby looking staff and awful food.I left most of my expensive 'meal deal' and chose not to bother with the pudding.My husband went for a piece of custard slice but the slices were still stuck together as had come out of the catering box. No presentation skills applied. Cheap and nasty.It's gone from tea room to transport café (but that's an insult to transport cafe's even)We won't return and I have written a complaint to Wyvale too!

Have always used this cafe regularly but since takeover by wyvern garden centres the cafe has gone sadly downhill. There would appear to be staff changes and the service and food are both poor now. There often seems to be panic in the kitchen and they run out of popular food very early. Wouldn't recommend anything except the fish and chips.If they run out of this we would not bother with anything else.

We visited them again for the first time in quite some time, to be honest we wasn not expecting much, we were pleasantly surprised,

On our way home from holiday,we were desperate for a cup of tea,so we decided to call in again to see if it had improved,wrong!! in fact it was even worse!At first i thought,all these people in the queue meant it had improved,but in fact it meant there was only 1 person serving,making drinks and taking the money!!,and he looked like a manager!,so that was it,no tea.And confirmation of my thoughts on the last visit a month ago,So defo wont be back again.

Terrible experience, when the new owner took over, tried to give them time to adjust, all the helpful and experienced staff have left, I'm not surprised. Went in my lunch break today and instead of eating only had time for a coffee. The customer in front of me and behind me were complaining how dreadful the service was. We were told not enough staff, no excuse if they had kept the previous employees wouldn't be in this position. Will not be rushing back, looking at the amount of hot food left, obviously not sold much, really disappointing and if nothing done soon will not have a café to run, read all the other dreadful experiences and do something before it is too late.

We wanted to treat our German students to a clotted cream tea.i felt embarrassed as they struggled to eat a cold,hard,dry offering !they were too polite to leave it.the tables were uncleared and dirty.it felt like a student canteen rather than a nice cafe..and I felt robbed being charged £4.50 each for a stale scone,a shared pot of jam and clotted cream with teai will never go here again !

A nice place to pop in and share a brew with a friend. Good variety of nicely presented food. Plenty of space to chill. Lots of lovely plants and fish !

Had reservations as soon as i heard it had been sold to Wyevale,wondered how long it would be before it sank to Wyevales level,.answer,not very long!!,Restaurant not a patch on its oldself,and the garden centre itself being turned into a clone of all the rest of the Wyevales ive been to, same old,same old!So we are off to pastures new,just feel for the staff,a great shame.

Came here for lunch this summer holidays with a friend and her children after I'd recommended it from previous times being really good. I wish I hadn't. It was embarrassing how poor this visit was. I don't know what's happened but it's a change for the worse. Firstly you can not justify those prices of a children's lunch box meal when the items in total come to about £1 that I could buy from local shop. The sandwiches were made from bread that was obviously left out and hard as rocks. I actually had to complain and get them replaced they were that bad. My children aren't fussy but when they won't eat something you know something's not right. I don't understand also how a salad takes 15 mins to make especially when it's not that busy and also how you can charge so much for a measly salad? The service was extremely poor. The women are very rude and unhelpful. I spent £16 here and I felt robbed. Such a shame as this is local for us and used to be a really lovely place to come and eat. No longer shall we return. By the sounds of it I'm not the only one that feels this way about the way you're running things now.

Very little choice, told I was not able to have any vegetables with my meal (Sausage & Mash) one person had a very overdone toasted sandwich - Sweets such as Trifle or fruit salad no longer available and now little variety in the way of cakes. The only improvement is one has no longer to queue at all, as I assume customers are going elsewhere as I intend to do in future.

Have visited the centre and cafe many times previously. It was usually quite busy with customers around the centre and in the cafe.What a change (since takeover) with fewer customers and now hardly any staff to be seen.The cafe service was shocking! Tables not cleaned, plates not collected and our simple order for tea cakes mislaid.This business is a shadow of it's former self. Is this what happens to Wyevale acquisitions?People are voting with their feet and not returning.

Since recently becoming a Wyevale you can't get Cheese and Tomato anything or a Ploughmans . Many other things have been taken off the menu. They wont do anything off Menu. Many Staff have left and have been encountered at independent Cafes around the area. This is the same with other Wyevale cafes in the area such as Wimborne and West Parley which they have taken over from Golden Acres. The usual story of a large conglomerate being inflexible when a small Garden Centre Cafe will care individually about its customers. I feel the standard of food has gone down and prices gone up too.

This was first visit since Wyevale took over and it will be my last . The toasted sandwiches used to be so good and beautifully presented but what we had today was what you would expect in a down market transport cafe and more expensive than before .Watch this place go down the pan !

Always used to visit this place with my family and great nan. Food always used to be good. Went there Sunday 21st June and was bitterly disappointed. Talk about gone downhill rapidly. I and our nan always order the fish and chips as its always cooked fresh and brought to the table, and it came with a side salad. Not anymore, its already cooked and sits on the serving top under a lamp in a tray with a dozen others. You no longer get a side salad and by the time we paid and got to the table the chips were just warm and the fish although warm on the outside was tepid water wet on the inside, as if it had been defrosted and not cooked through. Will be looking at another garden centre to visit in future. NOT Good.

Me and my friends have always met up for lunch over the last few years but not anymore. All sandwiches have gone up and no chips included making it a expensive lunch. What a shame since Wyvale have taken over the quality has gone down and prices gone up.

My husband and I have been eating breakfast in the restaurant regularly for at least 5 years. It was our favourite garden centre. On Saturday 16th May, we arrived and wondered why there so few people in the restaurant - we were soon to find out. We ordered our breakfast meals, as we would normally, only to find that everything had changed - for the worse. Firstly, the toasted sandwich, which used to come toasted in a sandwich toaster and accompanied with crisps, coleslaw and fresh Cos lettuce, chopped peppers, tomato and cucumber, and was exceptional value, is now a limp sandwich with inferior bread and too much filler accompanied by a dry tasting lettuce, which looked as if it had come straight out of a bag of lettuce unwashed. Secondly, my husband's meal of Welsh Rarebit with egg and bacon, came without the bacon and a huge mountain of untoasted cheese and arrived 5 minutes later than my meal. The bread was not the same quality as it had been previously when it was John Brown's and was consequently very unappetising. We spoke to one of the staff who explained that the 'brand' had changed to Wyevale, which is really no excuse for poor value. Neither of us could eat our meal and we left without even drinking our coffee - which was a shame as that had not changed. It has saddened us to know that we won't be coming back, as we have looked forward to our visits to the centre. There are other garden centres with restaurants within the local area whose staff try very much harder to produce a good standard of food and service.

Having been a regular happy punter for a good few years, I am so so diappointed with the way this place has gone downhill recently.I believe it's under new "management", who, in their wisdom have done away with the breakfast choices and now only have a limited "take it or leave it" few set menu choices.That, coupled with the fact they got our order wrong, and what came out was cold and undercooked (my white bread sausage sandwich that was served on very slim cut brown bread with part-cooked sausages was pitiful), means this place has lost at least two previously regular customers. Such a shame. Avoid.

We visited for lunch while we were looking around the garden centre for the first time in September 2014.The main part if a Spanish-style building with seating inside but there's also seating in the garden centre itself and outside by the swimming pool sales area. It's a fairly standard cafe style layout. You can collect food from the counter or it's delivered to your table if it has to be made specially.The food is average fare - I had minced beef and onion pie, chips (which they forgot until I reminded them) and peas. Nothing to write home about but good enough.The had a large collection of deserts but some of the refrigerated ones looked a bit dry and past their best.

Had arranged to meet with friends for lunch at 'The Garden Cafe' & was so disappointed. The prices were so expensive for a self-service cafe, it would have been cheaper to eat out at one of the many lovely local pubs. The food was simply awful, tasteless & barely warm. I wondered if it were me being hard to please, but I looked at other customers' finished plates & saw that most were piled high with leftover food... Surely a responsible catering manager would question as to why so much food were being returned un-eaten & then wasted... We Brits are simply far too polite when it comes to complaining :-(

A warm and exceptionally friendly welcome.It was an opportunistic stop for breakfast and we were so impressed by the quality of the food and the staff were so friendly and helpful.I would particularly like to mention the superb quality sausage sandwich!Thank you

You wouldn't expect to get a great carvery lunch at a garden centre but that's just what you get here. Hot food, well cooked, and at a reasonable price. It can get busy, so get there bang on noon as the seating arrangements aren't brilliant as it is basically a cafe. The garden centre itself has a big car park and it gets full quickly.

I visited as the minibus driver for a group of elderly clients, and so I tested an area of customer service not normally required by visitors. The Garden Cafe was first class throughout. An email the previous day was quickly routed through to Jeremy (the garden centre manager) who called me back to advise me of an appropriate parking space for my vehicle, which he backed up with an admirable level of help and attention for the duration of my visit. A follow-up call to Clare in the cafe lead me to expect a warm and friendly reception. I was not disappointed. The cafe has free wi-fi accessed by a code printed on the bottom of all till receipts. The range of hot food and sandwiches offered something for most tastes. The prices were very reasonable, the portion sizes were huge and the quality and flavour of the food were first class. I enjoyed a tender breast of Somerset chicken, covered with bacon and mushrooms, accompanied by apple sauce, roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, cauliflower cheese, peas, carrots and gravy, priced at £8.35. There were a variety of seating options, inside the cafe, outside on patio tables with umbrellas, and also half way in between in a section of seating inside the garden centre itself. I was very pleased to see that smoking was only permitted in one area of outdoor seating, enabling those who dislike cigarette smoke to enjoy the fresh air too. Staff, despite being busy, were friendly, efficient and helpful. The toilets were kept clean throughout the day. Even if you have no real interest in gardening, go for a meal and make sure you look at the Caimans and the huge fish in the aquatic centre.

We go to John Browns Garden café at least twice a week and thoroughly enjoy it every time.The food is great and always plenty of it on the plate - beautifully cooked and presented by staffwho always have a smile for you. The chef cooks fabulous meals and the roast beef is really scrummy. It's a fab menu with something for everybody and even when it's extremely busy the service is still first class.Fabulous!

Go here a lot and always good value for money, the custard tart is awesome. Avoid 12 til 2pm unless you want lunch, really busy. Enjoy.

What a little gem, popped into the cafe with my wife & a friend who had been before. Was very surprised to find this little cafe had a great menu & the service was first class bet most pub meals I have had lately. If you want good food & service stop here. Will be back soon!!! 5 out of 5

The Garden Cafe hidden in John Browns Garden Centre, Three Legged Cross. Well worth a visit The food is plentiful and wholesome at a reasonable price. Even if you wish a coffee you will not be disappointed. The staff are friendly, even when under pressure. The restaurant (cafe) is quite large, with plenty of seating and with a small number of comfortable armchairs. Clean and tidy. Excellent

I luckily only live a 5 minute walk away from this garden centre cafe and it is by far the nicest cafe I have ever been to. The afternoon tea for two at £9.90 is a fantastic deal you get 4 triangle sandwiches each a lovely big scone and selection of cakes and of course a pot of tea. I've eaten here for lunch as well here many a time and have never been disappointed. We will always continue to come back here as the food is fab and the garden centre and fish shop are fab for the kids and I.

Always have a fair range of food readily available. Includes hot and cold meals and cakes. Staff friendly and sometimes very busy on discount days!If you are passing and fancy a cake/coffee fair value for money.You can then look around the Garden Centre - plants seem rather expensive.

The Garden Cafe is a major element of John Brown's updated garden centre in Three Legged Cross - between Ringwood and Wimborne. As such cafes go this one has a canteen feel about it inside. Outside the terrace is special on a sunny day being situated alongside the swimming pool display. The food is good quality and we particularly like the cream teas with Rodda's clotted Cornish cream.