Topiary Coffee Shop in Carlisle

This is the second time i had poor food from this cafe it seems to be hit and miss. My first experience a cold fish goujon sandwich, my second a jacket potato with 2 ounce of cheese the description was 3 cheeses. Very poor and at over £8 it felt like I'd been totally ripped off. I wint be eating here again

First things first, they surved lurpak spreadable (not vegan) with a vegan breakfast, the menu specified it would be served with flora spread (is vegan). The same lurpak speadable was served with my husband's breakfast which on the menu specified that it was served with dairy butter, lurpak spreadable is also not butter. The breakfast was clearly cooked straight from frozen, so compliments to the chef, you can defrost things, yay! It consited of about 3 boiled/tinned mushrooms, the tiniest portion of baked beans, 6 hash brown bites (what are they even doing on an English breakfast?) and a single vegetarian sausage wich tasted exactly like those disgusting mashed potato and vegetable ones from IKEA. You could see the line across the toast where it no longer fitted in the toaster, so it was only half toasted. Even worse than the breakfasts they used to serve up at my Uni canteen back in 2018, but those only cost £1.50 and you got more than twice as much food! Just avoid the place, the service is bad too staff clearly couldn't care less. It was £5.95 for the vegan breakfast and £2.95 for a glass of orange juice. My husband got the more expensive £10.95 breakfast and his was prepared to the same low standard, one slice of fatty bacon, one burnt sausage, tiny amount of beans and mushrooms, the same weird hash brown bites, a single overcooked fried egg, one slice of half cooked toast and some black pudding that looked like it had been microwaved, absolutely disgusting. Clearly catering for customers with non functioning taste buds and ridiculously overpriced.

Popped into the Garden Centre but Jeez their café was bad. I don't know what i was expecting, certainly not much but it was early and i needed breakfast. Never again. Nice plants though.

We went for drink and a bite and had an excellent visit. There is a wide selection of enticing food, and the sitting area is really attractive and comfortable. We shared a great scone with our teas, all for a reasonable price.

This restaurant is far too expensive and fancy food for a Garden Centre. Even during lockdown for takeaway coffee only in a paper cup it was £3.25!!

Very disappointed! Haven’t been to this garden centre cafe since before the first lockdown. Waste of money!! The fruit scone had 1 piece of fruit. The latte was just milk, couldn’t taste any coffee. Will not be returning but going back to my usual coffee places. Not recommended.

Stopped her for lunch, wish we'd stayed on the M6 Pros - plenty staff around, extensive menu, reasonable prices cons - I had meat and potato pasty with chips, my wife had soup with ham sandwich. the pasty tasted so bland I was glad there was HP sauce on the table to give it some taste. The chips looked as if they had ben re-heated 3-4 times over, most were just black shapes. While the soup was ok, not good, just ok, but the ham on the sandwich was the first cut from the end of the joint, with most of it being fat. On the whole, the meal was disgusting. We never complained as were just wanted to leave as soon as possible

This is a small coffee shop inside the garden centre serving cake and coffee. its ok for a stop off if you are in need of a drink.

Excellent food. Beautifully presented. Will be eating here again. We had the turkey lunch and I would have been happy to receive this meal in a high quality restaurant. They must have a quality chef who takes pride in their work. Well done.

love the cafe here, they have an amazing range of food and cater for everyone, the cafe is nicely laid out and has a lovely seating and play area outside for when the weather is nice, this cafe also has some late opening nights so you can enjoy a really well priced dinner

Stop at Houghton Hall for lunch. This is a big shopping place for garden materials, fruits, stationaries, greeting cards, art pieces, etc. Inside this gigantic place is Topiary restaurant. One need to order the food from the counter and pay for them. The food was then served on the table. The food quality is above average. The restaurant was spacious and the food arrived, still war. Not a bad place for a quick stop for lunch.

This used to be a great place for having a breakfast, snack or just a tea or coffee, but not any more. We regularly stopped off here if passing & often if on a day out to the Lakes. This Sunday we stopped off for an early lunch, it was late morning & the breakfast menu was still on, so we ordered 2 Breakfast Stacks, which was to include a sausage, fried egg, black pudding, rasher of bacon, a flat mushroom, tomato, all on a buttered muffin, plus 2 pots of tea. The "stacks" arrived, after we'd gone through the stupid process of reserving our table! Not exactly "stacks" but it was OK, except my husband had just 2 button mushrooms & I had none!! The tea pots had 2 teabags each but they were only half full of water....why not filled up?! Also whilst mine was drinkable, my husband said his was cold. On a visit prior to this, we'd stopped for a snack & ordered 2 toasted teacakes. They arrived but the wrapped butters had been placed next to the hot teacakes & arrived as a swimming mess on the plates! We took them back to the counter & asked for new plates & butters!! Also my husbands cup on this occasion, still had lipstick on it from the previous use. Disgusting! This place has really gone downhill. It was excellent before they started messing about with "reserving" tables & trying to compete with the other faceless garden centres. Changes are made, prices go up & service takes a dive!

Situated in a large garden centre not far off the M6, and busy at lunchtime. Signs a bit confusing in that you are directed to the self-service queue, but when give order are asked for your table number, despite not been given the opportunity to get one! Sandwiches were good, with real, fresh thick ham. The Cumbrian board had a roll, blue cheese, black pudding, pickles, ham, chutney, and two small pork pies. Would have done two. Not inexpensive, and we waited 15 minutes for it to arrive, though they were busy.

Normally l would not do a review so soon after a previous, favourable one. However things have gone down hill. The prices are up especially the fairly ordinary soups and the quality down. In fairness my wife had a good cheese scone, my fruit one though was simply awful. Dry as dust. This is not a display issue it is an ingredients issue which l have experienced elsewhere in this chain. The fruit scones are made from a brought in mix and then baked after adding water. The result is amazing. Not in a good way.

We came here for lunch whilst visiting the garden centre. It was extremely busy but we managed to find a table. The queue for ordering food was large and then you have to pay at a separate station. Unfortunately this meant we ordered our food and then had to queue again to pay. This resulted in our food arriving to our table just before we did! If we had been any longer in the paying queue then our food would have been going cold at the table. The food was ok but not any thing special. The ordering and paying system needs addressing during busy times.

We were in to visit the garden centre which is very large and has a wide range of products and plants for sale together with fruit and veg(Julians) plus wines meat and bakery. There is also a separate coffee shop for those who do not want a meal. We had soup, courgette and bacon and scones. Everything is made fresh and of good quality. We found the staff in all the areas we looked at very helpful to my wife who has sight problems.

Visit this place regularly on trips South. Nice for a coffee and maybe a scone. Main meals and lots more is available as a matter of course. Well worth a visit.

Stopped here twice now whilst at Houghton Hall, amazing range of light lunches and afternoon tea treats. Staff are all wonderfully friendly and can’t do enough. Coffee and lunch was delicious. Would 100% recommend and will definitely be back!

Amazing variety of gluten free options which I really appreciated, I had a delicious gluten free sandwich with gammon and mustard - great quality meat! The staff were lovely and happy to help, service was also very quick and we didn’t have to wait long for our yummy food. Will be coming back again :)

festive afternoon tea very disappointing.finger sandwiches tiny and scone very small. stodgey mince pie had very thick pastry. not worth the calories.would give no stars if i could.

Came for lunch on a Saturday. Yes it was busy. Yes we had to wait for food-but only 10 mins. Tuna sandwich was very good & the chips were delicious. The coffee is superb.

It was a mistake to bring the wife in she wanted loads of stuff. The food was average and not the cheapest I have had. The cafe area is huge so guess they get a lot of trade. The scone was average. Why oh Why is it always cheese scones in this area.

Decided to give this place another go oh dear. One large latte, one large cappuccino and two tiny tray bake £11.10 coffee of poor standard. Should have expected a large bill as very few products are priced on any of the counters.

£40 for 4 drinks and 3 sandwiches and a tiny quiche platter. The quiche was tasteless rubber served with a tiny side salad and a bitter coleslaw made with mainly cabbage with far too much mayo. Pork sandwich with BBQ sauce was utterly tasteless accompanied by the same side salad. Coffee what coffee! Luke warm coloured milk. Seriously disappointed.

Our visit on a dull Wednesday revealed that most available tables were full of people waiting for food to be brought to them. We were told at 1.30pm that there was a three quarters of an hour wait for hot food, even if you only wanted soup! We were served a cake from the display by a young lady with deficient knowledge of food hygiene and no interest in learning. The previous Bain Marie service was successful in serving good food quickly and hot. Trying to ape a tea shop with waitress service is a total failure in a garden centre with coach loads arriving and a large number of customers. Never mind; with service like this, there will soon be so few customers that perhaps the cafe will be able to cope with this much reduced number! A pity, because what was available before the makeover was so satisfactory that we ate there regularly.

As I said we have been going here for years with no complaints what so ever, but, Oh dear, after the refurbishment...

Popped in Friday after revamp in both cafes, dark and dingy in main restaurant, in smaller one by farm shop prices gone up tray bakes gone left with tarts and no tray bakes. No loyalty card told been replaced by a revamped club card shame with Dobbies round a couple of roundabouts and another cafe down the A7 why come here.

I always stop at the farm shop here, if in the area, to buy meats to stock the freezer. This is the first - and LAST - time I will use the coffee shop. The service was at a snails pace. I ordered a ham and tomato baguette. On first glance it looked really good - but that is were it ended. The baguette seemed to be one of those "part baked" ones which is fine if the baking is finished. This wasn't. The bread was soft and tasteless with no hint of baked crispiness. The ham looked plentiful but when opened it was thick bits of ham on the ends with next to nothing in the middle and far too much tasteless spread for my liking. At £6.50 I felt like I had just had an encounter with Dick Turpin. I will definitely shop in the Farm Shop again but will be giving the café a very wide berth.

We came here before Christmas to look around the Christmas displays. We decided to get lunch in the café. It was quite busy and there was a bit of a wait, both to order and for our food to arrive. The food was ok, nothing out of the ordinary. It filled a gap.

Speed of service was appalling. Sandwich ordered for 3 people, first arrived after 35 minutes, but then we had to wait for another 10 minutes for the other 2 sandwiches to arrive.

My wife and I visted Houghton Grange garden centre on the way to Newton Stewart and called in to the cafe while we were there.We ordered 'eggs on toast', which was pricey at £3.60p.My wife had poached eggs while I had scrambled. When it arrived at the table the waitress slammed the meals on the table the wrong way around and before my wife could explain the meals were served the wrong way the waitress stormed offf in sort of huge rage. My scrambled eggs were not mixed and resembled mashed boiled eggs and ihad the texture of rubber bands.My wifes poached eggs were over cooked as well.Because of the atmosphere created by the staff in the cafe we just upped and left and will not return. The garden centre itself is lovely and is well set out but the cafe is a nightmare. Very disappointed

Just visited very surley staff once again customer service none existent! !! Such a shame because it could offer so much more

Usually come here for coffee and scones/cake. Don't often have lunch, but Soup is delicious, albeit a bit peppery. Coffee is 'illy', which is fantastic, and the cakes, especially sponge & cupcakes moreish.

We've used this coffee shop any time we're visiting family in England. To start with, the food was excellent, tasty and consistent. Then the "bean counters" came on the scene and frankly spoiled a great little business. Our latest and last visit, was the last straw. The food was awful and was left uneaten. Get a grip, sort yourselves out!!

My wife and I were given vouchers at Christmas for two 'Afternoon Teas' and we decided to use them last Saturday, but before we ordered the teas we noticed a photograph which showed us what we would get and we decided just to have one afternoon tea between us and keep the second voucher for another day and boy were we pleased that we did this because we would never have eaten two. The tea comprised of various types of sandwiches, scone with cream & jam and two cakes. Can't wait to go back and use the second voucher.

My mother and I thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality given to us for our pre-Christmas Meal. The starter of salmon, prawns and salad was beautiful and the main course of Turkey was excellent. A lovely touch also on the table were the Christmas Crackers and Mince Pies followed by coffee. the whole ambience and top class service given by the staff was superb. Highly recommended! We'll be back in 2016!

I meet my friend regularly for a coffee and a catch up,normally we have very good service.Today we were met with very surly staff,first impression was the member of staff concerned was displeased,she was checking out the other counter to see why we didn't get our coffee there,the coffee machine was being fixed.

Visited here on Bank Holiday Monday Had a delicious huge cheese scone and large filter coffee as the sun was shining sat outside this is a very good stopping off place on M6 easy to get on and off the motorway

Visit the shop regularly for craft and gifts. No problem at all with this aspect of my visits.

Stopped for lunch on way from Scotland to Washington.

I often pop in here to meet family and usually end up with coffee and one of their beautiful homemade cakes,they are so tempting I find it difficult to resist. The individual cheesecakes are a must! The restaurant is large and spacious although sometimes difficult to find a table as it's always busy.They always seem to have plenty of staff so if there are queues you don't wait too long.

I regularly stop at the garden centre and enjoy shopping there. This time, a Saturday, we decided to try lunch. It was so disappointng. The faciities are very nice but the food and service just did not live up to our expectations.

This was my second trip to Houghton Hall which I was greatly looking forward to. The garden centre itself and the shop was up to. It's usual high standards. I was, however, very disappointed in our lunch. We had decided to have Cumbrian sausages, these were ok, not the best, for those you have to go to Grange over Sands, but they wee not very warm, also the roast potatoes were obviously Aunt Bessie's' or something similar and were also cold.

WOW what a find. My husband and I Were visiting my elderly mother and family for Christmas (we live in Somerset, my family in Morecambe and Lancaster). We were looking for something to do the day before Christmas Eve and I found this on the Internet. So we thought we'd pay a short visit. We ended up spending 4 hours. The coffee shop was very nice and the home made scones straight out of the oven who the oven when we arrived about 10 am. We then browsed round the wonderful gift section and garden centre itself and even managed to get a few last minute stocking fillers. Then we had the roast beef for lunch. The beef was delicious as we're the roast potatoes, however the veg were not cooked through properly - I like mine crunchy but these were barely cooked. However having said that everything else was delicious and I will ALWAYS use now on trips from Lancashire to Scotland.

My wife & I regularly travel on the M74 & have tried most of the Service Areas in the Carlisle area. We spotted a large Garden Centre, just off the motorway, several years ago & finally visited it last week.