Wyevale Garden Centres Restaurant in Havering

We usually have a lovely experience here. However, today was below par. We ordered three hot chocolates (one special) and couldn’t find anywhere adequate to sit due to none of the outdoor tables having been cleared. My hot chocolate special was served by a rather rude waitress who didn’t even return my ‘thank you’ with a smile. She also added a few marshmallows with her bare hands. As I said, we usually have a lovely experience here, but today’s service was extremely lacking.

My wife and I went to Upminster garden centre 1.5.24. We were looking for a jasmine shrub not the climbing variety. We were looking around the garden centre and were unable to find what we were looking for . We then noticed three ladies that worked there so we thought we would ask them for their professional help. The first lady we asked could she help us we were told yes provided it is not a question on plants as I work in the pets corner . This lady then told us to go and ask her other colleague who was watering plants we then asked this lady and she said if we do have this plant look on the AZ of plants and pointed where to go. I said to the lady clearly you don’t know she said no. So we then asked the 3 rd lady and she said oh I don’t work outside I work inside and we are short staff today . We do not understand how a company can employ people with a lack or no knowledge or can even be bothered to get someone that could help us with our questions. Also, as a customer we don’t want to hear from staff that your company is short staff or they don’t work outside. Clients don’t need to hear this negativity this isn’t the clients fault you are short staff. Some of your staff clearly have a lack of interest in helping customers and lack of knowledge . The customer service at Upminster garden centre has a lot to be desired. The three ladies we asked all seemed to have a cavalier attitude and really didn’t want to help us. This will be the first and last time we will visit Upminster garden centre.

Had a really nice afternoon tea excellent value and really delicious. Thanks to Elle and all the staff today just so helpful

So disappointed. Nice place nice staff. Really poor food. Dry and very basic and so v expensive. No salad dressing. I can not believe they have eaten the food to see what the customers are getting.

there are 2 designated areas if you are there with a dog and the food is made in an open kitchen so you can see how clean & careful they are. Always tasty and reasonably priced , I think a lot of people go there to eat irrespective of the garden centre it is in .

I think this place is now called the Upminster Garden Centre. It's a really good garden centre with a good selection of plants - not so big as to become confusing. The plants are well kept and healthy. I like the cafe - we had jacket potato and a bagel with omelette - both were very good. This is a pleasant and relaxing place to visit and meet friends. The staff are friendly and efficient and helpful.

Enjoyed a few visits this year to the Garden Centre (five stars for the Garden Centre) where I found the plants to be of good quality and reasonably priced. On one occasion I visited the restaurant with a friend and ordered a baguette but unfortunately they only had a sandwich. I thought as it was a sandwich it would be reflected in the price, as a baguette was £7.99 but no the sandwich came up at the same price OUCH expensive for a Tune Mayo sandwich. but still a nice location and next time I shall pick something cheaper.

This garden centre is now known as 'Upminster Garden Centre' & is part of the 'British Garden Centres' family.Popped in on the way to Brentwood and had the 'Big Breakfast', at £6.99 with tea or coffee this was very good value.The only criticism I had was that the fried eggs were overdone but it's hard to get these right in a commercial situation. My other half said the hash browns were greasy but I liked them.Will use again if passing & the garden centre itself looked worth a look, all the plants looked healthy & well cared for.

And you can have tea and cakes as well Plenty of car parking...which is free. Great shop too selling garden sundries and food as well

I contacted customer service as we purchased goods which were on offer ie half price plants and paving slabs were 4 for 3 and this discount also did not come up on till We had to wait for cashier to phone another member of staff who had to confirm discounts as till had not applied . Also issue with offer vouchers we had received. I complained to customer service who asked for copy of till receipt, which had been amended and advised me everything was correct. Be vigilant if you buy anything on offer check till applied correctly

My friend and I popped into wyevale Upminster today to have scone and coffee. We arrived there just after 2pm and although there was a small queue, we envisaged this would quickly go as they had a fair number of staff on. How wrong can you be! We waited ages, whilst 1 very young girl struggled to do coffee, tea and orders all by herself. Eventually with patience we were served Yay. Unfortunately it went badly wrong.After ordering a latte and a cappuccino, I asked for cream to go with our scone, off she went to look for it, and eventually after about 5 mins came back with a small tub of prepared cream. We paid and went off outside to enjoy, but on opening the cream, I found it was frozen solid! I couldn’t even cut it. So back inside I go with the offending article, to be told, after interrupting the queue yet again, that that was all they had. I asked why I wasn’t told it was frozen before leaving the counter, to be told well I got it from the freezer! As if I should have known this gem. By the time I got butter, went back outside to sit and drink my coffee, it was stone cold.......won’t bother going again.

The “Terrible “rating was only slightly increased to “Poor” out of sympathy for the counter staff, who were striving to do their best in trying circumstances.The restaurant appeared to be understaffed which resulted in a long wait to order our meals, despite there only being three in front of us in the queue. This process took 30 minutes!! Has we not been accompanied by someone disabled who was installed at a table, I’m sure we would have given up long before. There was quite a choice of dishes on offer on the menu and the specials board - however, every selection the three of us made was greeted with the response “That’s not available”. Four choices later with the same result, we thought we’d just opt for a jacket potato, with several choices of fillings, but that also elicited the reply “That’s not available”. So no jackets. OK, so how about a panini ? - again several choices of fillings. No prizes for guessing the reply “That’s not available”. In the end, I was offered a roast chicken dinner (obviously from the previous day, as that was a Sunday and Mother’s Day and a roast was not on today’s menu or specials board - and there was only one left). The first choice of dessert - “That’s not available” - sigh! When we pointed out that all of the choices we had made up to this point were still being advertised, the member of staff who chipped in to tell us she was the restaurant manager very helpfully (!!) told us that she was expecting a delivery of £1,200-worth of food that afternoon - which of course would be too late for our lunch today. And was this really supposed to make us feel better about being repeatedly told “That’s not available” each time we made a selection??? The store manager was summonsed - there were other dissatisfied customers too - but he appeared to be totally disinterested in the restaurant and its customers. The till appeared to be problematic and did not automatically allow for included items to be input without an additional charge. This resulted in our initially being overcharged until this was pointed out. Also, the member of staff on the counter was not aware of all of the “That’s not available” items, These factors caused much discussion and voiding of till input. So the management hadn’t foreseen that Mother’s Day may be a tad busy and ensured that sufficient stock was available for the following day when the restaurant would be open and new stock would not have arrived?? Isn’t that part of their role? And there obviously was no contingency in place to be able to offer alternatives to customers, indicating a lack of planning and initiative. Surely any service industry’s first concern should be for customer satisfaction. The worst aspect of this whole sorry affair was the attitude of the management, who demonstrated a total disregard for the lack of service offered to their customers. I trust that Head Office takes in interest in the views expressed by their customers and is prepared take action to improve on the poor standard of management demonstrated at Upminster branch today.

It was a flying visit just had to grab some bits.It's a small garden centre but we'll presented. Prices seem to be middle of the road. The cafe looked busy well busier than the garden centre.I will have to try on my next visit I will let you know how that goes

We had vouchers linked to our loyalty card, which made the good value, super value! As ever the staff were friendly and efficient and the food was great!

I have been to this garden centre for many years and since it has become an eatery the food is always pretty good but the prices have gone up so much we only stick to a coffe now. i wont pay almost £15 for 2 coffees and 2 pieces of cake anymore. I may consider the odd bowl of soup!!

Visited Wyevale, Upminster's restaurant with my parents today around 1pm. When we placed our food order, we were told repeatedly that our choices were not available, despite still bring advertised. I appreciate the Centre/ restaurant has been closed for 2 days but I have been visiting the restaurant for 20+years and never had such poor service. All down to poor stock control/management. Really disappointing.. won't be going back in a hurry.

Friendly, clean food was fresh and tasty. First time visit, went for lunch and had a good look round the shop, really lovely item, especially Christmas things. One lovely thing I noticed was that you can enjoy your meal and there is a section for taking your dog! How lovely is that and it isn't outside.

We visited the cafe at Wyevale Garden Centre, Upminster, today. Good food, good coffee, shame about the staff - very unfriendly. It felt as though they didn't want us to be there. We have took the hint and wont be coming back!

Myself and two friends went for afternoon tea at the Upminster Centre. It was a special deal and was only £5 per person. The restaurant was extremely busy - a good sign, but as we had prebooked our table was reserved. Laid out with red tablecloth and roses. the sandwiches were made fresh and the scones were warmed. One of my guests is Gluten Free and she was in 'seventh heaven' - a gluten free scone that was edible! The staff - Frances, Sue and their team worked extremely hard and we had a really enjoyable afternoon.

Went here on New Year's Day when lots of other garden centres were shut! The coffee shop was due to shut shortly after we arrived, but they happily served us. We had a selection of Cappuccinos and Lattes and they were good; much better than previously.

We popped in to look at the different Chris gifts on offer and decided to have a cuppa after our browsing. Again I find the whole experience eating at this restaurant awful. The staff are unfriendly and not helpful, the tables are always littered and dirty and not a great selection of cakes or anything. They need more staff, especially at this time of year if they are expecting to sell all of their wares. I think they should look at Summerhill or South Ockendon garden centres to see how lovely the food and service is.

I asked for a small Americano coffee and was told rudely ,"we don't do those anymore here." This garden centre needs to think seriously about staff training in the restaurant. We used to come at least twice a week. We will not be back.

Been going for quite a while, always clean and tidy. It was £5.50 for cheese and tomato sandwich, with salad and coleslaw. Ordered cheese sandwich, slither of cheese as don't like lots and no tomato or coleslaw and salad. Didn't realise till I got home, that I was charged £5.50 just for a cheese sandwich. Bit of a take on I think, would I go back not sure.

My Husband and I took my 90 year old Father here for a meal and to buy a few plants etc.

Badly timed visit in that there were 2 torrential rainstorms whilst we were there. During the second one we thought we would wait it out with a drink in the restaurant. Coffee please. No coffee we've cleaned the machine. We close in 5 minutes you know. Ok, 2 teas. Here's a voucher for a free tea. Can't take vouchers, internet is down (what?).

Wife and I went for breakfast today. Nice, well cooked food. Both our breakfasts were missing the grilled tomato. Service was a little slow. Clean, spacious restaurant, friendly and polite staff.The food is good value at Wyevale, we usually visit a couple of times a month. Plenty of free parking

Decent breakfast - three choices at reasonable prices. Staff are not particularly friendly or helpful. Long time to take order even though it was quite empty and not made to feel particularly welcome.

You order food and drinks from a single till point. It took over 10 mins from the time I started queuing to when I was able to place my order with only 8 people in front of me. When customers don't put their dirty crockery in the tray stack you may find you'll do it yourself as it's quicker than waiting for someone to come and do it for you; similarly with wiping the table down that you want to sit at. There were 5 people working in the cafe including two young girls seemingly needing to be guided through what to do so maybe after they have been properly trained they will be more effective. The cutlery and tea pots were badly water mark stained and rather tacky, I cleaned our cutlery before we ate with it. We found the printed menu price and what we paid was different. A ham, cheese and watercress (?) sandwich with salad garnish was listed at £4.95. The ham and cheese toastie with salad garnish which I purchased was £5.60 with nothing I could see on the menu saying it was 65p extra for a toasted sandwich but I may have missed it. They advertise afternoon tea at £16 for 2 which we are tempted to go back for another day just to see if they are better mid week.

Had lunch here compared to many cafes holds its own well. Good choice on offer reasonable,fairly priced, quickly prepared,served by nice staff. Hunters chicken was well prepared,lasagne,well cooked. Second coffee discount a nice touch

Booked this to go with a friend. What would you expect in a garden centre? Well we had perfectly adequate service - I had phoned ahead so they were expecting us.

I have always recommended this little gem, not anymore, firstly we were greeted or NOT by the most rudest of staff possible I let it go on my last visit because I thought they were possibly having a bad day!!!! no now it seems to be the norm and now I can understand why they are continually advertising for staff. We were TOLD limited menu not alot left, OK no problem as it was still only lunch time what can we have I asked , well what do you want with the roll of eyes. Had I not had my mother with me I would have walked out then but no stick with it. OK jacket potato would be nice, we were told only got two, OK now there was three of us so I said to my mum and daughter you have those and I will have something else ham sandwich came to mind, Good all sorted or so we thought 10 mins later sorry no jacket potaoes all gone. For £27.00 I wished I would have taken a photo DISCUSTING one very loyal customer lost due to the two gremlins working in the cafe I know lots of elderly customers use this coffee shop so please step up a gear.