Dobbies Garden Centres - Gosforth Avis 428

Had lots of help from a gentleman who was outside,( do apologise for not getting his name). He got a trolley and loaded my plants into the car,that was on the 9 of July. Give that an a bonus.

Enjoyed the visit and the tea and cake
Made a special day for it
Don't get out very often due to I'll health
So really enjoyed it

Very friendly staff

Got some great deals on sale items in plant area. Staff very helpful. Excellent choice and huge variety of bedding plants, herbs, veg plants. Very pleased.

went for lunch and services was very slow, one women asked for cheese scones and the older women behind the counter who came from the back with a face like thunder said we haven't got any left, Don't think she should have spoke to her in that manner, (good customer service). Running out of cups and it wasn't that busy, and while i was waiting to pay, the women point out my food was standing there, it took another 10 minutes and a women was walking around with the meals, I said are they mine and she said yes, so she took it to the table, and i still had to wait to pay. Just warm, I should have complained but was rushing to appointment. Not a very pleasant experience,

I hadn't visited Dobbies Gosforth since prior to the pandemic and was amazed at the changes made to the store. The centre looks like it has been completely refurbished with the shelving / stock being re-arranged and it looks so much bigger. The whole layout has been revamped and is now in a much better layout, there is so much more stock / products to see with new product lines / areas added. Everything is well signposted and easy to find. Lots of staff on the shop floor to direct and ask for advice. Same goes for the outdoor garden centre area, loads of stock, well maintained plants and everything easy to find / manoeuvre. It was also good to see a dog friendly area set aside next to the cafe, that was a nice touch. My only gripe would be that there needed to be more staff on the tills as there were long queues at both the main tills (only 2 tills open on the day I visited) and it was the same for the cafe with a queue of 10+ waiting to be served, with only 1 member of staff taking food orders, 1 serving hot drinks and 1 on the till. Overall though a great visit, somewhere I will return to soon and wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

Really wonderful variety of plants, which are well cared for. Staff are friendly and helpful. Lovely cafe too. Everything you need for your garden and there is also a pet store.

On enquiring how many 'shots of coffee' were in a latte We were informed we could pay for extra. When I explained that I don't like it strong. We were given the frothy milk and 'shot' separately. Great idea.

Well stocked wiith plenty variety of plants

Friendly, helpful staff, food very good w its a wide variety shop and cafe clean would highly recommend

The garden department is of a good standard but is really let down by the restaurant which is uninviting and needs a desperate update

I visited last week with my toddler to meet a friend and her little girl, the plan was to have a coffee and soft play with our two little ones. We arrived before the next play session but as we hadn’t pre booked we had to join the queue in the restaurant to pay in, the queue didn’t seem long so we happily joined. However, despite there only being a handful of ppl in front of us it took us more than 15 minutes to reach the end counter-especially annoying as we only had scones and coffee to pay for. I dont know what the exact reason for the slow service but upon paying the lady informed me we would now only have 45 minutes in the soft play, despite still charging for the full hour. I tried to explain we had been in the queue from before the start time but she shrugged her shoulders and said ‘we don’t make the rules.’

When we entered the soft play there was only one other family there with one child. As it was so quiet we decided to ask another waitress who was much more helpful than the last, she explained she couldn’t do anything but would get the manager for us. The manageress (Lauren?) came to see us within a few minutes but almost immediately appeared defensive and put out by the fact she has been called. As already mentioned in a review by my friend her manner was aggressive at times, she didn't attempt to offer any solutions or even a simple heart felt apology for the bad service, only suggested we should prebook next time we came. Apparently session times have to be adhered to due to the cleaning policy between each session (separate issue but on the same visit I noted there was no hand soap in the baby change or disabled toilets, nor hand sanitiser on the wall unit….should these basic hygiene measures not be equally upheld?)

Anyway we were promptly asked to leave the soft play at the end of our 45 minutes by a lovely waitress who did apologise and she had been ‘sent in.’ It was a very short and disappointing visit, and sadly neither of us will be in a hurry to return or recommend to friends. There are other soft plays locally that offer better service and more welcoming staff, however still feel it is a shame as we do also love a potter around the garden centre itself when we come.

Restaurant much improved since my last visit.
While there was a good range of plants on offer, I feel they were more expensive than other garden centres.

So much selection of plants and bushes to buy. Lovely to pick something out for your garden. I bought a magnolia for my garden watch it grow

Went to Dobbies and ate lunch there. Prices a little high but food was very nice. Got some bedding plants for a good price. There was a big selection there. Also went to their kitchen section and bought a few things from there. A productive and very pleasant trip

A very good place for coffee & soft play to entertain children.

Great place to visit everything in under one roof! Tea and cakes are good too 😊

Had all the stock that I needed, checkout was quick and efficient and the cashier was very helpful as I had forgotten my membership card, very good.