Dobbies Garden Centres - Morpeth Avis 537

Absolutely dreadful Santa experience.
Paid for 2 slots well in advance for my two dogs at a cost of £55 for this experience - which is what is advertised as:

Event highlights:
• Magical experience: Santa and his elves will play with, and entertain your pooch
• Photo opportunities: capture the moment with a professional photo with Santa
• Gift from Santa: every pup will receive a gift from Santa

There were no elves to play with my dogs - not that this is an issue. But there’s two ‘elves’ as you go in, tells you where to go but doesn’t take you. You then wait for your turn.

‘Santa’ jingled some bells, I assume to let us know it’s our turn, but I waited out of politeness, in case it wasn’t for me. A sign or a little poem/notice on the wall letting you know that when you hear the bells you can enter. A couple minutes later the ‘elves’ came to tell me to go in.

Walked into the room, Santa sat in a shed, elves nowhere to be seen, never said a word and were stood there. I assumed we were waiting for the person to come and take the ‘professional’ photo - as I said, Santa said nothing. I then said “are we just waiting for someone”… no reply.
In the end I just handed him my first dog, he took him and that’s when I realised ‘Santa’ was taking the photo himself with a clicker and an iPad…. Not professional at all.

It all felt rushed, I was also unable to get photos of the two dog together as ‘Santa’ couldn’t hold both of them as he had to take the photo.

In total he took 8 photos, so I had to choose 6 of the best… let’s just say there were no best photos. All the photos were out of focus, no option to have a close up photo (I have dachshunds), the backdrop was sub-par, absolutely nothing like what is advertised.
‘Santa’ isn’t even looking at the camera on majority of the photos and he’s not even smiling.

Utterly disappointed I’ve paid £55 for this and the photos will just get shoved in a drawer, they’re that poor. There was nothing magical about it. The elves literally just sat at their desk.

I waited for this experience as I did book in for last year but one of my dogs was in for major spinal surgery, so we had to cancel. Been looking forward for this and how disappointing.

The toy wasn’t even wrapped up, everyone knows dogs love to rip open parcels/presents.

I have disputed the payment with my bank because the experience I received and the photos I paid for are NOTHING like what is advertised. False advertisement at its best.

Visited today to use the soft play snd restaurant as well as look around.
Restaurant was really busy but also very messy, dirty tables floors and extremely dirty chairs,which completely put us off eating ,
I got hot chocolate ,the girl spilt it resulting in it being all over the cup but still gave it too me .
Soft play was clean even though it was busy as customers were putting there own trays away.
A very disappointing visit

Visited on a Saturday, the garden centre and restaurant were a bit empty of customers and not that good of a selection of plants this was at Morpeth Dobbies on 29/06/2024. The staff were nice and everything was tidy not a pleasant visit though

Great selection of plants and quality food in the restaurant. With friendly and efficient staff.

The cafe was very busy and short of staff so where we were sitting it was messy and a dogs bowl had been knocked over - resulting in the floor being wet. Not the staff’s fault, they were still very pleasant although rushed off their feet.
We still enjoyed our visit and walking round the different departments on a pleasant day with our toy poodle. A great and friendly place to take your dogs.

Friendly staff and plenty to see plus a soft play facility for our granddaughter

We visited the restaurant yesterday as it being Fathers Day my daughter wanted to treat me to Sunday Lunch! There was myself, my wife, my daughter and my 8 years old granddaughter.
We were struck by how empty the restaurant was when we were there which was about 1.45 p.m. compared to when we have been before.

We duly ordered 4 Sunday Lunches at the counter and then progressed to ordering our hot drinks further along the same counter. With only 1 person serving this became such an extended wait, so much so that the lunches were being brought to us at the same time as I arrived at our table with the hot drinks!

Now to the lunches themselves! 2 of the 4 were brought together initially, then another one came by itself after a further few minutes! The 4th came again a further few minutes later after the young waiter went on a tour of the restaurant looking for our table number even though the number was prominently placed on our table and even though we could see him wandering around the restaurant with what we eventually realised was the missing 4th lunch! Why couldn’t the 4 lunches all be brought to us at the same time? My granddaughter wanted extra gravy so her plate was taken away for the gravy to be poured onto her lunch making for a further wait!

The lunches themselves were disgusting! Mine was swamped by far too many peas to the detriment of the measly portions of the other vegetables, the roast potatoes were hard and inedible. The so called Yorkshire puddings were tough and tasteless. The roast beef was dried up at the edges probably through standing in the dish on the counter for too long! My daughter even complained about stomach pains not long after eating here although I can’t attribute that to it being down to the food she ate here. And all this for the not inconsiderable price of £13.99 per adult lunch!!

What kind of catering qualifications and experience do your chefs ( I use that term loosely) have? I would be ashamed to call myself a chef if I was churning out that quality of Sunday Lunch! No wonder the place was so empty!

If I could give you zero stars then I would have done and even then I would have been generous! So so disappointed particularly as the occasion was on the day it was. My recommendation to anyone considering going here is not to touch it with a barge pole. You probably would get better produce, better portion size and better value for money at a roadside cafe than you do here! Never again!

We got all the plants that we wanted and a few other things as well

great to be able to buy big packs of bedding at reasonable prices

The staff made my visit good so friendly and helpful.

Bought a garden statue, the gentleman who served us was so helpful. Went and got the statue and when we had paid carried it out to the car even though it was extremely heavy.

Plenty of choice good quality products friendly helpful staff spacious car park plenty of trollies clean premises

Enjoyed birthday lunch with family. Good value tasty food. Always pleased to see the lovely plants and potter around generally.

Very tired looking.
Staff are hard to find for advice and some are more helpful than others.
Toilets are a disgrace and only one disabled toilet on one side and I can’t get into the toilet at all near the food hall.
Layout for me being disabled is extremely difficult to access when going up to the outlets and it’s far too far to get to so we didn’t bother.
Display layout is very scruffy and dated.

Always a very pleasant experience to visit any of the Dobbie’s centres..
We nearly always end up having a meal in the restaurant which we find excellent value for money…

It was great to shop at Dobbies. I was able to buy a plant and a present. However I noticed that the toilet at the entrance cafe was not next to the cafe and if disabled took a long time to get there.

Always love to come to Dobbies, there is so much to see, our weekly visit consists of, checking out the hats scarves & handbags 1st, through the huge garden centre to see the awesome array of plants & shrubs & working right through to clothes & shoes, jigsaws & handicrafts, pop in for a sweet treat & lattè, into the grocery store then back to the car home. Most departments have great sales too!

Great variety of both garden produce and other interesting merchandise

Pleasant staff, clean, spacious premises. The orchids I bought, after having a coffee were also good quality.

Our favourite place to buy plants and have a wander around on a cold and miserable day. Love the restaurant!!!