The Plantation Tearoom

I do not understand the popularity of this place. The quality of products used is so poor. I vow not to eat here every time I go . But we meet with friends because it is convenient. Bacon roll this morning was so awful: undercooked bacon and roll saturated with very unpleasant margarine. I should have sent it back. Friends cheese scone wasn’t cooked as was equally unpleasant. Oh dear!

This is a large Garden type restaurant in a very large spacious comfortable environment, which happily announces it gets “Super Busy” . When shown to our table we were told the wait time for food, giving us opportunity to weigh up whether it suited our circumstances. You can either order at the counter , or via the venue’s website from your numbered table. Food arrived after 25 mins as we were advised. I would not recommend eating here on a limited lunch break. The drinks however did come in good time. Looking around at the custom that was there this weekday afternoon seemed suited to the service times, I would imagine because of its location it’s popular with friends and family meeting up at it’s convenient crossroad location. The food was good and the portion size was adequate for the smaller appetite. Staff were busy and focussed on delivering meals to tables and there was no real interaction with them as they seemed to be covering large parts of the restaurant.

Called in for lunch on Saturday with family. Although we had to wait a while I was really looking forward to my tuna and cucumber sandwich. However when it arrived it had been put onto a warm plate!!! The bottom layer of bread was crusty and was stuck to the plate, so when moved the filling fell out. The crisps were warm as was the garnish. Who does that??? Certainly not as good as it used to be, sadly.

Will write this review as a series of points. 1 we turned up at the cafe at 4:40 on a Saturday. The main garden centre closes at 5:30. All we wanted was a slice of cake and a quick cup of tea. 2 there was no sign at the cafe entrance to say when the cafe closed so we walked in. 3 it turns out the cafe closes at 5pm 4 we went and chose cake and took it to the counter to buy. The person at the toll watched us, and our son, choose the cake. 4 we took it to the till and the person said ‘it’s only take away now.’ So we put the cake down and walked away. 5 as we walked away we watched the person high five her colleague (mate) behind the till as she had successfully turned a customer away twenty minutes before closing. 6 I went and spoke to her and said she didn’t need to be so rude. She proceeded to shout at me and argue that turning a customer away and high giving her colleague wasn’t rude 7 I was polite the whole time. I spoke to another colleague who came over to speak to me to apologise and did her best to offer us tea and cake free of charge. She understood her colleague’s behaviour was inappropriate. Quite frankly, I have never experienced such dire customer service and will never return nor ever recommend this place. I would be happy to speak to someone in management if they wish to identify the person who high fived her colleague as she turned away a customer. May explain and loss in profits recently?………..

I just wanted to say a huge thank you for A and E’s birthday party today. Everything was so well organised, stress free, we were really impressed with the party food as it was such fantastic quality and even better that we didn’t need to clear up. Thanks to the staff in the playbarn for all of the drinks served, handling the dietary requirements so well and just their general enthusiasm. We would absolutely recommend. We were also allowed in 15 mins before to set up balloons and cake as our party started at 9:30, we really appreciated this.