Dobbies Garden Centres - Royston Reviews 240

TrustScore 3 out of 5

3.0

Dunsbridge Turnpike, SG8 6RA Shepreth, Hertfordshire, GB


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Rated 5 out of 5 stars

I always enjoy visiting Dobbies Royston. It's clean, spacious and offers a vast variety of outdoor plants. The restaurant/cafe is a lovely space to relax and enjoy a cuppa and cake or a hot/cold m... See more

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Mick in Gardening at Dobbies Royston. Fantastic customer service; top knowledge of the plants and gave great advice. Plus, very friendly, cheerful and funny. Also, staff in store and restaurant wer... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

We order two scones with butter with two coffees. The scones arrived with vegetable spread instead of butter but noone mentioned this when ordering. We mentioned this to the waitress who said they had... See more

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

I wanted to use birthday offer which is 2 pieces of cake (stopped drinks with it!) No gluten free cake so could not buy just 1 As need to get 2 pieces at same time. Ordered chai latte told no chai... See more


Company details

  1. Garden centre

Written by the company

Dobbies has been the home of gardening for over 150 years. You can trust us to provide quality products, expert advice and inspirational ideas for you outdoor space, whatever size it may be. But it's not all about the greenery. At your local Dobbies, you'll find all you need for your home and garden, plus delicious food and drinks in our restaurant. Visit www.dobbies.com to find out more.


Contact info

  • Dunsbridge Turnpike, SG8 6RA, Shepreth, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

3.0

Average

TrustScore 3 out of 5

240 reviews

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1-star

Hasn’t replied to negative reviews

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Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Food unavailable for birthday treat!

I wanted to use birthday offer which is 2 pieces of cake (stopped drinks with it!)
No gluten free cake so could not buy just 1
As need to get 2 pieces at same time.
Ordered chai latte told no chai powder!
So not able to have my drink that I wanted either!!

11 May 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

The great British queuing experience

As we all know the British are known for "queuing", so if you want to carry on this tradition go to the Cafe at Dobbies near Melbourn. A few months you could place your order,pay and the food and drink would be delivered to your table. Now you have to order in there same way, but join another queue to get your hot drinks..... Total queuing time almost 20 minutes.

12 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

The Heritage afternoon tea

The Heritage afternoon tea, The staff were very helpful and understanding.I couldn't have asked for more,I accidentally arrived on the wrong day with my daughter and granddaughter, We were meant to arrive on the Sunday,but they were fantastic and managed to fit us in so a massive thank you to Paula,and her team.from Amanda Presland.

24 January 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Fed up of rude customer service

Royston is my local Dobbies and I pop in all the time as it’s on my way home from work - and actually spend quite lot of money with them. They have clearly invested a lot in the shop over the last year, however I have a massive issue with the appalling customer service. A couple staff are good, but the vast majority treat you with complete distain (like even your existence is spoiling their day) and some are just outright rude. This isn’t just one off, this is a common occurrence. I’m sorry Dobbies, there are plenty of other garden centres in the area, I can choose where I spend my money and I’m fed up with this. Whoever is in charge of the Royston branch needs to take a long look at what is happening!

17 January 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Poor service in cafe. We order two scones with butter with…

We order two scones with butter with two coffees. The scones arrived with vegetable spread instead of butter but noone mentioned this when ordering. We mentioned this to the waitress who said they had no butter. On leaving the cafe I spoke to the manager who said there was butter in the kitchen but continued to do what he was doing with no explanation or apology. I thought this was very rude. Not a good advert for Dobbies cafe at Royston!

3 September 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 2 out of 5 stars

Awful breakfast!

We visited Dobbies at Royston yesterday for breakfast. My husband had the traditional breakfast and I had scrambled eggs on toast. They do not do substitutions so the black pudding and tomato was wasted. My scrambled eggs came with one piece of toast with eggs on and one piece, cut in two, without any eggs on. For this they charge £6.75! I took mine back to the counter and asked for eggs on both slices, which they did eventually bring to me. However, my husband’s brekkie was awful - a tiny ramekin of beans (probably about two small spoonfuls) and the bacon was like leather and looked like it was very old. The whole breakfast looked like it had been sat out for a long time and wasn’t hot at all. Very poor. We must remember not to go there for breakfast next time!

19 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Vegetarians not welcome for lunch!

I came into Royston store and wanted to have a roast from the restaurant 27th October.
I am vegetarian, as is my mum.
There wasn't a roast option on the menu so we chose the vegan sausages and had to pay and extra £1.50 each to get a Yorkshire pudding added. I asked if I could have stuffing too as I really wanted a Sunday roast! I was told no! The young guy went and asked the chef, it was refused!! I was told the reason was that I ordered the vegan option and the stuffing was vegetarian. I made it clear I was vegetarian and just wanted a roast dinner like the meat eaters but with the vegan sausages as that was the only option for me to pick.
We ended up having just the vegan sausages that came with veg and 2 roast potatoes. The size of these was tiny, like a child's dinner and cost us £33 with one cup of tea (Black as they had no oat milk) and a capri sun (as they had run out of apple juice mum wanted)
They forgot to bring my tea, then bought out a coffee instead.
Honestly, really disappointed, I now understand why there were so many free tables on a Sunday afternoon. I will not be returning and feel discriminated against as a Vegetarian.

27 October 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

A very disappointing visit

A very disappointing visit. What has happened to this place? Buckets scattered around the building to catch leaking water from above. Too much open unused retail space. Lack of good retail clothing/homeware franchises. CAFE - dirty floor, vacated tables piled high with dirty crockery, cutlery, wasted foods& used serviettes. Full length of counter piled high with same scattered around cakes, scones etc. Staff obviously stressed couldn’t raise a smile. Long wait for cake & drink which should take less than 10 mins when no one else waiting at counter. Milk for tea was sour and lumpy . Our order was presented wrong but rectified after twice returning to the counter where the assistant just answered she had no complaints all day! On plus side, plants and shrubs were plenty and healthy. Pavers shoes very good.

24 August 2024
Unprompted review
Dobbies Garden Centres - Royston logo

Reply from Dobbies Garden Centres - Royston

Hi Patricia,
Thanks for leaving your feedback.
I am sorry to hear that you were disappointed on your recent visit to our Royston store and restaurant.
I have passed your feedback onto the management team to bring your points of concerned to them so that they can look into any possible changes that can be made to improve in the future.
Best wishes,
Karen

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Dobbies Royston I always enjoy visiting Dobbies…

I always enjoy visiting Dobbies Royston. It's clean, spacious and offers a vast variety of outdoor plants. The restaurant/cafe is a lovely space to relax and enjoy a cuppa and cake or a hot/cold meal. All the team members and outlet assistants are friendly, helpful and mostly jolly. Definitely worth a visit 😊

3 July 2024
Rated 3 out of 5 stars

Too many dogs

I'm afraid I've never been a lover of dogs being allowed in retail premises. Also in restaurants. Other than that, the garden centre is among my favourites.

17 May 2024
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Queued for 30 mins with my daughter on…

Queued for 30 mins with my daughter on crutches with her broken leg to use her dobbies birthday voucher on Wednesday as she had been looking forward to coming to Dobbies after having surgery to pin and plate two broken bones. We was told we would have to pay for any of the gluten free cakes when using my daughter’s birthday voucher despite there only being one piece of very cross contaminated (we saw them contaminate it with another cakes tool) crumbled and old looking carrot cake available. This option would have made either of us very sick, does Dobbies not understand coeliacs and gluten free??
The only other option for both of us as coeliacs was packet cakes. Cafe manager was really rude and refused to use the voucher for packet cakes stating that he didn’t accept these vouchers and that we needed to pay for the fresh or packet cakes even though 1 week ago I was able to use my own voucher at Dobbies in Kings Lynn. Hugely disappointed and took our custom to Scotsdales. Don't recommend at all

22 May 2024
Unprompted review
Dobbies Garden Centres - Royston logo

Reply from Dobbies Garden Centres - Royston

We sincerely apologize for the disappointing experience you and your daughter had at our Dobbies store. .

Please know that we take customer feedback very seriously and are committed to ensuring that all our customers have a positive experience at our stores.

Thank you for bringing these matters to our attention.

Dobbies Team

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