Garsons - Esher Reviews 

Shout out to Bryant who said “I’m only doing my job”. - well I think you’re doing it rather well!

Visited with a friend today ... Lovely gifts and clothing section, though a little pricey .. but nothing prepared me for the cost of a small bowl of lukewarm soup in the cafeteria ... my friend treated me to this so it was only after we'd left that I enquired from her the cost - she told me it was £8 EACH BOWL..!!!..even throwing in 2 small cuts if bread it was still outrageously expensive .. whilst the shop is worth browsing around I won't be visiting the cafe again...

I came for a little lunch having been to visit my husband in Princess Alice Hospice. Not only to clear my head a little but to experience some normal. For the most part the staff were friendly and helpful. After I ordered my food I went to sit outside. It began to rain quite heavily so I asked a staff member if the large shelter could be put up. I was told a very blunt NO. Compared to all the other venues in the area I do feel more could have been made of the outside dining area which is large and open. No umbrellas no heaters and considering your store supplies all of those to the public for sale perhaps some should have been put out for the comfort of your loyal customers. You're missing out on valued custome which is especially important in light of the long covid restrictions.
Regards M Platt

Decided to write a review after my second visit since the renovation. Unfortunately the farm shop which is my main draw ( as I'm shopping elsewhere for my plants now) has lost its focus and seems to be managed by someone who is not aware of fresh produce and specialty foods. I have a list of 14 items and it took me an hour to find just 4 items on my list. No olive oil stocked, just extra virgin, no specialty crackers anymore, no more South Devon chilli produces, and bizarrely they are now placing their produces in the farm shop and in the aisle entrance, so to find a pantry item say gherkins, or jams, you have to search in the farm shop and at the entrance aisle! And what is supposed to be golden season for mushrooms, the only mushrooms available now are just prepacked as in supermarkets. All the shelfs vacated by their specialty produces are now taken up by drinks and alcohol. What a shame. I guess the profit margins are greater for these. If someone from Garsons is reading this, please please do a customer feedback survey. I didn't mind paying extra in the past for the variety but not anymore. I know I won't be back soon, not for the farm shop.

Great farm with lots of very good fresh fruit. Staff were very helpful too.

This had never been my favourite garden centre but we mainly come here for the shop which is very good. Today we decided to have some coffee and cake. Tried to park in a disabled space but all were full. Didn’t help that they have taken up 9, yes 9 disabled spaces for the queue line into the garden centre which never seems to be that long. Once in the cafe they only have one side open for serving so there was a queue of 8 people and nobody seems to do anything in a hurry. One staff member was more worried about me standing on the Blue spots and keeping 2 metres apart. When I pointed out that I was there was no apology. All they seem to do is clear the counter after each customer. Shame they are not as keen to clear around the exit doors where there are cobwebs gathering.
This garden centre is expanding and they are building more on the site. I would suggest that they sort out their staffing and parking issues before they encourage any further customers. I won’t be using this garden centre again any time soon. There are so much better ones out there some of which are considerably cheaper too. Do your staff know how to apologise. Perhaps some training in that area would be good.

I was warned when I was queuing that this was an overpriced shop but nothing prepared me.... it is is ridiculously overpriced and there is nothing ‘farm shop’ about it really. There seems to be no farm. Just a shop. It is a slick money making machine using the guise of ‘farm shop’ to convey fresh and natural. There is a good choice of products but none of the fresh products that I could see were organic. Not even the meats. And at those prices I would expect not just organic but biodynamic and individually hand groomed animals!

For example take the novel food product by Baluzu. Their 1/2 lt olive & fig leaf oil is on the producer’s website retails at £18.50. It is already insanely overpriced but at Garsons it is selling at a whopping £24.99. I bought it by accident because the label read to me as £4.99 (the 2 being faded to a point of being illegible in the low level lighting of the shop). Most shops buy their products at trade prices which are around 50pc below the retail shop. Say they bought the product at trade for £10. They are probably making £15 on 1/2 litre bottle of olive oil. Wow! And they survive on this because there are plenty of shoppers who are happy to pay these prices. Never realised how affluent Esher was nor now many Porsche’s can fit into a car park. I guess Garsons operate this way because they can. What a gold mine for its owners! Buyers beware!

Garsons have always offered a pick your own fruit and veg area. But nowadays they expect people to pay £4 per head to even enter the area. They then say that you can pick £4 worth of stuff for free. So me and my mum took a trip there paying £8 for both of our entries wanting to pick some juicy sweet cherries. However they only had one tent of cherries available and I was displeased to find they were soft and tasteless.
Not wanting to waste £8 me and my mum picked some hoping they would come up to the value of £8. We had nowhere to weigh them ourselves to see whether we were picking too little or too many.
So when we got to the Checkout we were shocked to find that we had picked £15 worth of cherries and we were made to pay for them there and then. I was absolutely appalled as I only picked that many to try and get my £8 worth because of their new stupid pay on entry rule. And then I had to fork out more money for some tasteless soft cherries because they have nowhere for customers to weigh their own produce. And they wouldn't allow me to put any to the side. Awful new system haven't been back there since and won't be going there again. terrible shame as my whole family used to enjoy trips there in the summer.

Pensioners’ shopping arcade is what Garsons has become. Mid November and the garden centre offering was very slim, whilst the Christmas shop was shining bright in all its Chinese plastic glory. Went on to Squires in Long Ditton that actually had a very proud display of shrubs and flowers for a winter garden.

Had a lovely meal here with my family i couldn't fault the place one bit

I will be returning!

P.S the flowers were amazing!