CHOOSE GARDEN CENTRES BY COUNTY BELOW
This independent review of Cadbury Garden Centre was written by David Marks and was last updated in November 2025.
This is an in depth review by a real human as a result of visiting this garden centre, no Artificial Intelligence is involved! We reviewed the inside and plant sales areas, took pictures (see lower down this article) and checked out the cafe. The cafe check involved ordering and tasting the food and reporting our findings for you to judge.
Cadbury Garden Centre has undergone huge changes in its lifetime, starting out as a small market garden to become one of the top ten garden centres in the UK.
Cadbury Garden Centre was originally one of seven in the chain of the Garden and Leisure Group. It was the first garden centre in the group being founded in 1982 as a small market garden. One distinct advantage it had was planning permission for a fully fledged garden centre.
Development of Cadbury Garden Centre was funded principally by the French company Truffaut, a major player in the French garden centre market. Much of the inspiration for developing the centre was provided by the joint owners at the time, Ken and Jackie Lloyd.
The original market garden has steadily developed over the years to become one of the top ten UK garden centres based on turnover. It shares similar values with all the other garden centres in the Blue Diamond group - they aim to attract the top end of the market by selling their wares in up market and attractively designed surroundings.
In September 2013 the Garden and Leisure Group was bought by Wyevale Garden Centres (no longer trading). In July 2018 Wyevale sold the Cadbury Garden Centre to Blue Diamond for £2,500,000 leasehold. Blue Diamond are currently the largest garden centre business in the UK.
Yes, Cadbury Garden Centre is dog friendly, they are allowed in all areas of this garden centre. They do suggest that at peak times (e.g. weekends near Christmas)it might be best to leave your do at home but the do not insist on this.
Entrance to Cadbury Garden Centre
CHOICE OF FOOD
The menu is extensive at this cafe without a doubt. We counted a choice of eleven main meals which is an astonishing
amount. As well as main meals they serve a variety of snack meals, cakes, teas / coffees and other drinks. Some of the food
is served from the counter and some is served to your table. Much of the food was on display rather than hidden behind closed doors!
FOOD QUALITY
We chose a Shepherds Pie with peas, green beans, roast potatoes and gravy for our main meal. Presentation was was OK and the quality of the Shepherds Pie excellent. Lots of good quality meat, well seasoned and served hot.
Cafe meal at Cadburys Garden Centre
The peas and green beans were excellent as well, tasting fresh and correctly cooked. The roast potato was definitely on the mushy side with almost no crispness but that's very difficult to avoid in a catering establishment of this size.
Some of the not so popular meals on the counter certainly had a congealed surface to the and did not look particularly attractive but we guess under the surface they are fine. For example the pasta bake and similar dishes could do with being stirred every 15 minutes or so to stop an unattractive skin appearing on the top.
PRICES
Main meals are in the range £13 to £16, jacket potatoes £9 to £12, salads £12 to £13, omelettes £11 and toasted ciabattas around the £10 price. Overall the prices were above the average for a garden centre cafe.
CAFE DECOR
The decor is rather unremarkable. In general it's modern and clean with plain plastic table and chairs. Not up to the standard of many other Blue Diamond cafes which normally have something of a theme to them. Functional and plain was how we would describe the decor.
SERVICE
In general the service was good, prompt and courteous. We were unlucky enough to get behind a "customer from hell" in the queue to pay. By accident our voice recorder was on and we know that it took seven minutes for the customer to pay for their food - there was a problem with their voucher. Aside from driving me insane waiting to pay, all credit must go to the staff member on the till. She definitely had the patience of a saint and dealt with the problem customer in the best way possible.
CONCLUSION
The higher than average prices for the food are just barely justified by the food quality and general surroundings.
Outside the interior sales area is a large covered area for tender plants and some of the gardening accessories. The outside plants sales area is solidly paved and mainly flat, certainly easily accessible by a wheelchair user.
View of plants area
The exterior sales area is well designed and makes for pleasant plant selection. The signs to plant groupings are bold and clear with plants being arranged alphabetically.
The large area is principally uncovered but there is a covered pathway along some of the walkways which provides a good deal of rain protection. Umbrellas are available for free if the rain is particularly bad. There is a good selection of garden buildings including sheds and greenhouses supplied by GBC.
View of lake in plants area
The choice of plants is wide although they do not specialise
in any particular plant type at this garden centre.
Plants look
healthy and well maintained, hardy plants come with a five year
guarantee. There is an outdoor gardening advice centre with lots
of books and other information for the gardener. An outdoor pond
stocked with large fish is very popular with adults and children.
As far as prices go, they are generally on the high side, you are very unlikely to find any keenly priced goods at Cadbury Garden Centre.
Although plant sales are important at Cadbury Garden Centre it is very obvious that they have made huge efforts to "weather-proof" the business. When it's raining or the weather is just plain cold and miserable, customer demand for plants drops off hugely. However, the demand for non-gardening goods and a decent cafe are largely unaffected by the weather.
With this in mind the garden centre has an inordinately large interior sales area selling all manner of non-gardening goods, it's similar to a large department store (see below for details about the in-house cafe). On particularly good example of their attempts at "weather-proofing" is the angling department. Although angling is an outdoor sport, anglers are well-renowned for pursuing their interest whatever the weather.
The entire interior sales area is fully focused on satisfying the buying needs and aspirations of the more well off in society. If you go to some larger garden centres you may well see a welcome desk staffed by a smiling sales assistant to make you feel at home. At Cadbury Garden Centre however, one sales assistant is not enough, they have a larger than normal desk not one but two assistants staffing it. We kept an eye on those two assistants for ten minutes or so and not once did anyone approach them!
As we've said, the interior sales area is extremely large and in common with other garden centres they have a section which stocks Yankee Candles. But this is no ordinary Yankee candle outlet, surely it stocks the largest selection of candles in the UK? The aroma given off as you walk by is almost over-powering. But that's not good enough for this garden centre, oh no! Just round the corner is an area given over to Colony Candles, not quite as large as the Yankee area, but still very big.
We'll pick out a couple more of the specific gift sections at Cadbury Garden Centre but be assured that if we don't mention it they will still stock it. Gifts, cards, ornaments, clocks, baskets, home ware, clothes, music, craft and hobby centre, books, toys - the list goes on ad infinitum. They even have a specific area for wedding day gifts. The extensive display of barbecues includes those from Weber and Outdoor Chef. So many of the barbecues are at the top end of the price range and we note that a search on the internet for the same barbecue yields some very interesting price comparisons.
As you wander round this well designed shopping area, the less experienced shoppers amongst you will soon come to the conclusion that the store is never ending. As soon as you turn round a corner, which surely must come to the end of this large garden centre, another vista opens up with even more goodies on show, a true shopper's paradise.
Ornaments for sale
It is hard to imagine that some of the items for sale at this garden centre are ever bought. Take the large ornamental heads above for sale at £150.
Who would ever visit a garden centre with a purchase of a large Buddha head in mind, especially at £150? Who would ever go to a garden centre and make an impulse purchase of such an item? Maybe I'm a bit cynical but I bet that the Buddha will still be there, for sale, in 2 years time.
There are many items which will sell however and one of those is garden and conservatory furniture, as well as indoor furniture. These are all attractively laid out and at Cadburys Garden Centre they even have a dedicated garden furniture help desk so you can be assured of lots of informed advice. Mind you, with some sets of garden furniture here priced at over £1,500 you very likely will benefit from some advice.
The Food Hall at Cadbury Garden Centre deserves a mention if only for the sheer variety of food it sells. If deli items are to your liking then you will most definitely find lots of them here.
The general decor of the interior is better than most garden centres with some paths being covered. In some areas the exposed metal beams of the roof are also covered, but not in all areas. The paths are wide enough for wheelchair access and free from obstruction.
ACCESS: Excellent all round with wheelchairs available at the entrance.
ADDRESS:
Cadbury Garden Centre
Smallway
Congresbury
BS49 5AA
GOOGLE MAP:
Click here for a Google map showing the location of
Cadbury Garden Centre.
OWNER:
Blue Diamond Garden Centres
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
01179 902207
| n/a | n/a | Comment From: n/a |
| Awaiting your comments | ||