CHOOSE GARDEN CENTRES BY COUNTY BELOW
This independent review of Gates Woodlands Garden Centre was written by David Marks and was last updated in September 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.
Prior to October 2018 Woodlands Garden Centre was owned by Wyevale Garden Centres and was one of the jewels in its group of garden centres.
Dobbies purchased the leasehold of Woodlands Garden Centre in October 2018 for £3,400,000 and traded until December 2024. Gates Garden Centre bought the lease in February 2025. Gates renamed the garden centre to Gates Woodlands Hinckley.
The plants area is very spacious and offers plants at very reasonable prices. It does lack, however any design flair, the area is boring. The inside sales area is again very spacious and is very suited to a browse around for an hour or so.
The cafe is the star, good food, excellent service and a very attractive area for a breakfast or lunch time meal.
Entrance to Gates Woodlands Hinckley
IS GATES WOODLANDS HINCKLEY CENTRE DOG FRIENDLY? Gates Woodlands Hinckley Garden Centre is definitely NOT dog friendly. On the Gates Woodlands Hinckley Facebook page, Gates respond to the dog friendly question as follows - "It is with regret however, that we are unable to accept other dogs and pets inside either of our garden centres at Oakham or Woodlands Hinckley.
While guide and assistance dogs are welcome, all other dogs and pets are not permitted. Ignore AI overviews which state (as at August 2025) that either of the Gates Garden Centres are dog friendly, they are not and your pet will be refused entrance. See also this article on Leicestershire Live.
Notice outside the entrance of Gates Woodlands Garden Centre, Hinckley
Gates Garden Centre, Oakham, Leicestershire
Sapcote Garden Centre, Leicester
Hilltop Garden Centre, Coventry
Sharnford Garden Centre, Hinckley
Dobbies Garden Centre, Atherstone
Other Leicestershire Garden Centres
SIZE: The cafe is a large with indoor seating but no outdoor seating area.
Breakfasts are served from 9am to 11am. The menu for the breakfast can be found here. It's a standard type menu for a large garden centre but quite extensive.
Lunch starts at 11am and goes onto 4pm.The menu for the lunch can be found here.
FOOD QUALITY: The quality of the food when we visited the cafe was excellent. With only three exceptions (as at August 2025), all the reviews on TripAdvisor refer to when the cafe was owned and operated by Dobbies, a very different company compared to the current owners.
We sampled three of Fred and Ivy's offerings; the Woodlands Mixed Ploughman's at £14.99, scone with jam and clotted cream at a bargain price of £3.49 and the Sausage and Mash at £13.99.
The Ploughman's is a delight, well presented, everything you would expect from a ploughman's even including two types of cheese. Very filling, enough for those with a large appetite. The scone tasted and looked freshly made, excellent taste and value.
The crowning glory from our three choices was the sausage and mash. The sausages (three chunky ones) were straight from the onsite butchers, Walter Smith, and they were very tasty, seasoned to perfection. The mash was a creamy texture and had just the correct amount of butter added. The peas were sweet (hard to achieve in a large cafe).
The sausages were topped with crispy fried onions and there was a generous helping of tasty gravy.
We have sampled around 250 meals at garden centre cafes across the UK over the years so I can't remember from all those meals if the sausage and mash at Gates Woodlands was the best meal, but it has to come in our top 5.
Sausage and Mash at Gates, Woodlands, Hinckley
DECOR: The decor at the cafe made it a very pleasant area for breakfast, lunch or simply a coffee / tea. We were impressed by how clean it was kept, the staff were very prompt at cleaning after tables were vacated. The tables, chairs and floor were all clean.
OUTDOOR SEATING: This is the one area where this cafe falls down. There was no outdoor seating area when we visited and as far as we are aware there is no plan for an outdoor seating area.
SERVICE: You have two options for ordering food at this cafe. Order from the counter after selecting your table or ordering using your mobile using the QR (Quick Response) code which is on every page of the menu.
Ordering from the counter is simple, tell them your table number, place your order, pay, and return to your table.
I have a bit of an obsession with ordering in cafes over my mobile, it just never seems straight forward! Either the connection fails or the process just doesn't work for me.
This time at Gates Woodlands I did try ordering over my mobile first. The connection was spot on, the ordering system worked perfectly for me which was a pleasant surprise.
We watched others placing their orders at the counter and compared it to our choice of ordering via our mobile. The results were similar, it took about three minute to place the order. Our food, both hot and cold food, was served to our table in less than ten minutes.
Service was pleasant and prompt. The staff appeared happy to be working there, not always a given at other garden centres.
VALUE FOR MONEY: Given the decor, levels of service, menu choice and the quality of the food, this cafe offers excellent value for money.
As from 1st September 2025, when we enquired, the soft play area is now open. It opens at 9am, last entry is 3pm, and closes at 4pm. It was recently closed for a week but normal service is now resumed! If you want to check up on availability phone them on 01455 291494.
The cafe at Gates Woodlands Hinckley Garden Centre was awarded a Food Hygiene Rating of five out of five by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council in April 2025. Click here for full details.
SIZE OF PLANTS AREA: The size of the plants area was large.
PLANT SELECTION: A good selection of well maintained plants. Gates Woodlands Hinckley offer a one year guarantee on their hardy plants which is shorter than many of the larger garden centres. Having said that I would be hard-pushed to find any plant receipt in my house further back than a month, if that!
LAYOUT: About a quarter of the plants area is covered, the rest is open to the elements. The paths are wide and the impression of the whole area is one of uncluttered space.
The overall design is very simple, little effort has been expended to make it attractive. It is basically rows of plants with very little to give any interest to the area.
There almost no signs to indicate where plant groups are placed so you need to wander around to find specific plants. Paths are wide, on solid surfaces with no significant slopes. The area is easy to navigate for wheelchair users.
VALUE FOR MONEY: Roses start at £17, clematis start from £18. What surprised us was that some of the clematis (smaller than the others) were "end of season" reduced from £22 to £10. At £10 that's reasonable but for such small plants the original £22 was well overpriced. That aside, value for money is good for a garden centre of this type.
SIZE: The size of the interior sales area is large. The paths are wide and uncluttered giving the are a spacious fell to it.
Interior Sales area
LAYOUT: You will find all the normal goods for sale you would expect from a largish garden centre. The Food Hall was very pleasing with the benefit of a Walter Smith butchers.
Food Hall at Gates Woodlands
Garden accessories, clothes, garden furniture, barbecues, cards, gifts, homeware and more. They have a particularly large and interesting houseplants section.
Houseplants at Gates Woodlands Hinckley Garden Centre
VALUE FOR MONEY: Average for a large garden centre.
Excellent inside and out. The car park is immediately outside the entrance
and on level, hard ground. There are disabled parking bays.
ADDRESS:
Gates Woodlands Hinckley Garden Centre
Ashby Road,
Stapleton,
Leicester LE9 8JE
OWNER:
Gates Garden Centre, a family run business from 1948
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
01455 291494
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