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CAFE SUMMARY
FOR
Top quality food.
Very good prices.
Good service.
Outside seating area of cafe
AVERAGE
Position and layout of larger restaurant.
AGAINST
No vegetarian main meals when we visited |
CAFE REVIEW
Woodcote Green Garden Centre is unusual because it has a sizeable
cafe plus a larger restaurant. The cafe is in its own dedicated area
and has outdoor seating whereas the restaurant is simply inserted
into the interior sales area only separated from it by low level
walls.
The question we asked ourselves was why is the smaller cafe in its
own separate dedicated area whereas the larger restaurant has simply
been inserted into the garden centre area, and why does the cafe
have an outdoor seating area whereas the restaurant has none?
Whatever the reason, this review is primarily about the restaurant
in the main garden centre. We did take a peek at the Waterfall Cafe
and it looked fine, especially the outdoor seating area for sunny
days.
DECOR AND SEATING
Although the restaurant is simply inserted into the main garden
centre, low level white stone walls separate it from that area.
That's fine although we were not impressed by the extended seating
area outside of the walls, it definitely looked and felt like an
after thought.
The tables and chairs were plastic although the chairs were rafia
look-alike and the tables decorated. Not as good as solid wood but
better than plain plastic. Flooring was rustic looking real tiles
and the whole area kept clean and tidy.
QUALITY OF FOOD
The first meal we sampled was a Cajun chicken ciabatta roll with
tomato dip and chunky chips. Presentation was good and the roll was
served with crispy purple lettuce. The food is top quality because
when they say the chicken is free range, it certainly tastes so,
firm meat, thick slices and lots of it. The chips tasted as if they
they had been freshly cooked, no mean achievement in a restaurant of
this size.
The second meal we tasted was a larder plate for seven pounds and
this came with a delicious chicken liver pate, brie, free range
Sussex ham, home made chutney, vegetable sticks and a ciabatta roll.
Scrumptious is the only way to describe it!
SERVICE
All hot meals are served to you table and this worked fine. At
lunchtime on a Monday we had no queuing time at all and it took
about five minutes for the food to arrive at our table. This was
good service because the re4staurant was almost completely full.
THE PRICES
Main meals were from £7 to £8, sandwiches from £4.50 to £5,
baguettes £5.50 to £6, grilled sandwiches around the £6 price, soup
was £5, salads from £7 to £8, baked potatoes from £5 to £6, kids
meals £3.50 and cakes cost around £2.50. Basic filter coffee and tea
are £1.50, wines, beers and cider are also available. A variety of
breakfasts are served in the morning and a full English breakfast
costs £7.50.
Given the quality we refer to above these prices represent excellent
value for money.
CONCLUSION
Top quality ingredients, very well cooked and presented make this an
excellent restaurant choice. Combine this with very competitive
prices and the Woodcote Green Garden Centre restaurant has an
unbeatable formula. The only downside is the decor although the food
more than made up for this. We recommend them highly.
We hope you have enjoyed and benefited from this independent review
of the cafe at Woodcote Green Garden Centre. Remember that it is our opinion and may be the result of one visit
only. If you are the owner of Woodcote Green Garden Centre and want to discuss this review with us
then please contact us by going to our "contact us" page which can be found
here.
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