The At Highfield Garden World - Stroud

This is a lovely garden centre. We had brunch in the restaurant but won't again. There were several large dogs in the restaurant and I don't like dogs. I was attacked by a dog when I was three and the memory is still with me and I am 76.

2 Sausage chips for the kids, 1 pie mash and a jacket potato 2cups tea £72! Outrageously expensive for very bland food. Restaurant dated and uncomfortable no atmosphere More like a school canteen! A few REAL plants might be nice!!! It is a garden centre after all!

I have been here a few times with family as the location is convenient for us to get to but it just does not get better each time. The staff in the shop are lovely but the restaurant is an entirely different story: the staff were rude and blunt, the food undercooked and cold, the bacon purely fat with no meat (also very much undercooked and inedible), the cutlery and crockery not cleaned properly. We were in just after opening so we expected all to be properly prepped and cleaned for the day. I had a sausage sandwich which I must say was very tasty and filling, having had the full English before I knew that the sausages were the only edible item, but all other food in our order was disappointing.

For several years we have been regular visitors to Highfield, especially the restaurant for their excellent coffee and delicious home made cakes. At lunchtimes there is plenty of choice. The salad selection is especially good. The staff throughout the centre are always cheerful, helpful and polite. Restaurant prices have risen somewhat recently but not excessively so. One point. We used to find occasional dogs in the restaurant but we feel that now there are too many, some indulged by their owners, allowing them to sit on seats and/ or bark. When exceptionally busy it can inevitably be noisy due mainly to the construction of the building. But this does not prevent us enjoying our regular visits to a garden centre that has been built up from scratch by a local family. There are too few of them around these days.

We used to make special visit to the Garden Centre from Bristol as the restaurant was so good and food was very high quality at a reasonable price, it was a real treat. How its changed since Covid, the happy head chef has gone, the buffet help yourself has gone, the choice has diminished, less vegtable choices, you get much less on your plate than you used to and is somtimes now served by grumpy staff. All of the above and the prices appear to change and climb evert time we visit to now unacteptable levels that makes it not worth it anymore. An example of main menu this weekend.... Beef Burger Pulled Pork Bagette Vegi Burger Specials... Cottage Pie Beef Stilton Pasty So main menu was all bread related. A man in front of asked if he could just have the Pasty but did not want anything else (not a full meal). He was told he would he have to still pay the full price. The answer back was yes and and so he said he would have some chips but there was nothing else that would go reslly with a pasty. So it cost him £13.95 for a pasty and chips he did not really want. We were so dissapointed with the choices so opted for the toasted sandwhiches for the first time. They looked nice, all wrapped in special paper. However we both struggled to digest them as they were undercooked and bread was soaked with some sort of oil which we can only assume would have helped the bread to be cooked. This made the bread soggy not crisp and toasty. It used to be a pleasure to visit the garden centre and we used to tell our friends how good it was, but know we dont rate it highly at all which is a real shame. Its as though a new set of owners have taken over and are cutting costs and increasing prices at same time to fund the so called imrpovements elsewhere which of course they are, but at the expense of its loyal customers.