Swarkestone Nursery & Garden Centre Reviews 

Well where do I start.. ordered food at 10.30am thought how quiet it was.. ordered my food and tea. Tea came within 5 mins okay.. then at 11.00am still no food, just about to ask the question re:food and couple said next to us they waited ages too.. their food came wrong also. Anyway food finally came and I now know why taken so long, looking at the state of the poached eggs.. also sausage sandwich was freezing has I saw it standing for about 5 mins. How they can bring out eggs in that state is beyond me.. they said they were busy with a big order ! 😂 I saw at least 6 workers waiting around doing nothing at the counter, they said they would change the eggs, but didn’t want to wait again. Then they said they will be ready now 🤷🏻‍♂️. Unbelievable.. stay away not the best place.. also didn’t like the sniggering behind the counter when my wife made the complaint.. so unprofessional

A wonderfully staffed and run garden centre which is well stocked with a lovely selection of well cared for plants. The restaurant has been beautifully refurbished together with gift shop, which has a good selection of cards and gifts. Would thoroughly recommend.

Look, this is a good, large garden centre, but this is about the restaurant.
Can someone tell me why so many items on the menu end at 11.30 am? If you are asking for a full breakfast, then fair enough. But no eggs on toast? When eggs are available with ham and chips? No sausage sandwich but ok in sausage and mash?
Ended up with two coffees, and went to Derby Garden Centre.

The refurbished restaurant looks far better than before, the service was brilliant and indeed improved upon before the refurbishment, however, here it comes the quality of the food (lunch time cooked meals) has declined almost beyond belief, dried up carrots, crispy salmon fishcakes so crispy you couldn't cut into them, plenty on the plate but unfortunately can no longer recommend having a cooked meal here these days. 29/05/2026.

Visited this garden centre today and was shocked at the sheer neglect of the plants on sale. A good proportion were either already dead or not far off. What was remaining were dry and clearly wilting. I would always much rather support an independent garden centre than a larger chain as I know how challenging it can be for small businesses. However whoever is running this company has either no understanding of how to grow plants or just don’t care. I would seriously recommend avoiding.

We experienced the smaller portion breakfast yesterday and quite frankly the portion size to cost is so expensive. We actually left still hungry. I appreciate you have a wage bill and your produce is locally sourced but you should still offer good value. Having eaten at several garden centres, in the area, this is by far the worst for value and portion size. We tried, and we actually thought the restaurant looks really good, but the prices and size of the plate served is truly a rip off.

The portion of your £8.99 Gardeners Grill breakfast is quite frankly appalling. It should be classed as a kids meal. £25 for two tiny breakfasts, with a large piece of toast and two coffees is simply not good. Our mistake for calling in when passing. The likes of Staunton Harold and Bretby garden centres are much better value to portion size.

From booking by phone to our visit today our afternoon tea experience was superb! I spoke to Nikki a couple of weeks ago to book and she carefully took details of our "likes & dislikes" and we arrived today to our specially reserved table beautifully set out. All staff were friendly, helpful and attentive and our 3 individual afternoon teas arrived exactly as I had ordered. Delicious!
We are already planning our next visit............
Thank you so much.

In the nursery there are a huge range of plants and staff are very knowledgeable should you have any questions. There are a wide range of plants.
However there has been a change to the restaurant. You can't see what is being cooked any more because a huge lots of boarding has been placed in front of the hot food area. It was nice to be able to view the food to help you decide what to choose, you can no longer do this. It seems very impersonal doing this. The only thing on view are the cakes. The chips I would not have again because they seem very over cooked. The homemade soups are satisfactory.

Amzing place if woder

They have now Banned dogs, ive lived up here for a couple of years and i like to support local businesses where possible. I buy all my garden stuff and bird feeds from here sorry did, well if they dont want my money i shall take it elsewhere such a shame as i liked going there

Once again we had a great time in the restaurant, we were looked after by Sue, she made us feel right at home. The cream tea was brilliant lots of different sandwiches, shortbreads, mini cakes, two pots of tea and ofcourse fruit scones and strawberry jam with lots of fresh cream. We'll worth the money. plus we managed to get plants for the garden too.