Garden Centres

I don't know about you, but I often like to stop for a cuppa when I'm browsing round a garden centre.
I'm not a tight person by a long chalk, but why are refreshments at these places so very dear? Just a small coffee and a scone the other day cost me nearly £4 and I think that's a rip off.
Is it dear where you go too?

Re: Garden Centres

We usually just have a coffee when we visit our large Garden Centre, it's Starbucks and costs £1.99 which I thought wasn't too bad. I refuse to have anything to eat there though as they charge £2.99 for a slice of cake! I could buy a whole cake for that in Sainsbury's!

Re: Garden Centres

Yes, Mups they are quite expensive but the homemade cakes are delicious.

Re: Garden Centres

They say 'Homemade' Cinderella, but that only means made on the premises, it doesn't mean with fresh ingredients.
I once worked for a very short time in the kitchens of a garden centre and even though they made the cakes on the premises, they never used fresh ingredients, they were all catering size packet mixes they just added water or milk to, even the eggs were powdered.

Re: Garden Centres

I paid £2.60 for a pot of tea for two yesterday - quite reasonable. We never eat in those places, we go to village pubs for that.

Re: Garden Centres

I don't dare eat out these days but our squires does a nice pot of tea and a scones for £4.25, we manage to make the tea do 3 of us and the scones feed two. So quite happy to buy it very occasionally.

They even do a doggy bag if we don't eat it all. Probably think we are mad but doggy likes a bit of scone too

Re: Garden Centres

Don't forget some dried fruit can be toxic to dogs though Julie.

Re: Garden Centres

We have lunch when we visit ours. Usually a toasted sandwich, with a little salad and coffee, comes to about £11

The restaurant is always so busy - full of well dressed pensioners, and the staff are chatty, a lovely atmosphere.

Finishes off our shopping trip nicely

Re: Garden Centres

Never made one ill yet even with a little chocolate. Actually it's the little that is the key give a dog a pound of chocolate or a large amount of dried fruit and you have a sick dog, one sultana or a tiny bit of chocolate doesn't seem to cause any problem. And it's only very occasionally too.

Just keep mine off turkey and pork - none of them have had any luck digestively with those meats.

Re: Garden Centres

I don't normally have any refreshment at garden centers but my DIL took me to a large well known one and we took the children into the coffee shop.

Fortunately I didn't have to pay but the coffee was dreadful and the cake was like very sweet sawdust. I know it was very expensive though.
I think these places often charge a lot because they know people are out for a trip and they can get away with it.