Dobbies in Carlisle

"Please note I am only reviewing the Café on this occasion "My wife and I are new to the area and today along with our 2yr old Granddaughter we went for our first visit to the Carlisle Branch.We were so impressed with the exceptionally high level of service and customer care we received from four of the Cafe staff I simply had to praise them.Tina, Eileen, Kath and Michelle were all excellent. I advised them it was our first visit and they all helped us through the Children's soft play procedure explaining it all and the process of using the Café. All four Ladies were fantastic, Exceptionally Friendly, Happy and Helpful while also being extremely Professional, we Honestly felt Valued Customers by the time we left, these ladies are a credit to your Carlisle branch and you have Fantastic Brand Embassadors in each of them.Can you please pass on our Feedback to the ladies in question and also make both their line manager and General Manager aware of what "Stars" they have with these ladies.We visited today at 11.30am , visited the soft play area and also had lunch in the cafe . Beacause of the level of customer care we received from these ladies not only will we return but I am also going to apply for a Dobbies Card which we can use in future visits.Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

Great garden centre. A large range stuff you look at and choose from. The restaurant is lovely. Reasonably priced. The kids play area Is ok. The kids enjoyed themselves.

This place has nosedived when it comes to hygiene and service.Customers were picking up scones using their bare hands and swapping them for different ones. Surely scones and cakes could be wrapped to prevent this happening.Panini was prepared without the use of catering gloves..very off putting.Not too busy on this day but by the time we got served our coffees (25 mins)our meals were cold. Got refunded at till.Ladies toilets were a mess, toilet paper strewn all over the place.Poorly managed and sad to see this place going downhill.

Went in to try the restaurant.Glad we visited the toilets first...if that's the level of cleanliness seen in the public domain, I dread to think what the kitchens are like.Paper all over the floorExcrement all over toilets, I mean to be fair that's the people who have been using the facilities fault but surely they could be checked.One of the toilet seats was so rough and jagged it looked like it would cause an injury if anyone sat on it.Come on, prices charged in the garden centre surely you can provide safe loo seats???

We went for lunch. The que for food was ok. It wasn't clear that the staff were ready to take order, but once they were, we were served straight away.The food was really good. The only thing was there were no glasses to put our drinks in. We were given some when we asked.The toilet facilities were clean.The shop had a variety of goods. Sainsbury's part was well stocked, and I managed to buy goods that I cannot get in main supermarket.

Extremely disappointed today!I didn’t want to travel the 40-50 mile round trip today without being able to use the kids play area as I have 2 kids aged 2-4. I phoned about an hour ago to check specifically the play area would be open. On arrival with my family and grandparents for a fun afternoon and lunch, the kids area is closed for a private party. Very disappointed. Wanted to complain as we expressed disappointment to a staff member but they didn’t give two hoots. Not spending a penny here, off elsewhere and will question coming back.

We go for the sales mainly. Good shop, always random stuff in it. Plants are good quality. Staff are usually nice, bit pushy on the loyalty card but they are only doing their job.

This place is just so poorly run. Food choices in the canteen are poor and with an inept system; staff can be very rude; the soft play closes randomly with a notice that 'deep cleaning' is in progress (which a member of staff admitted to me was just a blag for not having staff to cover it); I once paid £10 for 2 bars of chocolate; and today I was told they had no bags at the checkout. YOU. ARE. A. SHOP. GET. SOME. BAGS!

Enjoyed the visit - stopped for lunch which was excellent except for the armchairs at the tables - seats are too low - should be the same height as the benches behind the tables near the wall. Found the chairs most uncomfortable to sit at the table - more like garden chairs. Sorry!!

Cafe was perfect. Clean and lovely scones and coffee. Sadly the ladies toilets were just awful...see photos. Such a let down for Dobbies.