The Garden Cafe - Carta

Visited yesterday for afternoon tea with the Easter bunny. It was lovely, the children had a brilliant time and the food, service and drinks were faultless. Also well done to the Easter bunny and the Mad Hatter!

Visited for breakfast. Signs were confusing, not for us but by the look of it everyone else! Breakfast choices were different and interesting so why was everything on the border of being cold. Laziness I'm afraid. Nothing was cheap but could have been really good

The old John Brown's cafe was sunny, classy, and a pleasant place for a coffee or meal. The new Hilliers cafe is like going into a dark warehouse. Industrial ceiling, lighting and floor. Not worth going now. Staff are still friendly and the quality of the food is good (though pricey). But with that ambience it's no longer worth visiting. Ver carta

I take my disabled Mum here fairly regularly for lunch or afternoon tea. Sadly the most recent visit was disappointing. The staff are not to blame, but another apparent change in restaurant manager has slowed the whole process down badly, and the resulting stress placed on the staff means that mistakes are being made. Go back to the previous system and we will return.

Went 18 months ago for a cream tea NO gluten free Scones, found a cake in a packet WOW ! Yesterday went for a light lunch soup we thought advertised with scone guess what No GF Scones or bread or roll took five minutes to work out if the soup was gluten free it was but who wants soup on its own. Staff helpful they blame head office complaints all the time they said. Waste of time if you are COELIAC

Well not very good ...Three lunches were ordered ...Curry on specials board contained no meat but did not say vegetarian, meat pie contained gristle and undercooked meat with overcooked vegetables and the fish and chips was adequate but chips were soggy. Staff did not know about lunch deal for over 60s and I had to ask for the dessert and free tea. Disappointed with what used to be a venue for tasty lunches Ver carta

Went in the cafe today and absolutely gobsmacked by the staff and food! It felt like we were an invonvenience to the staff, who were in an empty cafe and under no pressure. Manners cost nothing! I decided to go for the traditional breakfast....big mistake! £7.50 and as you can see by the photo, it was pretty damn awful. A thimble of beans, a cold tomato, dry bacon, 2 small sausages and the egg was rubbery. Wont be going back!

This restaurant is now operated by Hilliers Garden Centre but on Trip Advisor it is listed under the previous owner John Browns,so is difficult to find on TA The name of the food outlet is the Garden Cafe. The facility is clean/modern and the staff hard working but the food is expensive compared with other local similar establishments. Our meal today was simple: 2 x Ham Egg Chips 2 Teas 1 Scone and 1 Cake. Total cost: £27.46. The chips I believe were reformed frozen potato with poor taste, one egg was under-cooked ,the tea was in a small pot for two people and cooled rapidly with no additional hot water provided. There did not appear to be any person in charge with whom we could converse. Al...

My wife and I took my 88 year old mother who lives in Verwood to John Browns for lunch today . We arrived around 12;45pm and were surprised not to see the nice range of sunday roasts or pre made salads/ploughmans which we used to be served at the counter in the past. So we duly ordered from their menu , fish and chips, macaroni cheese and I had salmon fishcake with avocado and salad. We put our trays back,collected a couple of cup of tea and a can of Coke and my wife paid and we were given a number to put on table. There was a sign up saying there would be a 15-20 minute wait for food so we found a table and drank our drinks . 35 minutes after we placed our order the food arrived, fishcake d... Ver carta