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Grange Garden Centre
Garden Centre Reviews
The Grange Garden centre really has the gardening business tagged
onto a large and up-market restaurant and a shop selling a full range of
skiing equipment and accessories. This is a totally independent GardenAction opinion of the Grange Garden
Centre in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. Click any picture to enlarge
it. PLANTS AREA
The outdoor plants area at the Grange Garden Centre is attractively laid
out and had part of it covered with what looked like fine mesh. The weather was dry at
the time of our visit but the mesh cover didn't appear to be water-proof although we may be
wrong.
Click the picture on the left to see a larger version of primroses for sale at the
Grange garden centre. The flowers on all of them have clearly been damaged by the
weather. A nearby garden centre visited at the same time had undamaged primroses which
gave a superb, healthy display. We were not impressed by the quality of the plants at
the Grange. They all looked a bit worse for wear compared to other garden centres at
this time of year. INDOOR SALES AREA
The indoor sales area at the Grange Garden Centre consists of three sections. The
skiing section (see specialities below), a gift and card section and finally the
gardening section. The gift area (larger than the gardening area) is well laid out
and stocks a good range of gifty items. The gardening section stocks a small range
of gardening accessories and equipment. Far less than it should for the average
garden centre. CAFE
The panini on the right was a far throw from 90% of the paninis we have been
served at garden centre cafes. Real tasty slices of bacon smothered in brie and then freshly
cooked. It was a real panini not one of those massed produced ones with fake brown marks on
them to fool you into thinking they had been char grilled. The prices were very reasonable for such top quality food. The panini cost
�6 and the burger cost �7. Other prices were soup �4.50, toasties �4.50, jacket potatoes �5,
main meals around �8.50, breakfasts �5 to �7. There is a licensed bar which serves beers
(real draught beer as well), wines and spirits. On Sundays the Alpine restaurant serves a roast dinner type menu and judging
by the food we sampled on a Saturday, it will likely be a delight.
The only down side to all this praise was the appallingly slow service we received. From being directed to a table through to receiving our food took us over 50
minutes, something which is not acceptable in a top restaurant let alone a garden centre
cafe / restaurant. This was on a Saturday lunch time in January. The bottleneck is caused by
all the food and drinks being waitress served to your table. You can't even collect your own coffee and cakes. After about half an hour of waiting for food we began to look round to see
how long it was taking for others to be served. To be truthful, it seemed that the service
we received was the worse in the room. It seemed that average wait in the restaurant was 20
to 30 minutes. PET CENTRE AQUATICS GARDEN SHEDS / GREENHOUSES WATER FEATURES SPECIALITIES TOILETS CAR PARKING DIRECTIONS AND CONTACT Tel: 01664 812802 A map can
be found
HERE Our sat nav had difficulty getting us to the Grange Garden Centre. However,
there are tourist signs once you get to the area. DISABLED ACCESS OPENING HOURS SUMMARY Clearly the ski side of the business was doing well and to our uninformed
eyes, the range looked extensive. However we have not taken it into account in the ratings
below because it is not gardening related in any way. The restaurant offers top quality home made food at very competitive prices.
It was totally spoilt by the long waiting time we encountered. Other customers were subject
to a shorter waiting time but even that was unacceptable. STAR RATINGS
AREA RATED
STAR RATING
Plants
Indoor sales
Cafe
Overall rating
UPDATE
We will visit later in the year to check progress and look forward to the excellent quality
food served at the Grange Garden Centre.
Grange Garden Centre
Click the picture to enlarge it.
There is a medium sized selection of shrubs and ornamental ornamental trees. The range
of pots was good for a garden centre of this size.
The food at the Alpine restaurant of the Grange Garden Centre is top
quality and the prices are good. The beef burger on the left really was homemade and
consisted of top quality beef perfectly seasoned. It was cooked to perfection.
The restaurant was very unusually and attractively laid out. Not
surprisingly the theme was alpine with wooden clad walls and real solid chunky tables
and chairs. The legs of the tables appeared to be made from reclaimed beamed ceiling
rafters, a great effect. It was spotlessly clean.
There is no pet centre at this garden centre.
There is no aquatics centre at The Grange Garden Centre.
None were seen at the time of our visit.
We saw none.
The Grange Garden Centre specialises in ski equipment. From skis to cold weather clothing,
it's all here. They will even hand service your skis for you and they provide a complete
hire service.
The toilets were clean and functional.
The car park was gravel which would make wheelchair access to it difficult. At the time
we visited (January) it was about 65% full.
The address is:
The Grange,
Asfordby Hill,
Melton Mowbray,
Leicestershire LE14 3QU
Email: http://www.houghtys.co.uk/contact-us/
Website:
http://www.houghtys.co.uk/
Disabled access was good all round.
Monday to Saturday 9.00 to 6.30
Sunday 10.00 to 4.00
The garden centre aspect of this business appears to be secondary to the skiing and
restaurant side. The plants didn't look as healthy as we expected and the range was limited.
The selection of gardening accessories was also limited. The indoor sales area was adequate
but uninspiring.
The lowest rating is 1 star, the highest rating is 5 stars.
(but see the
summary above).
A few days after this review was first published, the owner of the Grange contacted us. He
was aware of the service problems in the restaurant on that day, and explained that this was
due to unavoidable staff absence. He also noted that that quality of the plants in the
outdoor area had been badly affected by the recent snow. This was being remedied
immediately.