Whitakers

Mick Widnes

Apr 03, 2018

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I have never been here prior to today, I was told it was ok so checked their website for opening times and noticed they had a full English breakfast for 5 so my partner and I headed down. On arrival, we had a look around and found the "greasy spoon" at the back of the garden centre and headed over and noticed next to it there where some garden chairs, one with a big bird poop on it which tells me they must get birds flying around in there and as its all open this will include the cafe. Anyway, I wasn't impressed (very dated cafe, underwhelming with serviettes stuffed under table legs) but thought let's give it a go we are here now. No menus on the table but found them at the end of the counter, had a quick look at it and again found the full English breakfast with tea, toast for 5 so ordered two. That's 12, please! Hmm, I'm sure I just heard 12 so asked how come as it says 5 on the menu. Oh everyone says that it's actually 6 the breakfast menu is here and pointed to a small blackboard, you get an extra piece of bacon, extra egg and beans. Wow, it would have nice to have been given the option of either, so not a good start charging more than advertised. Why advertise it at 5 when its 6? You have to get your own cutlery nearly every knife, fork spoon I picked up was dirty so picked the best out the worst, even another customer commented on how dirty they were. The actual cutlery I think came from the garden centre, the forks are huge, you could dig your garden over with them and again dated, I'm sure I saw Henry VIII using one in an old museum painting. So the breakfast arrived and straight away the smell of dirty fat, cheap bacon and precooked warmed up food nearly made me sick, I said to my partner this stinks of old fat and I cant eat it but she persuaded me to at least have a go, mainly to stop me getting irate over it. Anyway, at least it was hot which is expected, the eggs fine freshly cooked but absolutely swimming in grease, the hash brown was ok but the cheap bacon, sausages and mushrooms had all been reheated in what looks like a deep fat fryer with old fat, thick with grease and well overcooked. The toast was cold and you could tell it was cheap bread and the tea well took a couple of sips and left it, cheap teabags, it was like dishwater. So we both tried to eat some of it as just paid 12 but we gave up, my partner left most of hers, I had a bit more as I hate wasting "food" and my stomach is stronger than hers but we are suffering now, we can still smell it after a couple of hours and even thinking we actually ate some of it makes us ill. If we hadn't paid for it we would have just walked out as soon as it was put down, it was that bad. My partner wanted to say something but I said leave it, we didnt go out to moan and try and get our money back, we just won't go back ever again. So if you fancy a "deep-fried" greasy tasteless breakfast with cheap ingredients then you will be fine here. Note these are our views, they may not be the same as others, some may agree some may not however this is what we thought about the food and service on the day.

Jenny Ambrose

Dec 06, 2017

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Visited the Christmas grotto yesterday, aswell as a lovely experience, the chap on the counter sorting out photographs etc was lovely, and made it so much more festive! Great customer service!

Sandra Walker

May 14, 2017

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This place has everything you could possibly want for your garden, and then some! From garden furniture to plants and all kind of pots, from solar fountains to garden decorations, this is the place to go. Would highly recommend!