There seems to be a bit of a correlation between getting older and enjoying a good garden centre visit at the weekends – especially on Bank Holidays. Well, for me, anyway.
It’s not just that, though: when the weather’s not particularly amazing, a good garden centre has the surprising ability to keep a reception-age child entertained – and the Cadbury Garden Centre in Congresbury certainly falls under the definition of “good garden centre”.
Part of the Blue Diamond group, it’s a seriously sizable place which was an instant hit with the child thanks to the giant spade sculpture out the front, the swing seats to test out and the low-flying aeroplanes overhead, travelling to and from Bristol Airport. Inside, as well as your regular gardening and garden decor-related bits, there’s a wide range of gifts, a pet shop, and a well-stocked farm shop including an impressive meat counter. Perhaps of less appeal to small people and more appeal to their parents, there’s also an area stocked top to bottom with a decent selection of gins.
It’s the type of place where you can easily while a good few hours – and if you get hungry while doing so there are two options available: a coffee and cake place near the front entrance, and The Park restaurant at the back of the Cadbury Garden Centre building, serving more substantial lunchtime fare.
It’s a place that’s designed in keeping with the garden centre vibe, with white fences and artificial hedges, creepers, trees, lampposts and other such decor giving the place an outdoors feel. When you walk in you’ll spot a counter lined with a huge number of domed cake stands to your left, a chiller filled with salads, savouries and sandwiches to your right, and a sign straight ahead inviting you to find a table before you place your order at the counter.
It’s an enormous place and it was a busy Saturday, but thanks to the sheer size of The Park at Cadbury Garden Centre it was easy to find a table. What wasn’t so easy was choosing our food: the menu is similar in size to the venue itself. As well as the sandwiches (both regular and toasted), the savouries and the deli salads that we spotted on our way in, there are jacket potatoes with a choice of seven fillings, soups, hot main meals and sides. There’s also an impressively varied kids’ menu with eleven different choices, all ranging between the £5.50 and £7 mark.
We loved the presentation of the classic fish and chips (£13.50): the zingy tartare served in a mini flowerpot was a nice touch that fitted with the surroundings. The sustainable cod fillet was a decent size and cooked well, the batter perfectly thick and crunchy – just a bit on the oily side. The gourmet chips were beautiful, thickly cut, but did have the slight hint of an overdue fryer oil change.
The chicken kebab skewers I’d been eyeing up were off the menu for the day which meant a last-minute pressurised decision was in order…and it was the maple-glazed ham (£11.95) that caught my eye. It was also the maple-glazed ham that meant I didn’t need an evening meal that day, as it was absolutely enormous.
The thick slices of ham took up over half the plate, overlapping the sides, and the two fried eggs were beautifully cooked – yolks perfectly runny for dipping the chips (same old oil flavour here, sadly). I loved the flavour that the caraway added to the red cabbage salad, and the golden beetroot piccalilli was punchy and sweet – could have done with a smidgen more, though, with the amount of ham that was there.
The Park restaurant at Cadbury Garden Centre truly does have a captive market: it’s pretty easy to spend a good few hours wandering round the garden centre which definitely builds up an appetite! With plenty of variety on the menu, reasonable prices, short waiting times given the size of the place and decent food (just a shame about those chips), it’s likely that we’ll be eating there again during a future visit.