Howdens Garden Centre

The garden centre itself is pretty good but it's really let down by the café. They have a good selection of gardening stuff and a reasonable array of ornaments, outdoor clothing, gifts, books, cards and (mostly) local food produce in the indoor shop. The café, however, is quite poor. It's OK from an accessibility point of view... plenty manoeuvring room and a lowered counter, and the centre's toilets are here, including a good-sized accessible cubicle. However, the food is mediocre at best and the less said about some of the staff the better. I had a very average toastie and Dad had what looked like an OK sandwich. The filling of coronation chicken was apparently delicious though. The big problem was my Mum's bacon sandwich... the bacon was so rubbery and tasteless that I'm not convinced it wasn't actually facon. Teas and coffees were fine, and the wide selection of cakes looked really good, but I'll avoid it for anything more substantial in the future. Accessibility is a big plus in the centre's favour.