Dobbie's Garden Centre, Lisburn

marcowil

Dobbies is now open at Saintfield Road in Lisburn

They have a membership club/discount card. For £12 a year (£10 online) you get

• 10% off full price plants/bulbs/seeds
• Reward points/vouchers
• 20% off at member shopping events
• 2 FREE cups of tea/coffee a month (includes cappuccino/latte)

http://www.dobbies.com/Dobbies-Gardening-Club-Membership/pid-420214

You can also use your Tesco clubcard vouchers to buy the membership. £3 of Tesco vouchers gets you one annual membership.
http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=1204

If you take out the membership in the new store at the moment apparently you get a £5 voucher as well.

freddie_2

Dobbies is lovely, just watch temp of water in toilet sinks, no temp control and its really hot, esp for children.

Restaurant lovely as well.

BigAl94

I'm all for supporting the local garden centres and avoiding the big boys!

d90fbh

Has anyone eaten in Dobbies restaurant in Lisburn? What type of menu is on for Sunday lunch?

Thanks

marcowil

My friends had Sunday lunch there on the opening weekend - roast beef with all the trimmings. They thought overall it was good quality (and quantity). Their criticism was that the beef was sliced too thickly and a little pink for their liking, but did say that this was probably a personal taste thing. I had a latte and banoffee tart and would definitely recommend it :-)

relievedmum

Was there today for the first time and had lunch. Was absolutely delicious but felt it was a little steep at £6.95 for a bowl of stew. I think I just picked the wrong thing maybe - main meals all seemed to be about £7.95 ie lasagne, sweet chilli chicken etc. Kids meals were £3.95 - sausages, chicken nuggets (which were proper chicken breast), fish goujons etc with a choice of chips or the potato of the day and vegetables. They also had soups, sandwiches, paninis, crepes etc.

A HUGE choice which tbh was a little overwhelming at first - one of those places where you're not quite sure where to start.

I noticed they also had a "deli bar" which seemed to do "fancier" sandwiches/paninis etc and there were also a selection of tapas.

I will def be back though. Overall the whole centre is gorgeous but be sure to allow yourself plenty of time. I had just over an hour today and really didn't see most of it. Didn't see outside at all!!!

willie_p

Do Dobbies think the Ulster folk came down the Lagan in a bubble? I would see myself as a committed gardener, I like to visit garden centres on a regular basis, some centres can be quite expensive but when I visited Dobbies in my home city of Lisburn a couple of weeks ago I was truly amazed at the prices they were charging, what looked like a bargain was a complete rip off, they had at the front and in the main plant area skimmia rubella buy 1 get 1 free, thats all well and good untill you see the price.....£14.99, I was able to buy the same plant and IMO better quality for £5.99 in a garden centre fairly close by, their packs of 6 pansies and violas were £3.49 or 3 for £10, Ive never seen a pack of pansies for more than £2,99 in any garden centre including the more up market ones and in fact I usually pay around £2.50 per pack, One massive rip off I noticed was their bags of firewood in a red net.......£7.99, are they having a laugh, I buy mine from a local garden centre for £2.99, even the service stations which are expensive charge around £3.99 or £4.50 tops. If you like to feed the birds then beware of Dobbies prices, A 20KG bag of peanuts will set you back a whopping £45, the garden centre I go to regulary charges £32.99 and thats for a 25KG bag, Their compost prices are also through the roof, I just bought a 120lt bag of westland multi purpose compost recently from a centre for £6.99, The exact same compost in Dobbies will cost you £9.79. I also take issue with their so called 'Farm Foodhall' they use the word 'farm' cunningly to make you think 'farm shop' and local produce, closer inspection will reveal thats not strictly true, where there is a little bit of 'local' fayre including the butchery the vast majority is shipped in, even the eggs were from Staffordshire and again the prices seemed way above the norm. The same goes with their plants, Ive been reliably informed that Dobbies do not source their plants from local nurseries with exception of some bedding plants, I think this is an utter disgrace and I for one will not be stepping through the doors of Dobbies Lisburn ever again.

pinkfluffythings

Its lovely to have a look about and a wee day out but its a rip off. I'm sticking with Lough View Garden Centre!

Bigcammy

Donaghadee or Hillside for me!

willie_p

Bigcammy wrote: »

Donaghadee or Hillside for me!

Donaghadee Garden Centre is pretty expensive to buy from but even they are much better value and have a lot more character to it unlike the B&Q style plant area of Dobbies, If your going to spend 8million quid on a Garden Centre at least put some effort into the most important part of the Centre and thats your plant display, At the bottom of the plant area just past the £35 Hens (yes upwards of £35 and starting from £25, an average hen from local sources should be around a fiver rising to no more than £15 tops for special breeds) they had a 'Nature Trail' More like a very short path with no nature except some perrenials which had died back planted along side which led to an empty wooden shed with some posters on the walls. When we finished our hike aroud this trail we thought it might be nice to go for some refreshments in their soup kitchen sorry restaurant, first thing I noticed were the fruit scones priced at £1.59 each (which incidently were 79p just around the corner in their foodhall) When we looked further at the price of things we decided not to bother and made our way out of the building empty handed like a lot of other people and drove the short distance to Lisburn and headed to Daltons and had a lovely lunch for half the price of Dobbies. Hillside is a great centre and competively priced, I really enjoy visiting there and as someone that knows the value of plants and gardening accesories I can be assured that Im not being ripped off and its family owned unlike Dobbies/Tesco PLC

chrisnomates

I would agree that some of the prices are quite high but as a bargain hunter I found some good deals on stones compared to B&Q etc.
The most impressive thing I noticed was the display of cabins,sheds and play frames. They were exceptional quality for the price. There were expert sales men in a cabin near the display who realy know their stuff and could be spoken to on price. After a quick chat with one salesman it became apparent why the prices were so good. They were not part of Dobbies and were actually a local company who sell from within Dobbies. It put a smile on my face to know our local lads knew how to use the big boys to their advantage.

P.S. I walked away having ordered a 8x6 greenhouse for just £325 which is the lowest price I have ever seen one at.