Gardeners Retreat Tearoom, Scothern Nurseries Plant Centre

An afternoon trip out to the Gardeners Retreat Tearoom at Scothern Nurseries Plant Centre was more than welcome on one of the warmest days of the year.
For those who haven’t visited before, or for a while, Scothern Nurseries Plant Centre has been a labour of love for business partners Mandy Hackney and Paul Maxey and their team. My guest for the day reminded me of the first time they visited many years ago, when the nursery was at the back of a bungalow. Now in a modern, purpose-built building the nursery and tearoom are a fantastic addition to this village.

We opted for a later lunch and didn’t join the team until mid-afternoon but the garden area was still relatively full with customers enjoying meals, cakes and coffees.

Their menu ranges from sandwiches and light bites to more substantial meals. We made our way outside to decide on what we wanted to order and to have a chat with Mandy.

Although the jacket potatoes and sandwich menu options sounded lovely, my guest and I had both worked up an appetite and fancied something a bit more substantial. The kitchen stops serving cooked meals after 2pm, but they were more than happy to accommodate our orders. Their two for £9 meals menu (served only on Tuesdays) included dishes such as lasagne, scampi and southern fried chicken all served with chips and peas. Their biggest sellers include their scampi and light bite ham sandwich and chips.

I chose the scampi as I do enjoy fish dishes when dining out, while my guest chose the southern fried chicken. Both dishes came out very warm and looked very well cooked. The portion size was also large, so a healthy appetite is needed, which wasn’t a problem for us. It didn’t take us long to clear our plates and although excited to try some of the homemade cakes, we did have to leave it a while.

All the team in the tearoom were extremely welcoming and made us feel at home. I always enjoy it when the staff interact with their customers, and they made it a very relaxing visit.

When we were sufficiently prepared we went up to choose our cake. With many different flavours to choose from, I eventually chose the malteser cake, with my guest opting for the salted caramel. Both sponges were very light and again were ‘proper’ portion size. We enjoyed these with a lovely coffee.

Although the team were ready to go by the time we left, we had had an excellent experience and look forward to our next visit.

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