A friend was out in Uddingston the other day, and went to Jollytots and Cookies with her daughter. She very kindly wrote a great review for the page. Thank you so much Aileen!

Here it is!

Cost

It costs £3 for an hour and a half play time. Pretty standard for soft play but there’s not as much stuff as you might find in soft play so maybe a little on the expensive side.

Set-up

Just over half of the room is a nice cafe, with a mix of comfy chairs and wooden table and chairs. Then there’s a play section at the bottom. It is designed to encourage imaginative, pretend play, so there is a wee kitchen, a shop, a pirate ship, a fire station etc. There is also a sensory type room that has the leather block type things that you get in soft play (if that makes sense). It is dark and has cool twinkling lights on the ceiling which my little girl loved. There is also a large private room at the back, which is used to host parties, but it was closed so i didn’t see it. Looks a good size though.

Pros

I like the idea – it’s different from standard soft play and it kept my little girl entertained. I like that there were different pretend parts as well e.g. boat, kitchen etc. There are also a couple of slides which she absolutely loved, and they were a good size for her.

The cafe itself is nice. I had a piece of millionaire shortcake which was delicious and a herbal tea. They also did a mix plate for children for £2.50 – it included strawberries, blueberries, cheese, slice of ham, cocktail sausages and satsuma section. It wasn’t a massive portion but it was enough for a toddler. All in I spent £9.50, including the play.

There is free parking around the corner which had loads of spaces when I went at 2.

Cons

It could benefit from a bit more detail in each of the sections to really bring them to life. For example, the shop had nothing on the shelves – admittedly kids had taken the things into other sections, but some more detailed paintings could have livened it up a bit.

It was great for toddlers, and would probably be good for kids up to the age of 4 or 5. But the lack of detail might put older kids off.

I had a slight safety concern as one of the slides and planks to walk up, weren’t attached to the walls. I was worried they could be pushed away, potentially causing a child to fall down and hurt themself.

It wasn’t as open plan as I’d thought, therefore you kind of have to be in there with them, particularly because of issue noted above, so not necessarily easy to drink your coffee!

Verdict

It’s a really lovely idea and my daughter enjoyed herself. But she wasn’t devastated on leaving. If you live nearby then it’s probably something you’d use a lot. But I’m not sure I would go out of my way to go there again. I would, however, go back if I was in the area. And it’s near the Tunnocks factory!!

Jollytots and Cookies is at 71 Old Mill Rd, Uddingston