Bin Liner or Bargain? Why the SOMIYAMI Tartan Picnic Blanket Gets One-Star Rants and Bulk Scout Orders

Sixteen Call It a Plastic Sheet, Forty-Eight Give It Five Stars

We went through all 81 reviews and tagged every one that describes the mat as thin, plastic, a sheet, a tarp, or "not a blanket". There are 16 of them, and they make up the largest complaint cluster by a wide margin. Twelve of the 16 are one or two-star reviews; the other four are three-star reviews from people who kept it anyway. Nothing else on the listing comes close: size complaints run to four reviews and smell complaints to three.

The wording in those 16 is remarkably consistent. J, two stars: "This should not be classed as a blanket. It is one piece of polyester with a tartan pattern on it. It does appear to be waterproof but the are no additional layers to it so it does not provide any comfort when sitting on it." Alexandra Santa, two stars, in the negative review with the most helpful votes on the listing (four): "Much thinner, than it claims to be.... if I knew this, I wouldn't have ordered it."

Now the other side. Of the 48 five-star reviews, 23 of the 81 total mention the size approvingly, and a run of them use it for exactly the job the sceptics say it fails at. What separates the two groups is not the product, it is what they expected. Laura, four stars, put it plainly: "I think I’d expected it to be a soft, ‘fluffy’ or fabric picnics blanket. It’s not, it’s a wipeable plastic coated one. In someways this is better, it just depends on what you intend on using it for." She used hers as a groundsheet inside her tent and described it as "more like a wipeable wooden floor than a carpet".

Read the rest of this review with that sentence in mind.

What Arrives: Oxford Top, PE Back, No Padding

The listing text says polyester oxford fabric with a "waterproof, moisture resistant, tear resistant and tough back". The listing images fill in what the text leaves out. One infographic labels the underside as "Bottom PE material" and shows it as a plain black plastic-looking layer, edged with a black binding strip. Another shows the closed parcel at 25cm x 17cm and the open mat at 150cm x 200cm. There is no foam, fleece or wadding layer anywhere in the pictures, and no reviewer reports finding one. Amelody, four stars, repeats the material line as "100% polyester oxford fabric" with a waterproof back.

So the construction is: a printed oxford top, a PE film bottom, bound edges, a velcro-fastening flap and a webbing handle sewn on with cross-stitching (the listing image calls it "cross-reinforced lines"). That is a groundsheet with a pattern on it.

The oxford top is where opinions divide. WW, four stars and eight helpful votes: "It's relatively thin but seems strong enough for withstand damage." Set against that, m clarke, three stars: "The material is awful; like a slippery plastic sheet. I perhaps should have read the description better." Vinereviewer1979 (five stars) and Robert Ross (three stars) land on the same two sides: thin but it works, or thin and it feels like plastic.

One thing the reviews confirm without much argument is that it wipes clean. The listing says a damp cloth on the underside is all it needs, and Frances (four stars, "easy to refold and wipe clean") and Michelle McCusker ("It washes well and dries super quick") back that up. Michelle actually cut hers into four and uses the pieces as spill mats and a changing mat, which tells you something about how much padding there is to lose.

The Jobs It Does Well: Car Boots, Scout Bases, Damp Grass

Strip out the "I wanted a blanket" reviews and what is left is a list of jobs where a wipeable 150 x 200cm waterproof sheet fits.

Damp UK grass. This is what it is for. sunkinthesand, five stars: "The underside is good and waterproof so you can lay it on wet grass without any issues." They used it in the garden "when the grass was damp but the sun was out". L. Davies found "on rough grass it was thick enough to be comfortable", which is a minority view on the comfort but a common one on the dryness.

The car boot. John Philcox keeps his "in the car boot folded in half because it also protects the boot from dirt if I am transporting something in the car", with the bonus that it is there when a picnic happens. Theresa Bacon bought hers as a boot liner: "waterproof so dogs don't get boot wet". Vinereviewer1979 and WW both mention it lives in the vehicle between outings.

Group activity bases. MJM's Beaver Scouts review is the strongest positive on the listing because it is a bulk buyer with a specific use: "bigger than most, wipeable(not a blanket) and the backing is strong. We have bought these to use for Beaver Scouts- taken on outings, hikes and general use outside for activity bases." Note the reviewer's own bracket: "not a blanket". The people who love it know what it is.

A tent groundsheet or footprint. Laura's tent-floor use is a single report, but it fits the construction. At 150 x 200cm it covers the floor of most two-person tents with a bit spare, and it packs to 25 x 17cm.

Capacity claims from reviewers line up with the listing's "4 to 5 people": Dinkyvenga had four adults on it and called that "perfect"; WW estimated room for about four to kneel or sit; Lynne Matthews found it "a great size for 2 and the dog".

Where It Loses People: Comfort, the Photos, and Three Smelly Deliveries

Comfort. There is none to speak of, and the negative reviews are right about that. Amki, two stars, is fair about it: "This product is a great size but is in essence and think plastic sheet. I wanted a blanket that was soft on one side. It is made well and if you just need a thick plastic sheet to sit on then this is for you." If you plan to lie on it for an afternoon rather than sit on it for lunch, you will feel every stone underneath.

The listing photos oversell the size. Four of the 81 reviews say the mat is smaller than the pictures suggest. Gary, two stars: "Small the picture not the same when you get it cant fit a whole family." Dinkyvenga (four stars) and Robert Ross (three stars) both say the same thing more gently: "Picture makes it look bigger than it is" and "not as spacious as the pictures show". The dimensions are printed on the listing, so this is a mismatch between the lifestyle shots and the number, not a wrong number. Measure 150 x 200cm on your living room floor before you decide it will seat a family of five with a hamper.

Smell on delivery. Three reviews report a strong smell out of the packaging. One reviewer in July 2024, two stars, said it "absolutely stinks", comparing it to "someone’s house who has smoked 40 cigarettes a day for the last 20 years". Susywonga in August 2026, one star, described "stale smoke" and binned it. Damien Grafton, one star: "Smells and uncomfortable." Three in 81 is not a pattern we would refuse to buy over, but it is a real one, and if a strong chemical smell bothers you, air it outside before the first use.

Waterproofing doubt. One four-star reviewer, Barrieann Bryan, wrote "Doesn’t seem to be waterproof" while still ordering a second one. Against that, at least eight reviewers state or confirm it kept the wet out, and the PE back is visible in the listing images. We would put this down to a single mat or a wet top surface rather than a design fault, but it is one review to know about.

The one-star reviews with no detail at all (a "piece of paper", "cheap plastic", "Poor quality dont buy") are all variations on the thin-sheet complaint. None of the 81 reports the handle tearing, the velcro failing, seams splitting or the print wearing off.

Folding, Carrying and the Creases You'll Live With

The pack-down is the part of the design nobody complains about. The listing shows a seven-step fold: fold lengthways into a strip, then concertina down to the flap and press the velcro shut. The result is the 25 x 17cm parcel with a webbing handle on top, and there is no separate bag to lose. sunkinthesand: "The matt has a velcro strip that allows it to fold in on itself and hold closed. There's no need for a separate bag." Redjasmine76, four stars, fits it in a backpack for "an impromptu sit on the grass", and Christianah Olukanni and G. Camburn both say much the same about refolding it. Nobody in the 81 says it is hard to close.

Weight is not stated on the listing, so we will not put a figure on it. What reviewers say is that it is light. Olga: "It’s very lightweight". redpizza says it is "easy enough for even the youngsters to carry without too much of a complaint".

The one cosmetic gripe is creasing. WW: "the look is slightly spoilt by how creased it is when opened out, but that it is the nature of the material used." A PE-backed oxford sheet folded into a small block will always open up creased.

A quick word on the colour. The listing variant reviewed here is blue tartan. Reviews on the page are pooled across colours (MJM mentions buying "different colours", WW describes a green tartan), so the comments about material, size and fold apply to the whole range, and comments about the pattern may refer to a different colourway.

Our Score Is 3.5, and One Question Decides Whether You Should Buy

The maths first. Recent average 4.01 from 81 reviews, lifetime badge 4.3 from 503. That gap of nearly three tenths is worth noting: the mat is rated a little worse today than its badge suggests. The largest failure cluster is 16 of 81 (about one in five) describing it as a thin plastic sheet, and 16 of 81 are one or two-star reviews. Below our rough "would not buy" threshold of 20 in 100, but not by a lot.

What stops us going lower is that the complaint is about expectations rather than defects. Nobody reports it breaking, and only one four-star reviewer doubts the waterproofing. The negatives are people who wanted a fleece-backed rug and got a groundsheet, and the listing images show a black PE underside and a fold-flat parcel, so the information was there. What stops us going higher is that the listing's lifestyle photos, and the word "blanket" in the title, invite that misunderstanding. A fifth of recent buyers fell into it, and a product that disappoints one in five is not a 4.

So the question: do you want to sit on it, or lie on it?

If you want a wipe-clean waterproof sheet for damp grass, a boot liner for the dog, a tent floor, a Scout activity base or something to fold into a pram basket for the park, buy it. The size is right for four adults, the fold is quick, the price is low enough that MJM bought a stack of them. Check the current price on Amazon and treat it as the groundsheet it is.

If you want something soft, padded, or that looks like a traditional wool picnic rug when it is unrolled, do not buy this. You will write the seventeenth "it's a plastic sheet" review. We covered a near-identical construction in our GUSUWU waterproof picnic blanket review, which is 200 x 200cm if you need the extra half metre and are happy with the same PE-backed idea. If you want padding, neither of these is it, and you should be searching for a fleece-topped, foam-backed rug instead.