Harvester Redgrove Cheltenham — Restaurant in Cheltenham

Before Anything else is typed, I would just like to point out that I am a manager in hospitality, so I understand the struggles and challenges of day to day service.

When we got into the venue, we were confronted with an empty restaurant, except for one table. There was no one to greet us, as both members of staff were stood behind the bar chatting away, whilst the restaurant was covered in dirty tables.

We were shown to our table, which clearly hadn’t been wiped from its previous use, meanwhile, Emily, who I can only assume was a manager due to her lack of uniform, and our waitress Sharon, resumed their obviously interrupted conversation. When all four members of our party were sat, we waited for 10-15 minutes for either member of staff to come over to even take as much as a drinks order.

Sharon came over and served us. Now what i will say is, is that, although not attentive, Sharon’s manner of service was lovely.

We put in our order for food and drinks and waited. With clear view of the Kitchen and service pass, we watched our 4 breakfasts sit there for about 15 minutes whilst the chef, clearly with some off timings added our eggs 5-10 minutes later. Now what baffled me, is that when our breakfasts arrived my poached eggs were stone cold in the middle and were solid.

The rest of the food was okay, however not very warm.

A check back was done by Sharon, however I did not mention the eggs. Which was silly of me thinking back, as it’s frustrating when someone doesn’t inform you about a resolvable issue. However I felt as though mentioning this issue would be more of a hindrance than a help.

Three of us had refillable drinks, however there was a technician working on the dispense machiene, so we were unable to use it in the normal way. Although the staff were aware of this, Emily and Sharon continued to just stand behind the bar chatting and laughing whilst I collected the empty glasses and went up the bar myself, halfway through my meal, to get some refills at the bar.

This was when i had my one and only interaction with Emily, and wow. Everything was too much trouble for her, it was like I had inconvenienced her by daring to interrupt her chatter session. I proceeded to ask for three refills, one of which couldn’t be done due to the bar not stocking the product. As she started pouring she completely ignored me, a customer, and carried on chatting away with now two staff members. She left all three glasses on the bar and walked off, didn’t offer me a hand to tale them back, or even a tray.

Her overall domineer was rude, uninviting and uninterested. The fact that she could stand there as a manager/supervisor or whatever position she may hold and allow the restaurant to look like a mess, the service be less that adequate and the food to be sub par, whilst, at this point, there was a about 4-5 tables in, is beyond me.

Not mention, a gentleman, who seemed to be an a previous employee, began cleaning his own table, although it been empty for about 20-25 minutes.

As it got slightly busier we noticed that there was a more mature lady that had started working. I just wanted to say that this woman was a machine and was doing eighty percent of the work whilst Emily and Sharon continued to just stand around and do next to nothing.

The toilets were also disgusting with only one out of six cubicles had toilet roll.

As a manager in the same industry, working for a corporate company, I know that there are so many things put into place to ensure basic hygiene and service standards are upkept. So it makes me nervous that basic compliance checks aren’t even being completed.

Honestly a terrible experience. Some people should not work in this industry and perhaps Emily should...

I feel like this place has been getting worse every time we come in for the last 2 years. Firstly the pasta and potato salad at the salad bar…since it’s changed it’s been getting more comedic. Today it was basically just plain pasta with no sauce! Whoever works in the kitchen clearly can’t cook a steak right, this has happened twice. When we sent it back we got told it would take 20 mins for a new one! Although there were only about 6 tables of customers? In the end my partner and our 2 year old both finished their food whilst I was still waiting for mine. I told the waitress to cancel it as I lost my appetite and my little one was getting bored. Crap experience to say the least. Just as I didn’t think it could get any worse… she comes back with a £50 bill, including an OVER CHARGE on the steak meal that I did not have! You couldn’t make this up honestly. And to top it off she says “I didn’t know if you wanted me to take it off” well… I didn’t eat it did I, so why should I be paying for it? The waitress was lovely in general, but could tell she was a little nervous as even she was shook at the state of my steak. I ordered medium-well and received near enough rare / medium rare!! The manager was hesitant about taking anymore money off as compensation for the really awful experience. The young waitress kept apologising, yet the manager said nothing. Then he walked off, and logged out of the till so then the waitress had to chase him down for his till key! Absolute shambles. Sort your food out and your kitchen staff. It’s sad as we’ve been coming to harvester for 10 years, after many disappointing experiences… today was...

I went with my good friend yesterday for some food and a catch up. She used to work here and said it was a good place to grab a bite to eat.We hadn't booked so were hoping to be seated but wouldn't mind in the bar area if needed. The host working or maybe a team leader said we will struggle to find a table in a blunt tone, which could have been worded a lot politer. We were then seated in an area with a waitress whose name I never got, but she had blonde hair, which was up and glasses. We were waiting 45 minutes to be served anything..even drinks and waited even longer again for food. This all would have been okay if there had been some communication or a reason as to why the wait was so long but the waitress interacted with us once the whole time, which is also unprofessional. I assume this person knew the ex employee but this is no excuse to leave a table waiting. A customer is a customer regardless surely? We decided to go to the bar to pay as we did not want to wait longer again. The bar man was lovely and sorted our bills right away so thanks to him. Then as we were leaving we hear the host or possible team leader that greeted us earlier loudly discussing my mate used to work here and what sounded to be a rude and unpleasant interaction with her team about my friend. What an appalling and shocking attitude displayed from members of your team. With every job, you will have to serve and meet people that perhaps you're not keen on but that is no excuse for rudeness and making this person feel uncomfortable in a place they once worked. I can see why she moved...