Harvester Stanway Colchester — Restaurant in Colchester

Visited this evening. Very quickly shown to our table. The person waiting on us came fairly quickly and asked if we needed a couple of minutes which we agreed as we hadn't decided what we wanted yet. They were very observant and noticed when we were ready. They were very pleasant and we were happy with the service. The drinks came quickly and the food in good time, we also visited the salad bar. We ordered the triple combo which was really nice. We were asked if everything was OK. We enjoyed our meal and service right up until we asked for the bill, before we could mention we had a voucher they went to retrieve our bill, on their return I said I asked if they accepted the Blue light voucher, there was no reply they just snatched my phone out of my hand and walked off to their till with it. It happened so quickly my husband didn't even notice what had happened he only saw them storm off after slamming the tray with the bill and muttering something under their breath, and said it to be rude, and noticed their attitude had changed when we said we had a voucher. They didn't come back with a card reader just my phone with a new bill, we asked another server for a card reader which they said they would get our server, They came with a card reader and walked off . I finished the payment then they came back and wished us a nice evening but even that felt forced. I wanted a nice evening out with my husband and after our meal we wanted to stay for a couple of drinks but after the experience we had we just wanted to get out of there. I thought this could be an isolated experience but there is another review left by a customer with a similar experience to ours only a few weeks ago. The experience would not put me off visiting this harvester again but I would certainly asked to be moved if we had the same server and keep my phone from being taken from me without...

We spoke to the shift supervisor kirsty who was very helpful, as the service from Gill was very very poor to put in polite words, she was very slow, didn't ask if anyone had an allergy on the table, I'm allergic to nuts, it wasn't mentioned when we was told where to sit, at this point the rest of the table was sitting I was parking. There was no check in on how the food was, asked for some more drinks but never got them bit got told that she, Gill, didn't know what was going on with the bar and didn't bother to check or chase them, we then requested for them to be removed from the bill as we didn't get them. Gill wasn't happy about that. When food was brought over items where missing, so she brought over some of the missing items and didn't want to check to make sure we had everything or apologise for the issue. We the waited a very long time after eating for the plates to be taken away and to receive the desert menu, so much that we went looking for them. While waiting for her to come back to take the order there was another gent, waiter, taking an order while sitting on the table in a different section and didn't bother to clean it after, very hygienic.... not, when we got the desert we had ice cream in a very hot glass, so most of it was melting before even getting it. It seemed like the staff, minus kirsty, was more interested in chatting to each other by the kitchen and talking to friends that come in and stand in the middle of the restaurant, where 1 female waiter hugged someone while holding napkins and then placed them back on the pile of the others, how does the customer know that they are clean. Over all this was a very poor experience where kirsty then brought it up form being...

Poor service when we were half way through our starters, the waitress brought out our main meals yet we were unprepared for this and felt as though we were being hurried which as I explained to the girl at the time, was unacceptable. She just seemed to laugh at me and said 'What do you want me to do with it then?' I said take it away and bring back fresh food later when we had all (4 adults) finished our starters. Not at all impressed by this!! AND the Salad cart items (lettuce ) was still frozen and had black leaves where the lettuce was off and should not have been served to the public; similarly some of the food was very very cold and seemed as though it had only just come out of a freezer or fridge but was not edible for example the potato salad had small frozen pieces in it. My chicken breast was burnt and clearly had been re-heated and tasted like a charcoaled piece of chicken. Admittedly I was paying for the 'Sunday offer' deal of two courses for £17.49 but even so I feel we deserved better food- particularly as clearly what the server did was take the food away during our starter and keep it to one side, just re-heating it and re-serving it to us. The chicken breast was swamped in BBQ sauce and a slice of bacon across it. It was very disappointing all in all and I declined having a dessert as the rest of the meal was spoilt by the server making us feel uncomfortable with 'hurrying us' along. I would appreciate a call to discuss this as the salad cart had some serious issues regarding cleanliness and the food offered....