Harvester Beacon Quay Torquay — Restaurant in England

Unfortunately we have had an unpleasant experience again at this Harvester, we came last October while on holiday and were disappointed with the time it took to get our food considering the restaurant was half empty, we thought that experience was a one off due to visiting out of peek season and that surely it would be better visiting on our holiday this year in the week before May half term. However we were disappointed again.

When we arrived we were told there were no tables in the main restaurant due to there only being one waitress working, we should have seen this as a warning and left then but we accepted an offer of a table in the bar area and ordered our food at the bar.

As I joined the queue at the bar the man in front of me turned and said I should "go somewhere else, this place is a mess" in hindsight we definitely should have left then but I joked about it and said we would give it a go, (at this point the man and his wife started to complain to the manager about their bill), while standing in the queue for quite a while the two couples in front of me got fed up and left, I was now standing behind a group of people trying to paying their bill, however they we also stating that their bill was wrong, in the end they had to call the manager Shannon over ,we really should have left now but I waited for their problem to be solved and then placed our food order with Megan who was friendly and helpful.

I then went back to sit with my family and enjoy our salad bowls, which it was a good job we had because our food took 45 minuets to come to our table. When it arrived and my husband cut into his steak on his 'wing n wave combo', which he had ordered medium, he found it was very well done. We spoke to Shannon and she was very helpful, she took the steak away and said she would get a new one cooked. After she had gone my husband continued with he meal only to find his chicken was over cooked and dry, he went to speak to Shannon again and said to cancel the steak as he wasn't happy with the rest of the dish, especially after a 45min wait. Shannon was very helpful once again and refunded his meal, however she did say a 45min wait is normal.

Me and the kids then finished our mains and I went to let Megan at the bar know that we were ready for the kids puddings and I returned to the table. 20mins later and we were still waiting for the kids ice cream so I went to speak to Shannon again, she said she would go and find out where the puddings were, shortly after the icecreams arrived. The kids ate there ice cream and after about 2 hours we left the restaurant with our minds made up that we would not be going there again.

We can't fault Megan and Shannon they were friendly and helpful and did everything they could to help us, however the restaurant was clearly understaffed and they were left to deal with the fallout.

Unfortunately after these two negative experiences, if we are holidaying nearby again we will not be giving this Harvester another go and we won't be recommending...

Not the best very anti customer….disorganised and understaffed. We went for lunch and it took ages to get our food and when it arrived it was dry and inedible, i have never eaten something so badly cooked having waited an hour for it and not finishing it despite being hungry. We toyed with going to Wetherspoon but decided to ‘treat ourselves’ to Harvester, but alas wish we just went to Wetherspoons at least the service is fast and food cooked well. I will say the salad was ok so at least we enjoyed that. Reading through the reviews and observing what i watched in the restaurant i will like to call out the response reasons. Firstly we are busy, no, there were 4 other diner groups in when we were in. We are only human, yes that works for the odd mistake, not poor management. We did complain at the time and there was an offer of a discount but we still paid £45 for a salad drink and something that looked like a meal with 2 of us didn’t finish. I noticed also that there were some happy customers and there was an effort by the staff to encourage those to leave a review, of course no such thing was given to us, surprisingly. There is also a poster at the welcome podium stating you may wait 45 minutes for your food - with the amount of tables that is not good enough, staff your restaurant to ensure all diners get prompt service.

Edit following response Once again i did speak to the manager. We were offered a discount on the bill which is all they were prepared to do once i challenged it they wouldn’t budge. I am not interested in taking it further, as i do not want to waste any more of my life on this. You need to appreciate when we eat out at midday spend a big chunk of money to do so, you then wait more than an hour for said food the food arrives cold and not nice. There is no resolution that will fix it. What could we have done? waited another hour for a second batch and hope that...

This restaurant isn’t normally local to me and my family but we’re camping in the area so we decided to come here and try something different. Well there wasn’t anywhere to park for a start, it was a quick walk down the road but not too bad. We booked in advance an hour and a half before and we got a table covered in food, vinegar etc. DISGUSTING! We had to clean it ourselves. We finally sit down and we get some drinks and our salad bars. No complaints there other than the salad bar needed refills. Well then we waited nearly an hour for our food to come. My two daughters ordered only chicken strips. Me, my sister and her son ordered tacos. The quality of the food wasn’t that good and it didn’t need to take an hour. Especially for the price we paid. My daughter got a sundae afterwards. They had put the ice cream cone in a bowl with the build your own toppings on the side, there was no way the toppings would go on there!🤦🏽‍♀️ It doesn’t end there. We left and about an hour later on our way home we went back just to get a drink for the journey back to the caravan (40 minute drive). Well we walked in and my 7 year old daughter had a bikini top on and shorts. We decided to go to the toilet first so we didn’t have any stops. Me and my other daughter were walking towards the toilet and my youngest was behind. A woman came up to my youngest, stopped her and complained she wasn’t allowed in here asking where her mother was and that she must wait outside. They didn’t mind earlier when we were paying for overpriced food! After that i decided to not even get a drink. I normally love harvesters as well but after this i won’t be coming back. Spend your money on something better quality...