Harvester Shorehouse Southend-On-Sea — Restaurant in England

Upon arrival told that it was an hour and half wait; yet we booked online for 45m time. The host wasn’t very friendly and welcoming at all. We told him we got booked and got quite a roll of the eyes from him. After sitting at bar with a hot drink and popping to the bathrooms the restaurant was half empty; however understand it could be due to staff numbers but it was a peak Sunday visit.

We sat down and waited a while to be served. Understood the team member was new. Had to ask and wait a while for salad bowls. We went to ask how long our meal would be as nearly an hour and was told that they had ran out of a sauce so we needed to know what sauce instead and that it would be straight out.

After telling we waited another 15m for food.

We waited around an hour for food to actually be delivered that we ordered and even then when it came out. One meal wasn’t delivered and had to ask twice for it; fries on all meals were stone cold; meals weren’t even hot, just a bit warm and one of the burgers was the wrong dish. We had waited so long and understood she was a new member of team only her second day, so didn’t want to make too much of a fuss but there was no other team or manager to be seen on the floor. Food took so long my son wanted to go to sleep so we asked for this to be boxed and to pay which also took another long wait.

Overall service wasn’t fab but not due to the waitress but long wait times; cold meals after the long wait and broken delivery of all the meals. One guest at table finished meal as not hot and didn’t want to get colder before the last person received their meal.

It was very underwhelming and it was the 3rd time we’ve been harvester in the last month and each time it’s just got worse and worse.

When paying for meals out as a family which isn’t cheap; we expect the basics. Good hot food and simple reliable service and that isn’t even happening.

Very disappointed in our visit to this branch and another 2 branches we...

I was so disappointed with my most recent lunch experience on Tuesday 29th July 2025, that I feel compelled to amend a previous positive review I made a year earlier.

On this visit standards had noticeably declined while prices had drastically increased from last year. Unfortunately the service was rather abrupt, the food mediocre, the salad cart poorly stocked, and the restaurant dirty, despite drastically increased prices.

On this occasion, I was with my father and his friend on my suggestion as your website still promoted the £12.49 lunch meal including a steak option which we all fancied and I had fond memories of last year.

For starters, we did not get the table or meal we wanted and the waitress was far from sympathetic when questioned about the lunch deal still advertised on your website. "What do you expect? Things go up, things change". Well, I would have expected a large company like Harvester to be clear and transparent with their customers and update their website to reflect any changes. So we chose from the increased priced, but decreased quality £14.99 menu.

The prices on the menu were extremely high compared to other casual dining places. £20 to £25 a steak when the table was sticky, cutlery and napkins dumped in a jam jar, and the salad cart half empty, without even any side plates for the bread rolls? I am afraid it seemed like Hilton prices for Joe's Gaff standards! Having worked for the company many years ago, I recall even on the £4.99 lunch menu, laying tables up to a set standard with carefully aligned table matts, polished cutlery and wine glasses, and napkins.

I understand that today people prefer more of a casual setting, but casual doesn't mean slack, dirty and inattentive. Even from just last year, at another busy lunchtime, which would be a fairer comparison, standards have slipped, while prices have...

The restaurant was fairly empty by the time we were seated but it still took 10 minutes to actually receive our drinks and it took at least 20mins to receive our food. My wife ordered a chicken stack and when it arrived my wife discovered the chicken,bacon & peas were cold also the bacon was burnt and eventually after approx 5 mins the waitress appeared in sight again after propping up the bar chatting and I called her over to inform her of the cold food which she took back the cold items to the kitchen and resumed propping up the bar. After approx another 10mins she returned with replacement items and left but the peas were again cold, the chicken was only lukewarm and the cheese had not even melted also the edges were so burnt and hard that it was not possible to cut with the knifes supplied on the table also the bacon was not burnt but only lukewarm and to top it off this put my wife off wanting to eat by this time so she had to get a roll off the salad bar to compensate. Then after another 5mins or so we saw the male cook come into the restaurant and loudly complaining about awkward customers and staring at our table. A short while later the cook came back into the restaurant and on his way back to the kitchen went to the waitress station and spoke to our waitress and slapped her backside as he left, which I would not say was an appropriate action to perform in front of approx 10 people. When we paid the waitress did say sorry we had a problem with our meal but to be honest she might just aswell have saved her breath. We stopped using this restaurant in Sept last year because we were constantly getting 1 or 2 items that were cold but last week we tried again and it was good so we came again today but that was obviously a mistake ! I don't think we will risk it again which is a...