Harvester Katarina Brighton — Restaurant in Great Britain

If I could give this place 0 stars, I would. In fact, I’d give it negative stars if I could.

I’ve eaten here a few times before, but my most recent visit was, without exaggeration, one of the worst dining experiences of my life.

My family and I came in for a last-minute meal the other week, as we were in the marina anyway and had a long car ride ahead. Big mistake. The moment we walked in, the place felt like a ghost town, a handful of people scattered at the bar and maybe two tables occupied upstairs. That should’ve been our first warning sign. The floors were so sticky it felt like walking across adhesive tape. We could actually hear our shoes peeling off the grimy floorboards with every step as we approached the counter to be seated.

We then stood at the counter for 35 minutes waiting to be seated. Multiple staff members walked past us, each muttering the same dismissive “someone will be with you shortly.” No apology. No urgency. Just apathy. When we were finally seated, the man who did so looked annoyed to even be doing his job. He was abrupt, rude, and made us feel like we were a burden for simply existing.

After another unforgivable fifty minutes of watching staff engage in meaningless chatter and loiter around glued to their phones rather than performing their actual duties, someone eventually approached us and we ordered chicken burgers and steaks. When the salad bowls arrived, they were filthy, crusted with remnants from God knows how many previous customers, and when I requested clean ones I was met with an eye roll and an audible sigh, as if expecting basic hygiene in a restaurant was unreasonable.

The so-called salad bar was a monument to negligence: a barren wasteland of limp, dried-out produce clearly salvaged from the previous day and thrown back out for unsuspecting customers to consume. An establishment serving food in this state is not just incompetent — it is a potential health hazard.

When we returned to our table (which, by the way, gave us a clear view of the kitchen), my son had overheard staff being yelled at to “top up the salad cart” in where I’m guessing was the kitchen in the back. It gave us a small, uncomfortable glimpse into the way employees are treated here, and also confirmed the food wasn’t fresh to begin with.

When the food eventually arrived (after another 45 minute wait and sitting visibly on the pass for at least 20 minutes), it was appalling. The steak was like rubber - impossible to cut, let alone chew. The chicken was stone cold. The chips were soggy and tasted off. We barely touched the food.

And as if the dreadful service and substandard food weren’t enough, my 19 year old daughter (barely an adult) spent the entire meal feeling deeply uncomfortable due to the behavior of one older male staff member who was staring at her the entire time, once she pointed it out we began to notice his gaze linger on her for a sickening amount of time. The inappropriate imbalance in age alone made the situation incredibly unsettling, and no young woman should have to feel that way in what is supposed to be a safe, family oriented restaurant.

At that point, between the disgusting meal, the blatant disrespect from staff, and my daughter being made to feel uncomfortable by a creepy employee, we decided to just pay and leave. Unsurprisingly, nobody asked why we were leaving full plates of untouched food.

This place is an absolute disgrace. It is filthy, unhygienic, and run by rude, untrained, unprofessional staff — including at least one employee whose behavior toward young female customers is downright creepy.

If you value your time, your money, or your safety, stay far away from Harvester Katarina. And if you’re going with a daughter or any young woman, don’t even...

Possibly one of the worst dining experiences we’ve ever had. Having arrived late into Brighton for a short weekend away we wanted something quick and easy to eat. We arrived to an almost mortuaryesque atmosphere with no more than a dozen patrons in the establishment. Notwithstanding we allowed for hunger pains to override the desire to ‘leg it’! We were shown to our table and offered the menus, which in all fairness were fairly extensive and inclusive for a variety of dietary needs. We opted for the chicken flatbread and a trio of small plates (vegan options). We also ordered a couple of drinks. The drinks came and the blush rose wine was actually a white wine. No problem and this was quickly rectified. We then got our complimentary salad from the ‘all you can eat salad bar’. Again, no issues here. Then our mains were brought over. A chicken flatbread as ordered and a huge pork chop for the vegan! ‘Whoops, wrong table’! As pointed out by the salivating carnivores on the adjoining seats! No problem, mistakes happen! So, eagerly awaiting our own dinner we could see that some of it was on the pass awaiting delivery to our groaning tummies! And we waited, and waited, and waited a bit longer. Finally, our delicious morsels were on their way to us! Chicken flatbread delivered ✅ Vegan garlic bread ✅ Vegan tacos ✅ Cheese and jalapeño donuts ✅ No wait what? ‘We ordered vegan nachos.’ ‘Oh’ No problem, offending donuts removed, nachos delivered! All going well now, what more could go awry? Bite into vegan nachos. ‘Oh bugger’ ‘Whats up’? ‘Not vegan, real cheese and sour cream’! Don’t worry, they’ll be over to check in a second to make sure everything is ok and they’ll change it forthwith! In the meantime, ‘why is the chicken pink on my flatbread?’ ‘It must just be the lighting!’ ‘No no, in fact I think it’s still clucking’! Oh well. Other tables came and went and eventually the server came back to clear up and ask if we wanted the bill. ‘Could we just see the manager?’ ‘Of course, I’ll just clear this up’ Could you just leave it a minute. Manager comes, (genuinely sorry, and couldn’t be more apologetic) and rectified the bill. However, moral of the story. Save your money and get a meal deal from...

We were a party of 7 adults and arrived early with a table reserved for 2 30pm. Pre dinner drinks in the bar area where fine and our table was all ready for us at the booked time which was nice. 2 of the party ordered the 1983 harvester chicken combo meal which is supposed to be half a chicken and half a rack of ribs. When these two meals were served to our table we were quite appalled to see that the two halves of chicken were very small and shrivelled and the skins very burnt. Upon cutting the chicken with a knife, we discovered the two halves were extremely dry and stringy. It was clearly obvious that these two pieces of chicken had been extremely over cooked or had been sitting under a heater for a considerable of amount of time and should no way have been served out to customers. This I would blame jointly on the chef who plated the food and also the waitress “Sharon” who served us the food. I actually felt insulted that they were served like this considering another member of our party had ordered a quarter of chicken and this was actually bigger and a hell of a lot fresher than the two halves that we had ordered. After complaining to Sharon the two dinners were taken away and replaced almost immediately with 2 halves of chicken which were 10 times better than the originals that were served. There was no apology at this time and also none again at the end of the meal by Sharon, something I thought was also unacceptable. I use harvester restaurants quite often due to their usually high quality of food high standards of service although this was the first and last time I will be using the Katerina in Brighton marina. One last complaint would be that the two air hand dryers in the gents toilets weren’t working so there was no way to dry my hands after...