Harvester Gidea Park Romford — Restaurant in London

A Comedy of Errors at Harvester – First and Last Visit

If I could give this Harvester fewer stars, I’d have to invent a black hole rating system. Let’s start from the beginning: I had the distinct pleasure of becoming an honorary member of the staff for the evening. You see, upon arrival, there were no menus to be found, no staff in sight, and a vibe that screamed “every man for himself.” Like a brave explorer in a desolate land, I ventured to the waiter’s station, seized some menus, and distributed them to our party. Next, I took on the role of salad bowl porter, because the Harvester team clearly thought this was a BYO-Everything kind of establishment.

Things went from bad to worse when the food arrived. “Cold and bland” doesn’t quite capture the essence of the meals served to us – they were more of a culinary crime scene. The kids were served meatballs so hard they could’ve been repurposed as cricket balls. When we mentioned this to the staff, we were met with an Olympic-level refusal to take them off the bill. Perhaps Harvester’s motto is “we serve it, you pay for it, no exceptions.”

Then came my pièce de résistance: a Sunday roast featuring raw chicken. Now, I love a plot twist, but I wasn’t expecting salmonella roulette with my lunch. Naturally, I pointed this out to the waitress, who seemed to be auditioning for a role in The Great British Shrug-Off. No apology, no replacement meal, no effort to rectify the situation – just a silent removal of my plate and a tacit agreement that I would be going hungry. Delightful.

The manager? Oh, bless him, he was like a deer in headlights, stumbling around in a fog of chaos, utterly overwhelmed by the bedlam. It was as though he’d been parachuted in from another career entirely – perhaps he was a former juggler who lost control of his balls. Whatever the case, he offered no leadership, no solutions, and certainly no reason to return.

And the crowning glory of this farce? Someone in our party ordered a double espresso and was served two individual espressos – both stone cold. A Harvester twist on the classic riddle: “What’s worse than no coffee? Two bad coffees.” The mind boggles.

It’s safe to say this was my first and last visit to Harvester. If chaos, apathy, and culinary disasters are your thing, this place might be right up your alley. For me, I’ll be taking my appetite elsewhere. Bon appétit –...

I'm not one to review places, but found today's meal at harvester shocking and not a pleasant one. Once seated with my mother and 2 children I was sticking to the table as it had not been cleaned, then we asked for refill drinks and had to ask for clean glasses as one didn't look like it was washed at all, salad bar was minimal and the coleslaw had started to discolour so I left mine. cutlery was dirty, so again I had to ask for a replacement. We tried to look past this and enjoy our meal that was coming. Unfortunately once again we was disappointed!! my mother's meal (bbq chicken stack) was shocking in size! the chicken was smaller than my sons off the child menu. I explained this to the waitress who apologised and called a manger. Well the manager we spoke to Andy clearly did not care about it whatsoever ! he actually told us all chicken is the same weight but the kids are at a discounted price. I found this utterly shocking that we paid well over a 50% mark up for an adult meal what was smaller than a child's. I found his demeaner and presence at our table uncomfortable to the point where I was actually getting angry with the responses. I told him I will make a review and only then he offered a replacement but we would have to wait and it would be the same size. I will be honest if I didn't have the children who was starving I would have left then and there. I really think harvester should look at their managers and their communication skills. I took my family out for a treat which set me back £60 and walked away with a sour taste in my mouth for paying for such a poor and shocking service. I will not be returning to this harvester! I will also make sure that my family and friends know how this branch operates and tell then not to ever attend if they want a nice meal out. the nicest thing there was our waitress who was utterly embarrassed and offered the kids ice creams, but I couldn't wait to leave so kindly...

Food was excellent, as we have always experienced, and usually the staff are brilliant. But, on this occasion we have to refer to the review left by Harry Watkins some 5 months earlier. The server Sharon struggled to take our food and drink orders, we had to keep repeating and she was very loud repeating our order back to us. I ordered a diet Pepsi refil which was delivered to our table by a young man who was serving behind the bar, we assume because the servers were rushed off their feet during a very busy half term lunch period. Said young man did not say a word to us and our drinks were placed on the table and my diet Pepsi refil was an empty glass. When I asked Sharon for a diet Pepsi her response was " Don't you want to help yourself, that's why I told you I would give you an empty glass" to which I responded " No, firstly I do not know where the refil station is and secondly you did not tell me you would be giving me an empty glass". We had confirmed with Sharon when we placed our order that we would be having the 2 course lunch menu of main and dessert. After a long period of finishing our main, Sharon asked us if we would like a dessert, which was odd as we had already confirmed this. We said yes but then had to stop Sharon as she passed our table to ask her for the dessert menu, we had to do the same to ask for the bill. We felt we had been waiting around quite a bit and Sharon's response on both occasions was "give me a couple of minutes" but she then walked past us to ask another table with more than just 2 people if they would like further drinks? Doesn't seem to be any changes here in the last 5 months, possibly consider some in-house...