Harvester Mandeville Arms Northolt — Restaurant in London

I don't know if the management has changed but whereas the manager used to greet people personally and staff were professional and friendly (been going here for around 20 years), I'm afraid that's all out the window now. After waiting a good 20 minutes for a server to come to our table, I asked a girl walking past if someone could please come and take our order. Her response was 'As you can see I'm busy on another table'. So I asked if someone else could help us (three servers were stood by the kitchen giggling for some time) and her response was 'Your table is in my section so the answer to your question would be NO!'. I do have her name as it was on her badge but I'm not putting it here. If management want to know who is losing them customers they can look up my booking to see where we sat.

Had it not been a very special occasion, celebrating two birthdays and my making it alive out of hospital - I would have got up and left at this point. She kept us waiting a bit longer then came and robotically took our order. The drinks usually come first but ours came when our main course came. By this time, I'd started eating the salad from the bar (as you do) and began choking. I was desperate for some water. I saw a young lad carrying a jug of water and asked if this was for us - I explained I was choking. He said our server is getting the drinks ready and would be with us shortly. I couldn't speak to argue as I was mid choke. She eventually came. The food was reasonable but to be honest, I was too upset and having to internalise it to not spoil the evening so I couldn't really enjoy it.

I see this as a management issue. Staff should be trained properly on how to speak to customers or there should be more care taken to recruit individuals who have a bit more compassion and sense of responsibility. And if a server is allocated an area with two huge tables - and other servers have no customers (as was the case I'm assuming with giggling three) and lots of vacant tables - then servers should be redeployed immediately to support.

Also, management need to teach a bit of common sense. If a customer is choking on their food - perhaps give them water regardless of whether they are sat on your allocated table or not.

Tikka flat bread by the way means a flat bread with a few bite size bits of chicken and tons of tikka sauce. It's not something you can pick up like a normal flatbread. It's a knife and fork job except there's so little chicken - so it's basically rigid bread with Tikka sauce. The salad bar was ok but not great. The three giggling servers didn't feel it necessary to tidy it up or replenish finished varieties. Tomatoes were wilted, cucumber dried out.

It'll be a long while before I consider going there again. Such a shame - loved this place since the...

“Baby and kids unfriendly” We have booked for a table and requested stroller access. For 4 of us including the stroller, we were given a corner where my husband could hardly sit after keeping stroller. We had to lift the stroller over a few steps to get to this seat. There were so many other sofa seats where we could sit comfortably with the stroller and take care of the toddler. My toddler can easily sit on sofa seats and it would have been convenient for me to breastfeed in the sofa seats rather than in an inconvenient chai. I requested another better table with sofa, as soon as I came and the waitress rejected all the requests for another table simply stating “Health & Safety”. The restaurant was mostly empty and there were so many other convenient seats behind us which they were so adamant they wouldn’t give us. I couldn’t note the name of the waitress who was so unfriendly with us. I requested again to Amy (I assume she was her manager) who was standing there watching everything. She chose the side of the waitress and made us sit in the inconvenient corner when most of the restaurant was empty. They did not even try and listen to our request or use common sense and offer another table which may work. She sent Alison to serve us food instead of the initial waitress. Alison was so lovely and one of the best waitress I have ever met. However, our experience was spoiled as I struggled to breastfeed my 3 month old baby in the corner offered to us. People who breastfeed young children can relate how difficult it is when there is no clear space around you to sit properly. Food was just average too. While going out, I asked Amy what she would do if another family with stroller comes at the same time. I mean the restaurant is quite huge, so it’s a pity if they have no other stroller friendly seats when most of the restaurant was literally empty. She started defending telling it’s because we asked for the high chair. We didn’t ask for high chair in the first place. Only after they rejected our requests for other convenient table, I asked for high chair, as it would be difficult for my son to sit on that chair instead of the sofa seats. I checked again while going out and almost all the sofa seats where empty. I always loved going to Harvester as they are very accommodating of families with kids. This was our first visit to this branch and will never go back to this place. I read now that another person has also reported this place being “not kid’s friendly” as they were offered an inconvenient seat twice. I hope this review will make them think to train their staff properly or change their layout to make it more welcoming for families...

Although the service we received was second to none the waiting staff was severely let down but her management and kitchen! I was dinning with my partner and son. We got our food I asked for my ribeye to ve cooked medium, it unfortunately was cooked to blue, as it was at a peak time and only 3 waiting staff it took over 12 mins for a check back at that point I informed the waiting staff that my steak was not cooked to medium rare but raw! She was excellent took the food back to the kitchen, after 10 mins my plate was returned sadly it was the same piece of steak that was sent back. I was not happy about this at all due to the time it took for the food to be taken back. This is a serious breach of food safety standards. My food was again taken back and the wait staff informed me it would be another 20 minutes for a fresh meal. My partner and son had finished thier meals by the time I received mine, so that alone totally ruined our family evening, when we got the bill we was charged full price for my meal, after the wait staff stated that it would be removed from the bill due to the issues. When I questioned this she stated the manger said I had to pay full price for the meal I asked to speak to the manager who then came to the table. She was very rude and said she won't be discounting or removing the meal from the bill because it was sent back and cooked to the right temperature, I reminded her of the fact that by the time my food was returned to the kitchen it would be unsafe practice to reserve the food under HACCP guidelines. She continued to argue and was very hostile towards me. She said you had 2 meals! You need to pay. I said I had to send my food back because it was not prepared correctly that is not my fault,the trained chefs should be able to cook food correctly.she reluctantly discounted my bill 20%. I was not happy at all but I did not want to cause a scene and my 2 year old son and partner wanted to leave. We are regular customers to this venue and have never had any issues, we did notice the regular team from previous visits had changed slightly on the management side. I was made to feel very uncomfortable and shocked to be spoken to and treated in this manner. We will be looking for harvester to frequent after...