The Gryphon — Restaurant in London

Horific. The staff are Fantastic unfortunately the so called manager is very aggressive and immature. To explain in more detail We had a horrendous experience at The Gryphon on Monday 4th May 2015. We were excited as a family to have breakfast together on this Bank Holiday Monday as we don't often get the time to. We often frequent this particular branch for lunch and evening meals with various friends - its our local however we have been to The Navigator Inn on various occasions too for breakfast as its near our church. We have never experienced such humiliating and insulting behaviour from your staff let alone your manager. We ordered 2 adult breakfast and 2 junior breakfasts. My Wife and I both had a hot drink. On receiving the bill my I noticed that we had been charged for 6 hot drinks. There were only 5 of us. My Wife and I, our 9 yr old, 6 yr old and our 3 yr old. I was very surprised that we were charged unlimited prices for all of our 3 children as realistically how much tea were children going to drink! Plus we have never been charged for our 3 year old before. We spoke to one of the waiters to query the extra drink and then the Manager Josephine came over and was quite aggressive and said we had 6 cups on our table. We didn't understand this as the breakfast deal says unlimited drinks however the 6th cup was not for a drink, it was merely hot water that my Wife got from the breakfast bar in order to soak the cutlery as they were soiled. We explained that we had never been charged according to the number of cups on the table before (and no where on The Harvesters literature does it say that either). Josephine said,'Everyone takes the mick so we've changed it!' I was gob smacked, firstly the implication was that we were 'taking the mick'!. I explained about the use of the 6th mug for cleaning cutlery and furthermore, I had merely dunked my husband's tea bag into half a cup of hot water for the children. She then told us that she saw 6 tea bags hanging from the cups. I was so annoyed that she blatantly lied - My Wife had in fact used the 'one' tea bag in the cups and left the used tea bag at the breakfast bar. Moreover, she had to use the same peppermint bag for her second cup of hot water as they didn't have any at the breakfast bar and had to ask for it on the first occasion anyway. I told her I wasn't paying that amount and wouldn't return to that branch again. She retaliated with, 'You are barred!!' How short sighted, unprofessional, childish, humiliating and upsetting in front of our children to be spoken to in this way and she had the audacity to say that I was shouting at her. We paid the entirety of the bill and left. I returned within 2 minutes to collect the bill and she was shouting at me to stay at the doorway as I was barred!! I asked if she was trying to embarrass me and she replied, 'Yes!' I am devastated and appalled at such conduct. We own a professional highly regarded establishment and would never treat the worst customer like this. We always adopt the principle of the customer is always right. She has ruined our bank holiday, the children came away crying as we often go there with our friends and families. For 2 adults and 3 children under 9 years - our 'unlimited' drinks bill which consisted of 1 cup of tea and 1 peppermint with 3 half cups of diluted tea cost £12.60. All Josephine had to do was explain that things had changed and next time they would charge us per cup and remove the £2.10 from the bill. Instead she lied to justify her mistake by saying she saw 6 tea bags and then barred us! We are part of a local shcool, we live in the area and own a reputable business in the area too. To think that this is the very woman that my wife defended when she was aggressive towards a friend because her one year old daughter had eaten a bite of a sausage and Josephine wanted to charge her for a full breakfast. My wife persuaded her friend to leave it and not complain! I am so upset and annoyed about the way we have...

Worst visit to a Harvester! It only got 1 star because that is the minimum.

As regular customers of the Harvester we were very disappointed with our experience to the extent that we would not wish to come back. My parents have lived locally since 1983 and The Gryphon has been our ‘local’ for many years. I now live in Oakwood as does my sister and we all come back with our families.

We were a party of 7. Neither the restaurant or the bar was busy at 7.30pm on a Sunday.

The following problems were encountered

Quality of food

When we started to order food we were told there was only 1 1/2 portions of rotisserie chicken left. When I asked why at 7.30 in the evening a Harvester has no rotisserie chicken we were told it is because you don’t know how many customers you will get and don’t want wastage. We then ordered belly pork and was told there was no belly pork either. We ordered an elderflower drink and they didn’t have that. We ordered a steak and it came looking like it was boiled and not cooked to medium rare as requested. It was over cooked. By this stage my Dad had enough of us complaining and just ate a piece of it. He pointed it out to the waitress who said the manager Ben said ‘well you ate half of it’ and the bit he ate was medium rare.

Quality of service

The waitresses were not available to attend tables. We ordered 2 plates of ribs. One arrived without a steak knife but the waitress did not come back so I could ask for one. I then had to go and find her to ask for one. It then took a further 10 minutes to arrive and by then the food was cold. Our birthday cake was brought to the table with plates. We asked for cream which didn’t come until I went to the bar to ask the waitress for it. She finally brought the cream and no spoons but she disappeared again. I then had to go and find someone to give us spoons. I spoke to the manager, Ben, who was very polite and said he was only an assistant and I should email the manager which I did. No acknowledgement or reply was received. When the waitress came back with the revised bill as £5 had been taken off, she almost threw it at me telling me it was changed, clearly having being told by Ben what I had said.

My advice is pick...

Visited for a family members birthday on the 3rd of September, as it was their favourite place to go. Never had the highest expectations of the Harvester but you’ve always got what you paid for. However, this visit surpassed even our lowest expectations.

Firstly, the salad bar was not fully stocked. Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, beetroot, onions and sweetcorn were your options.

Secondly, the BBQ beef ribs served to two of the party were watery and tasteless and even the corn on the cob tasted like it had been boiled in dishwater.

Thirdly, the rotisserie chicken came with a “gravy” that resembled the corn dishwater.

Finally, the most shocking thing we have ever seen in even the worst places to eat across the world; They served uncooked, cold “grilled” prawns on top of a chicken breast. When we sent the meal back for the prawns to be “grilled”, they placed the prawns in a microwave for a few seconds and promptly returned the meal to the table with the original piece of chicken that had been under the aforementioned uncooked prawns. Along with the sad looking “roasted” butternut squash and coleslaw, the prawns were still cold and not grilled.

I suppose this isn’t surprising considering the “chef” was using his hands to put everything on plates and walking around in the dirtiest “whites” ever seen in a restaurant.

Unbelievably, as well as all of this microwaved, undercooked, unhygienic and tasteless food, you now pay the same prices as you would for a decent meal in Central London (£13-£24 per main).

The saving grace of all this are the waiting staff and the only reason they get the obligatory one star.

Avoid....