Harvester Beech Hurst Haywards Heath — Restaurant in Mid Sussex

Lovely relaxing atmosphere outside, but that’s all I can say. I would rate this establishment 0 stars if I could.

We were charged twice for our meals due to their online ordering failing, during the ordering process and our order didn’t even reach the kitchen. As a result, my husband’s bank account is currently holding two payments of £40.89, and we have clear evidence of this. We later learned that staff were already aware of ongoing issues with the app, yet failed to disclose this and even encouraged us to continue ordering through it, knowing full well it was unreliable — an unacceptable approach to customer care.

After the app crashed, I went inside to reorder. Staff did not seem concerned our money was being held and the manager said “it will be released in an hour or so” (it’s been over an hour now and, no, the payments have still not been returned) - so shouldn’t have advised this in the first place to assume that what happens with someone’s bank.. The barmaid was left unsure if our previously redeemed 25% off discount code (from our app order) could be applied again, so the manager was called back over who manually calculated the difference but it was different to what we had previously been charged (twice). When I politely queried this to another waitress, she said it was because the app had not added up my sweet potato fries correctly (??). So I sought advice from the male manager, but not sure why I even bothered, as his response was demeaning, and making me feel silly for raising a completely reasonable point. He handed me back 36p in cash and I walked away feeling very embarrassed.

To make matters worse, when our food finally arrived, my order was incorrect — I was given a chicken skewer instead of the pork belly and chorizo skewer I had selected and it was clearly on the receipt. At that point, I laughed in disbelief and frustration, oh, another error! Too upset to go back inside, my husband went back in and returned the meal to the manager, who provided an immediate refund and we made the decision to leave the restaurant, without eating anything. The entire experience was deeply frustrating, and the service throughout was absolutely disgusting.

At six months pregnant, my husband simply wanted to take me for a relaxed, enjoyable meal in the sunshine. Instead, we experienced a comedy of errors, including being double charged which has not yet been returned to my husbands bank account, so now need to ring them to dispute this. We were misinformed, served the wrong food, and treated poorly by staff.

I take great pleasure in saying I have already made a formal complaint to Harvester and we will not be returning, what an absolute joke of an establishment. Save your money (you’ll be charged several times anyway) and...

This is a new review based on one visit on April 11th, 2023 at around 12:00. You have to now wait to be seated at a table. There was no one present to seat us when we entered. It has been refurbished, to be honest I noticed little difference. One of the double small tables we were seated at was so rocked enough to easily spill drinks and would have been a nightmare to eat off, some attempt had been made to wedge it with napkins previously and this was attempted by our server when we told them about it! The lunch menu was very typical pub lunch stuff but I was very surprised at the price hike from the old very reasonable to the new medium/top end of pub grub price range. Salad bar is free but you have to wait to be given a bowl and the selection though limited is adequate. Rolls were present but no butter or spreads were obvious, perhaps you need to ask, a sign of cost cutting? The rolls also did not seem fresh baked just defrosted? My companion had a chicken Cajun wrap with chips, the children both had fish fingers and chips and I played safe with Cod and chips. Report on the grub. The children were happy with what they received and there is an option for bigger appetites. The Cajun wrap and accompanying chips were fine but average. The Cod and chips was below par, the batter was soggy underneath and the fish although white and flakey was fairly bland. The usual commercial chips were accompanied by a small pot of peas and some tartare that seemed to have developed a thin skin between kitchen an table. We also had two small bottles of 7 up and two mugs of tea. Time to get the mains was average but we waited longer to get the bill. Total cost was just under 50 pounds. Make your own mind up about the value.

For me the highlight used to be the superb staff, despite working long hours they were all without exception happy, helpful and exceptionally good at keeping the customer happy. Now it was difficult to tell some staff from customers due to lack of identity. I was not impressed with the service speed now, an older couple were seated near us but left possibly due to the delay in taking orders. Having said that, our server was very pleasant, and seemed hard working but I wonder if there are enough staff now?...

Christmas Dinner was preordered and prepaid at £59.99 pp for four persons. The kitchens had run out of soup starter so one of my party could not have her chosen and preordered starter. The chicken liver and brandy Pate was advertised as coming with caramelised red onion chutney, our two came with Branston Pickle, so I presume they ran out of chutney too. The main meals were served- Chips served with the Rib Eye steak were stone cold, my mother in law cut her steak which was also cold. The two Turkey dinners looked like they had sat beneath a heat lamp on the counter for a long time. The roast potatoes were deep fried small wedge like frozen potatoes which were overcooked as too were the roast parsnips, which were inedible. David the on duty manager removed all four main courses and instructed the kitchen to cook fresh meals. The replacement meals were better but missing some of the vegetables as preordered on the Christmas Day menu. By now our special Christmas Day meal and occasion was not living up to our expectations nor was it much enjoyment. Dessert was served and Megan our waitress, once again had to apologise as the kitchen had run out of the cherry compote to go with the vanilla Cheesecake, even though this had been preordered sometime before the day. Megan and David were brilliant and a credit to your team, they did all they can to try and improve our experience on such a special day. Our menu choices were preordered, the kitchens therefore should have managed their servings according to however many preordered and prepaid meals had been accounted for and not run out of the menu choices selected. Although we had booked the last table sitting at 5pm, having paid in advance I would expect my guest's meals to be freshly prepared and be served as the meals for the first sitting would have been and not plated well in advance and sat beneath a heat lamp on the counter. A...