Harvester Poachers Cottage Stoke — Restaurant in Stafford

What an abysmal experience.

Arrived at 6pm, advised there were no tables in the restaurant but we could eat in the bar area. That suited us. We were also advised that there was a 35 minute wait on food.

Ordered our meals at the bar. As I was ordering, I was advised that the kids meals included dessert. After checking which dessert my eldest wanted, I was then informed that the meals weren't going to include a dessert after all as we were using a voucher. This was quite frustrating as I initially had no intention of ordering kids desserts.

The wait for food turned out to be 50 minutes rather than 35. The kids pizza was sent back immediately as it was cremated. My pork belly was also quite burnt. The pizza meal was meant to come with a side of sliced cucumber, pepper & carrot. There was no carrot. My meal was meant to come with pink pickled onions, which were also missing. We ate because by this point we were very hungry. But none of us particularly enjoyed our meals.

The pizza which was sent back took a further 25 minutes to be replaced, so at this point an hour & fifteen minutes (and an hour & forty minutes since we arrived) for a kids meal.

The bar was unmanned, so if you wanted anything you had to stand & wait until a member of staff noticed you standing there. And the salad bar was quite depleted. The staff seemed run off their feet. But they were friendly and seemed sincerely apologetic for the issues.

Overall not a great experience & I wish we had...

This was my first time to visit Harvester Poachers Cottage since after the pandemic. I would say it's definitely improved from what I remember in terms of food, menu and decor. I had an ultimate combo and that was plenty enough. It was hot (temp) and all the meat cooked to perfection. Plenty of chips as well, the corn on cob was a bit like tiny and flavourless but I'm being picky now. Of course I had salad which was unlimited if you order a main meal. I always enjoy the salad section and I've noticed they have a coronation coleslaw which might not have been new but i don't remember that before. Because it's been awhile since I've been here, I forgot that yeah the soda was unlimited but you help yourself. That bit wasn't mentioned but not really a big thing. Food were great and portions were big especially the ultimate combo. I decided I couldn't face any pudding afterwards. The service was quick enough. Wiktoria got all our orders right and came back to check on us. And she dealt well with my Bluelight discount too so thank you. I don't think I've seen disposable little wipes for sticky fingers especially after having had ribs and chicken wings. Maybe I should've asked.

I think with this good dining experience today, I'll be...

Horrible experience Ordered food came out wrong asked if we could all eat together as it was going to take another 15 mins took our food no problem not very happy about it but did the starter stayed but as you can see from picture very poor no sauce not what we ordered. When the food finally can back it still wasn't right and the two others had been sitting under the hot plate this was easy as the tartar sauce had a film on and chips were completely dry fish wasn't much better my daughter had the half chicken with again sauce all dried up and so was the chicken Yes the staff offered just to redo my fish but had already sent it back once and been waiting for over an hour at that point. Pictures of how it came back to us minus the sauce as I gave that the lady straight away and had to then ask 5 mins later for it for them to big some kind of cheese sauce finally dif get the right one Staff were just stood there one said and i stat " I'm about to cry i can't cope where is chloe " they were moaning about other staff and managers not what we wanted to hear and also just stood around while there was broken plate and food all over the floor right next to them Worst...