Harvester Garston Watford — Restaurant in Watford

2 stars because the food was good, but the experience terrible (again)

We thought we’d give Garston a second chance (the last time we went, we were rushed through as the staff obviously wanted to go home, in and out in under 30 mins, wasn’t even a late booking, was 8pm!)

Anyway… this time we’re seated on a table next to the entrance, people arriving/leaving literally bumping into my husbands chair. Ok, it’s Saturday, it’s busy, fair enough, except that there was a LOT of space further in.

Our server came quite quickly, but we were both shocked at how rude/abrupt he was with us. I actually sought out other members of staff if I needed something as I found him unapproachable.

We had ordered 2 refillable drinks. My husband only drinks squash, so he loves that the machines do Robinsons. Except this one didn’t (and it wasn’t even greyed out to show it wasn’t working) I told 2 different members of staff before I was told that I had to go to the bar and get some squash then. No apologies or anything. I had to queue at the bar for some cordial (then take it back to the machine and add the water myself). By which time our food had arrived.

Nobody had warned me that the handle of the skewer would be hot, so I picked it up to take the chicken off. I’m surprised my hand didn’t blister it was so hot (like the handle had been on the grill too!)

We finished our meal, and were too full for pudding, so we were just playing some cards and having our drinks (bearing in mind that we’re still on our first “refillable” drink, and the annoyance of getting the squash still on my mind)

The server brings the bill, and we’re told that we have to finish up because “she” (whoever “she” is!?!” wanted our table.

Another rude, rushed experience when we were trying to have a rare, relaxed night out. We definitely won’t be giving garston a third chance. It shouldn’t be a stressful situation for the customer, but I’ve never known a place like it. I’ve never ever had an experience like it at any other restaurant, or even any other harvester, (our local is roaring Meg, and they go above and beyond for you there!) so definitely an...

Let’s start with the food I go quite regularly to the harvester near my house but I decided to go to this branch as I had to meet a friend and I invited him for dinner. I ordered a steak with an extra portion of chips and a steak sauce, I’m afraid the chips were stale. They seemed like they’ve been lying on the side under the heat lamp for hours. They were hard. There was they were not soft crisp Are freshly fried. The steak sauce seemed like it’s again it had split. It was not smooth. It was lumpy and I asked for no mushy peas and I got them again but that was removed and gave me extra onion rings. When I talk to the manager or what seemed like a manager, the supervisor he told me the reason the checks were like that well because they changed the oil which I think was quite bending the truth Under the circumstances which I will explain later the service was very good apart from going to the salad bar and literally coming back and not even halfway through my salad bowl my main meal was on the table so they would like trying to rush me out even though I’ve got there for like an 8 o’clock sitting our server was quite nice and polite she seems to have had a rough day with other servers. Look like they had an argument or do some bullying going on as my friend and I could hear some arguments going on between the servers and there was a bit of foul languages which was not appropriate for a service industry restaurant Harvester Garston need to pull up their standards quite considerably and they should they need to be some Customer...

For no particular occasion, my partner and I wanted a traditional Festive Christmas Dinner as a treat. We booked online at the Harvester, Garston, and were looking forward to our meal, as we had previously had excellent meals at this venue. We arrived a little early but the staff on the door said this was no problem and we could go to our table immediately if we liked. We did this and were shown to a nicely situated table for two near both the drinks fountain and salad bar. Our order for drinks was taken straight away and we both chose the refillable glass. Our table host, Chelsi, gave us ample time to go over the standard and festive menus and then took our orders. I chose the King Prawn Cocktail starter, Turkey Christmas Dinner main and Christmas Pudding and custard dessert. My partner had a Cheesy Mushroom starter, Chicken Crunch Burger main and Treacle Pudding with custard dessert. Our starters arrived within a very short time and were excellent. Both very tasty and nicely presented. The same went with the main courses and the desserts. One thing I will note here is that for my Turkey dinner, the stuffing and Yorkshire pudding were both amazing. Possibly the best I have had in a very long time, and the Turkey was beautifully cooked and extremely tender. The desserts were equally tasty and impressive. We had a great experience at this Harvester and all the staff were very friendly and helpful, but Chelsi stood out as being a terrific host. This is definitely a restaurant we both highly recommend, and one we will...