To Think Its a shame Harvetsers went down the Pan?

[MrsAidenTurner]

When they first came out they were brilliant, easy eating out, varsity of tasty enough food, the fun of going to the salad bar ( as a child) the sources ( which I loved).

I went to one a few years ago and it was beyond neglected, food took hours, cold, rubbish, swamped with dirty plates all round us, and a few others have awful reps round us.

Thinking of cheap, easy place to take DC, they also used to do early bird which was brilliant.

There is nothing now is there!

the Harvester near me is excellent; delicious well cooked food & lovely waiting staff.

BuggerLumps which one in Surrey are you referring to? I went to the one in Ottershaw just before Christmas and it was absolutely awful, we had 6 young kids between us and they took ages to take any orders then our waitress bumped a table before us because they were going to a panto! There's one near my mum's in east sussex that they always say they're "never going back to" because the service is atrocious. I found a hair in the pasta salad too!
It's OK if you just want a cheap meal but the standard of service and the ingredients they use has definitely gone downhill.

It's appalling for vegetarians, not to mention vegans, unless you JUST want (some of) the salad. Meagre options that are heated from frozen rather than freshly prepared.

It's a slightly odd place. Most of the clientele are obese, the food is honestly shit, the staff I guess poorly paid and overworked, nobody tips them.

But we do go occasionally, and it's not as shit as many places in the

I am veggie and I normally have a jacket spud and lots of salad, but I had a rather nice bean burger last time - just before Christmas - in Leicester.

Now Frankie and Benny's - that's bad for veggies.

They are owned by Mitchells and Butlers, who own a shit load of chains (All bar one, Crown Carveries, O'Neils, Browns, Miller and Carter).

All food is frozen, and should be the same wherever you go M&B have really strict food specification guidelines.

If you are at a shit one its because the general manager is shit, also M&B are tight when it comes to labour budgets so more often than not a site will not have enough staff.

OOh OOh

I love Crown Carveries too

Is it obvious I'm not a veggie ?

They also own Toby Carvery.

How could you forget Toby Carvery?

"All food is frozen"

What, even the salad?

Oh I always forget about Toby.

Sorry the majority of food, pedantic much?

The Crown Carvery on the shores of Lake Windermere is shut just now

gutted

BernadetteMatthews

I haven't tried any of the Harvesters in MK, I get too excited by RedHot world Buffet when we go out that way!!

Aylesbury I agree is shockingly bad.

AF it's a travesty I love a good Carvery.

Pink, Red hot is epic, I love the one in Manchester, it's all about the desserts .

Omg. I know!! The deserts are amazing!! I may suggest a trip tomorrow! I get NHS discount too which just makes it even more awesome!!

wow thats loads of chain, how can they possibly keep standards up over hundreds, thousands of businesses?

I got an email this very weekend, saying the early bird menu is back

Interesting! will have to use it to venture back into harvester land again

We have one just down the road from us and it's just 'OK'. You never go there and say you've had an amazing meal.The tables are always sticky, and the salad bar makes me cringe,although the service is always good.The wine is crap though!

My dh went out with an actress who played a waitress in a Harvester advert ("have you ever been to a Harvester before?"). True fact.

I've never been to one but then I am rather snobby about chain restaurants like that.

Well I actually was a waitress in one when it first opened years and years ago!

They used to fill a good easy gap in the market.

Did you have to say "Have you ever been to a Harvester before?"

They have never been any good. The menus are massive and boring, nothing home made, hardly any healthy choices. Would much rather go to a nice free house pub with a choice of 5 main pub grub courses, all freshly cooked, good quality ingredients, home made desserts. Chains are all rubbish compared with a decent indepedently owned pub.

pear, whilst i wholeheartedly agree with you - the nice free house pub with the choice of 5 main pub grub courses tend to be ££££'s and often don't cater for children.

I doubt the early bird offer is as it was. It used to be 1/3rd off the price of everything on the men. Not just cheaper priced limited few otions it is now.

I do still like the Harvester though. I love their very fattening blue cheese sauce at the salad cart! YUM!!!

Am back off to Bristol over the Easter holidays so may have to just pop into the Snuff Mill at Frenchay. Any Bristolians here that remember that Harvester from when it had Aunt Sally and Worzel gummage figures in the pub bit. They do still have the huge fish pond in the middle of the restaurant I think - well they did when I went last year. The Snuff Mill was like the inside of a barn with hay bales years ago - just how you would imagine a Harvester to be! Nowhere has ever captured "harvester" quite as well and I am not keen on the newer modern Harvesters popping up in towns and shopping centres! Brin back Aunt Sally

The Harvester near me is new and trendy. The staff are great and really friendly. The one near my mums is older but equally as nice and the staff can't do enough for you. I have only been to one harvester that had slow service and the food wasn't quite right but it was incredibly busy so we haven't gone back to that one since. There are so many to chose from we can afford to be picky luckily.

The food at the Harvester we went to last year was rubbish,