We might have been from the good food guide...

Lucy and I had a brilliant day yesterday!  Apart from the evening power-cut and some family-related downers, that is, but  I shan't bore you with here!  We went to Avebury and then Salisbury to have a look at some stones and logs.  Check it out: http://kipperfrog.blogspot.com/.  


Today's rock climbing, so we figured we should get up, chillax for a bit, buy a new chalk bag, have some lunch, potter around the shops looking for a new Iphone case for Lucy, and then go home for a bit before we head back out for our climbing sesh.  It started off so well, but then we went to Harvester in Salfords...

Harvester is crap.  I won't ever go there again.  I hope no one I knows ever goes there again, and that because of this, they then shut it down because of that 6 degrees of separation thingy...  Anyway, here's why it was sooo crap.

1.  Shoddy welcome.  The exact words were "Sit here for me", rather than the usual, "follow me this way please,  Madam, Sir.  Please take a seat", as they pull the chairs out for you...  A great start to customer services.  The waitresses name was Farrah, I believe.  This is an excusable start and wouldn't have been worth mentioning if it wasn't for what followed...
2.  The food is what followed...  The help-yourself salad bar was looking very un-delicious.  The green things weren't green, rather a pale-yellow, just like the red things, funnily enough!  The sweetcorn was dried out, yet watery at the same time.  Very tasty.  Not.  Again though, this is excusable; what do you expect from a free salad bar?
3.  The main course killed it for me.  The fresh garden peas were not fresh.  They were yellowy-brown again, just like everything else, and were so overcooked they were almost mushy peas.  The chips were lumpy and soggy at the same time, and the beef (an 8oz rump steak) I ordered well-done was burnt to a cinder.  There's well done (soft, tender, juicy, a little pink right in the middle, but definitely no blood), and there's a lump of charcoal.  I had the latter.  And it wasn't even hot.
4.  Lucy had a similar experience, and her piece of salmon was waaay dry and again, black.  Apparently, it tasted not unlike beef that's been burnt until it tastes like charcoal.  Nice.  I'm sure the grill was really clean.
5.  When we tried to pay, things go even worse.  The lovely, polite, and ever helpful Farrah was nowhere to be seen.  For 10 minutes.  The other waitresses/waiters etc. just ignore you.. they're not going to get your tip, so why bother, I guess.  We got out of our seats with our coats on to wait by the tills for another 5 minutes.
6.  When Farrah did at last show up, it was to seat another family.  She simply said, "move to the side, please", before hurrying the next family into place, and then scurrying off again.
7.  When Farrah next turned up, it was to take Lucy's money.  I feel bad about this, but I was refusing to pay.  Lucy didn't want me to be quite so harsh and just wanted to get out of the place, so stubbornly, but still reluctantly, handed over the card.  I bought some chocolate to try to make up for it a bit...
8.  The machine wouldn't work.  "Come with me", Farrah said as we both had to walk over to another till, while, instead of apologising for the various complaints I had about her service and the food, she blamed almost all of it on other people before saying everything was fine and that the clearly disgusting open grill was only just cleaned.  I wish I had that on tape with a photo.  It was grim.

Harvester Sucks.  The Hornbrook Inn and the Rajkumar in Horsham are wonderful, the service is brilliant, and we'll never pass them up for Harvester again.  Even Frankie and Benny's in Crawley is nicer than Harvester.  In fact, I think Burger King and MacDonald's do better meat than Harvester.  And in McDonald's, they apologise.  Can you believe the service is better in McDonald's than a supposed family restaurant?  Neither can I.  Please don't go to Harvester.  Ever.  You have been warned.  ;)