Harvest a good value, filling meal out (Harvester Pub & Grill)

Member Name: nevikrose

Product:	Harvester Pub & Grill
Date:	05/04/09 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, good service and good opening times, with early bird cheaper menu

Disadvantages: sometimes food quality is inconsistent

These days it can be hard to find a place to eat thats accessible, hearty and light on the budget. Eating out has returned to the 'luxury' pocket of our lives rather than the 'convenient' pocket.

Because I travel a lot between two places a lot of the week at the moment often the energy or time to cook is usurped by the strong desire to 'just have something hot in front of me right now'. Takeaways dont always cut it, tending towards the unhealthy and unsatifying. At least for me.

On the half way point between my house and my boyfriends is the Polegate Harvester, the Horse and Groom. It is a common choice for us if we're short on time, and its great value means we havent had to entirely cut it out of our options.

The Harvester chain have restuarants across the nation and have aquired the catering license at many existing pubs that did not wish to take on food catering themselves. Well known for their salad bar (free unlimited salad with any main meal) Harvester are a favourite for families as well as people passing through looking for a cheap and good quality meal.

For even better value their Earlybird Deal is available 11am to 6.30pm throughout with selected meals from £4.99. their Main Menu is available all day.

Harvester's speciality is their grill, including items such as half spitroasted chicken (with various sauces/marinades, of which, my favourite is the kickin' garlic chicken, a spicy buttery garlic sauce) ribs, steaks and sausage grills.
various fish and chip style items and pasta options.
My boyfriend is fond of their aubergine and sweet potato curry, being vegetarian, which is usually tasty, but can sometimes have slightly undercooked potato. His options at Harvester are a little limited, with only three or four vegetarian dishes on offer. With free salad though and a good choice of starters that can be paired with chips or garlic bread, it only takes a little creativity to get around this.

Harvester platters are a popular choice, selections of complementary items usually off the grill, such as chicken wings and ribs with corn on the cob and fries. Be warned though, they are not for the faint hearted and definately do not need a starter! They are usually very well cooked though, and have a good selection.

Their deserts are pretty much of the 'pudding or icecream' variety. We share a Rocky Horror sometimes, an obscene jumble of warm brownie, chocolate sauce, cream and icecream.

The horse and groom in Polegate has friendly staff, a welcoming atmosphere and usually delivers great food in lightning fast time. I cant speak for all the other branches, but whenever I have eaten at others the service has been of the same quality.

I would recommend you try their original drinks as well, although I am not usually 'drinking' at Harvester, their range of non alcoholic fruit juice/cordial cocktails are seasonal and often cheaper/healthier than a coke.

My favourite aspect of the Harvester chain though is that they are open all day sunday. which is when we are most likely to need/want to eat out, although there are many excellent independant pub restaurants in the area, sunday times are not always convenient for us.

Summary: A great choice for people searching for an unfussy, classic british meal out.