The Horse and Groom Harvester in Bexley

This is probably the most comprehensive feedback you will read.I had a craving for Scampi today and I thought of the Harvester chain where I last dined over 3 years ago. I was visiting my friend in Kent and as we were in the locality, he suggested this specific establishment.When we arrived around 13:45 , the car park was nice and empty so we were spoilt for choice of parking space. We parked and entered the restaurant.We were greated by a charming lady who walked us past the salad bar to our seating area. On the way we walked past a set of stairs going up, with dramatic sunlight coming through. I commented on it and she said she had worked there 20+ years and she had never had a comment about the stairs before, She will no doubt look at it in a different light going forward.We were seated at nice table, although the space behind me, due to a wall being there, was a little cramped whilst sitting at the chair. Also the very large chunky leg of the tab;e restricted where I could place my legs, that was a bit uncomfortable.We quickly glanced through the menu and chose 2 courses as well as hot drinksWe caught the eye of a server and ordered our meal.My Latte and my friends Green tea were served first. The flavour of the latte was nice, but the glass was a little on the small size.We then walked to the salad bar to help ourselves as has been the custom at harvester.Something very novel followed.2 servers appeared, one went with my friend and the other with me. She picked up a bowl and went along the salad bar asking me what I wanted and then placed them in a bowl, all topped up with thousand island dressing and crispy onions. She offered me a choice of rolls but did not ask if i wanted margarine or butter, I was served margarine.She then placed a quarter plate below my salad bowl and off I went to our table. I carried a bottle of the NAGA sauce, for those amongst you who like a kick to their food.The salad station was very short of sweetcorn and it lacked variety. There used to be a lot larger choice of items when I last visited a harverter such as Red kidney Beans, Jalapenos and red onions. Perhaps sign of the times.The salad was tasty and we both enjoyed it , all but my favourite potato salad, which I had the most of. Unfortunaely I left all of it as the potatoes were too hard and part uncooked, photo attached.The main course arrived , really nicely presented on a rectangular plate with the chips, peas, and the tartar sauce placed in separate dishes, that is always a good thing to see.I squeezed the lemon on a scampi one at a time as I ate them. This mantains the crispness.The scampi was superb, without any unpleasant smell and the taste flawless, took me back. It was cooked to perfection. The chips were nice too. I thoroughly enjoyed them both, the only let down were the peas, they were vary hard and part cooked, so I did not consume them. My friend took it off me, well he eats anything...........The server cleared our plates and brought our deserts , the Sundae best. I had asked the server to be generous with the chocolate dressing and she was .The sundae came in a tall glass , full to the brim, topped up the a icecream cone, reminiscent of a hat. The icecream was very smooth and the sauce tasty, my friend did comment as he was expecting some fruit as it was a sundaeI am glad we did not order 3 courses as that would have been too much, we made the correct choice.The server took the payment at the table including the tip, that was nice.As we exited I managed to get a photo of the stairswith the dramatic sunlight entering from the top right corner of the window, very arty.This was a very pleasant outing , and we realy enjoyed the experience. Thank you ladies.Please do address the issues I have raised.You will then definety get the missing 5th Star.

Pretty good veggie choice. Very quick friendly service and lovely food.

My mother and I visited last week and enjoyed a lovely warm drink and a steak lunch. The restaurant was clean and cosy and the staff very friendly. Sam our server was very friendly and helpful and we will return.

1 star purely for how awful my meal was. I had the buttermilk chicken flatbread with chips. The chicken was severely overcooked and the poorest quality chicken there is. The flatbread was very stale and not even warmed up/cooked. The salad inside the flatbread was old, dry and very sad looking. Then they'd put a load of cold jarred salsa on top of the chicken which was not nice. My chips were old and weirdly all smashed together. It's the kind of meal a 12 year old would put together without help from an adult, they need to rethink the recipe or just take it off the menu. It was gross.

Update 2...... decided to revist after a long absence. Ok experience, still good value.Salad bar is open but not self service again yet. Food was fairly good and staff was amazing.Still need to bring back the 1kg of cornish ribs though!!!Update......unfortunately and disappointingly they no longer sell the 1kg of cornish ribs pictured below 😡...Probably the best Harvester in the area! Use this restaurant quite a lot in the past as had no kitchen due to a over running extension. Foods pretty good most of the time, have had the odd bad experience but generally nothing to stop me coming back. They do a lovely pint of san miguel and the wines ok too. Food reasonably priced and the free salad bar with every main meal is a bargain. Also the free refills for soft drinks is a good idea. They do some great offers on the app so worth downloading. You can get a free main after 4 visits and regularly receive 33% off all main meals vouchers. Staff always pleasant, helpful and attentive. Always seems pretty clean. Parking is easy but you do need to enter your car reg into a tablet inside the entrance or your get a ticket!

Meet a group of friends here regularly. Food is good and reasonably priced. Staff are very accommodating. Nice layout with various levels. Can be a bit noisy in the earlier part of the evening as popular with families.

Had better customer service experience in McDonalds.From who I can only assume was the head waitress, being so rude. Walked up to the front desk asking “hi, are you accepting walk ins?”. Was responded with “have you booked?” in the bluntest tone of voice known. Then was pointed to one table next to the door saying “that’s the only one.” Again, blunt as anything.Sat for a total of 1 minute before deciding we don’t want to pay her wages, absolutely awful for the face of the company.

Service pretty slow. I was disappointed with my one mushroom which I thought was a bit measly.Salad bar is a JOKE. Tiny bowl and you’re not allowed to help yourself because of Covid which is fair enough - but then the person doing it for isn’t wearing a mask and is chatting to you all over the top of your salad bowl. Seems totally illogical.

Very clean; good menu options; good spacing between tables; bar and table service; kids welcome; clean W.C 's and plenty of free parking. Great place to eat and drink we stayed for nearly 4 hours; nice and relaxing. And top for integrity too as my girl forgot to pick her bag up but the staff locked it away for safe keeping. I picked it up 15 mins later. Nice place. Tom

Very quiet in there considering it was a Friday, I looked at the price for a mixed grill and it was £16+ and though you can get an extra large mixed grill at JD spoons for £11+ so maybe that was why they were quiet.I had the mixed grill which was good, and of course you get your complimentary salad so can't complain about that.. there was a nice waitress with very short hair who was nice and helpful i didn't get her name..There were 6 of us and we all enjoyed what we had, although we had to enquire about our coffee that came with the mini brownie and 3 of our group had to dash to get their cab so one of the delayed coffees went to waste! Otherwise we had nice evening.