The Gryphon

I came here years ago when it was a Toby carvery and whilst I would usually avoid a Harvester it was 5 minutes from my friend’s house and is apparently always busy. With this in mind you would think that they could handle a packed service.
On every level they failed. Our waitress was new and didnt know the menu. but not a problem as she was helpful in checking with the kitchen and really bubbly. We got menus quickly and drinks orders taken but we then waited 15 mins for our food order to be taken, after we had shut our menus and made repeated attempts to catch any staff members eye. I went to the bar to follow up on our drinks and the barman apologised for the service and said he would bring the drinks over. We then ordered our food and saw our drinks go to another waiter, then dissappear.
Our waitress was managing a large area by herself and all around us were people waiting to pay, uncleared tables and a couple who left, clearly frustrated by the wait. We wondered if the other staff were on a break or something.
After a futher 15 minutes I went and found our drinks on the wait staff station next to the other seating area. I could see our meals on the hot pass, so waited another 10 mins and as I got up to find the food our waitress arrived with the meals. The nachos my friend ordered were awful, an oblong dish with large helpings of sour cream and salsa over the nachos at either end and a few blobs of melted cheese — I said to send them back but we were so hungry by this point we didnt bother, so she redistributed the toppings herself.
My steak wasnt too bad but had clearly been left sitting for some time and continued to cook under the hot lights/​dry out so it was quite chewy.
Our poor waitress, who was covering a large area, by this point was joined by the manager and another waiter. The manager came over and answered our request for another round of drinks, we commented on how busy the waitress had been and that we thought she was doing the best she could under the circumstances and he launched into a jokey diatribe about how many teasets she had broken. The drinks never came and again I had to go to the bar to order them and bring them back to the table. We asked for our bill and it arrived after about 10 mins but without a card machine. By this point we were totally frustrated so went up to the bar to pay.
All in all an awful experience — avoid this place!

We visited this Harvester after a busy day of family events.
The service was friendly, but slow. We asked for water, crayons and some activity sheets but they arrived one by one and very slowly (they gave us crayons, then went to get the activity sheet separately). One of our party member’s meals didn’t arrive until well after everyone else had received theirs. It appeared that the staff had forgotten about it.
One of our party member’s meals was warm when it came to us and she had to send it back in order to get a hot plate of food.
The table we were sat at was unpleasantly sticky.
The men’s toilets were so filthy that a member of our party was forced to use the disabled toilet. This is not something he would normally do. The women’s toilets were OK.
The outdoor area doesn’t really have anywhere for children to run around in as it is full of tables. For an establishment that welcomes families we found this poor.
Overall: Staff are friendly but the service is slow. The food we had was average to mediocre. No outside space for children. Wouldn’t visit again in a hurry.

great little steakhouse

This place provides great steaks and all you can eat salad for around £10. The food was delicious and the service was great. The atmosphere is very friendly and calm, with warm surroundings. I would definitely recommend and go again.