EIleen's review of Harwood Arms

What a shame for the great chef ! Amazing how the front of house can destroy a great dining experience. After hearing so much about this great new eating establishment myself and my group were really looking forward to a great evening. What met us was an arrogant server (don’t know his name – tall with a goatee) who waved in the general direction of a table we could sit at. Not ones to be put off – we reminded ourselves we were in a pub – we sat down and waited ! and waited ! Eventually our server arrived back and gave us menus and pointed to a board – hidden by a wicker room divider – and told us “that’s the special” given that we couldn't see it we had to ask him to tell us what it was ! Mind boggling – there was only one item and he couldn't take the trouble. We ordered and took his advice on the beef on the bone for two, as a main. The starter we choose was really great – full of flavour. The main course eventually arrived and looked quiet nicely presented – however you can imagine our disappointment when we found the plates and the food was actually cold. I called our server (tall with goatee) and asked him to test the heat of the food – he did so and apologised – reclaiming the platter as he very deftly removed the dish and the plates. The rest of our group dug into their main courses whilst we waited -about 5 minutes later lo and behold our server appeared with another platter of food and informed us “here is a whole new fresh serving”. I was impressed by the fact it was so fast – I really was prepared to wait and was happy to sip our wine and chat to the rest of our party. However 5 minutes for a "whole new fresh serving” was a bit fast and a bit suspect. We happily accepted it and began to serve ourselves from the platter when to my amazement – here was one of the pieces of meat I had cut into originally and eaten when I first discovered the dish was cold – they didn't even bother to remove the already cut into piece of meat. Only this time it was a shade of grey (no longer rare) after very obviously having been, I can only assume, microwaved and served back up to us. When the female server cleared our plates she paid absolutely no heed to the very obvious large amount of food going back to the kitchen and in fact just sniggered when I told her we did not enjoy the meal.
To say I was disappointed is an understatement – I heard our server (tall with goatee) say to the equally unperturbed female serving with him “lets play it by ear” !!! Having years of experience in the same industry I would advise that unless someone deals with the “faces” of this eating establishment and removes some of the very obvious arrogance – the chef’s credibility will suffer.