Ad disclosure: We were provided with a meal free of charge for the purpose of this review.
On Saturday we headed to our local Harvester, The Forest near Bromsgrove. We were invited along to try out their spring menu & check out their kids meals in particular. We had a lovely meal, and really enjoyed our evening at the restaurant.
The kids were provided with activity packs along with our menus, and they loved them. A paper bag they could decorate & add their names to was filled with a pack of crayons, an activity booklet (that unfolded to reveal a colouring in sheet), some bunny character cards, and a packet of sunflower seeds.
Georgie is really excited to plant her sunflower seeds, and they both really enjoyed the colouring sheet and activities. The fun bunny rabbit characters Harvester have created are really fun and the concept of the “Harvester Allotment” is really sweet – everything ties in together.
The bag to take everything home is great too – often I find myself putting crayons and activity sheets into my handbag never to be seen again, as the kids are so reluctant to leave anything behind but don’t have any way of keeping everything together.
We started off with a visit to the salad bar. You get to eat as much as you like – and there is a great range of child-friendly options too, with the girls devouring iceberg lettuce, slices of cucumber, carrot, sweetcorn & pineapple. Georgie really enjoyed being able to choose whatever she wanted from the selection.
We chose to have tapas starters, which is a great way to mix & match dishes you love for a reasonable cost. All three of our choices were great & the girls enjoyed sharing a few bites with us too – it was a great way for them to try some new flavours. James and I opted for halloumi skewers, bbq glazed chicken wings, and breaded button mushrooms. Delicious!
The children’s menu has a great range of appealing and healthy options for your little ones. Georgie had an omelette which was super cheesy and she definitely enjoyed it. She chose to have fries and a mini corn on the cob – one of her favourite sides ever, a great healthy choice which we are always delighted to see on a kids menu.
Lydia opted for chicken, fries & beans – she loves chicken and definitely enjoyed her meal. The skin-on fries were a bit hit with both girls, and with James & myself for that matter! The portion sizes for both meals were very good.
I opted for Cornish smoked back ribs, served with fries, grilled watermelon, and chipotle BBQ beans. It was amazing – the ribs were so tasty and the beans were really delicious. James opted for a medium rare steak which was cooked just right, something that is so often not the case when eating out.
Both of us pretty much cleared our plates, a good indication of how yummy it was.
With the kids menu, there is a meal deal option where they can have a main, unlimited salad, a drink (squash or milk), and one of two puddings; a small ice cream sundae or a fruit salad. When it came to choosing puddings Georgie fell in love with the build your own cookie pizza option and it’s not hard to see why. I was quite tempted to see if they’d serve one up for me!
Her plate arrived and it was a large cookie with raised edges, filled with a chocolate sauce. On the side were small dishes with marshmallows, Cadbury chocolate buttons, honeycomb & toffee sauce. Georgie proceeded to pile everything onto her pizza with much enjoyment, and was in absolute heaven when it came to eating it! The only slight downside to this is the menu promised strawberries and they were replaced by the honeycomb instead – strawberries are Georgie’s favourite fruit but she didn’t really miss them.
Lydia went for the Sundae Best ice cream and really enjoyed it – she loved the chocolate flake & ice cream cone that gave it a funny twist.
James went for the Key Lime Pie which he really enjoyed, and I had a huge slab of chocolate fudge cake with sauce, ice cream & honeycomb pieces – it was divine.
Overall we were really delighted with our experience at Harvester. The prices seemed reasonable and all the food was cooked really well and tasted great. The service was excellent with really friendly & helpful staff, and the other diners in the restaurant (who weren’t there to review) looked like they were being well looked after too.
The toilets were clean and of a high standard – although the hand dryer in the gents wasn’t working when we visited. The restaurant in general seemed very well-kept and pleasant.
As a place to take the children for a meal, it was ideal. The salad bar means they can get food within minutes of sitting down, and the activity packs kept them well entertained between courses. They had a good selection of drinks for children too, including lemon squash which is Lydia’s absolute favourite & won them brownie points straight away.
The waitress gave the girls both child size cutlery which is a huge plus point as far as I’m concerned – so often places have children’s menus but then expect our dinky three year old to be able to eat with adult sized cutlery. I’ve had to request teaspoons so many times when puddings for kids have been served with ridiculous sized spoons too, so it made a nice change to see proper cutlery for them.
I can easily see us returning there for a meal out – it would be a great place to go to for a family birthday meal as they cater to all ages.
The bag and sunflower seeds are such a lovely idea…
It sounds like you had a lovely meal…The salad bar looks very impressive and wow at those desserts! Yum!!
I spent all of my birthdays as a child at our local Harvester but I haven’t been to one in years. The children’s menu looks great and we really should visit again – it looks like you had a lovely meal x
Yum! We might plan a meal to harvester, we will see how it goes. I love the yummy children’s dishes they prepare, and they are so friendly! Thanks for posting Zoe!
Hi, looks great! I may do that for my daughters birthday. How long were you there for? May invite a couple of her friends and would want to know what time their parents can pick them up.