Thursday 7.5.09

I couldn't face cleaning the kitchen today, so in a return to a past lifestyle almost forgotten, Nick, H and I went out for tea to the Harvester. I was able to disguise this slice of laziness by telling them they deserved a treat, H having done well in her coursework and Nick being super-breadwinner (Nina was out with P). Harvester was my suggestion based on having seen an advert in the paper weeks ago that told me they still had the special deal if you order before 6.30pm. They had that same deal when we had our last meal at the Harvester. That was a millennium ago. H couldn't remember ever eating there, but we did, for a lot of the mid-late 1990's, about once a month, drawn in by the facilities for family dining, the cheap tea-time deal, and the salad bar. Would it be the same? Nick and I were excited to find out. We were trying to be ironic, but we were kidding ourselves, we were genuinely excited.

It was the same. Or, at least, so much the same that we had to work at it to find the differences. The carpet, I think was exactly the same red and cream pattern designed not to show the dirt. The tables and chairs were the same. Farm-house country-style pine with upholstered seats. They were more a mix of styles than they had before. Harvester seems to have decided to replace some, but not all of the seating, which left us sitting at odd heights. The restaurant area was divided up by partitions with glass-free windows, these were in place last time we were there, but they had been re-painted cream (they used to be terracotta, as far as I recall).

Drinks were prompt. Nick got himself into a tizzy and couldn't cope with the choice, so I ordered him a pint of Bulmers Cider that arrived with ice cubes. H and I stuck to diet coke. I noticed that we could have had elderflower coolers though, or smoothies. You couldn't get them in the 90's, young people don't know they're born....

The menu, you should have a look at for yourself. I think it's fair to say, it doesn't scream 2009. http://www.harvester.co.uk/ . The salad bar was in the same place, serving the same stuff, right down to the blue cheese dressing and the strangely appealing crunchy fried onions. You can still have as much salad as you like, and as many bread rolls, although they weren't as good as they used to be. We had a starter that was a platter of chicken wings, breaded mushrooms and prawns, and sweetcorn. The best bit was the bar-b-q sauce on the chicken. It was all a bit greasy, but appetising in its way. For main, Nick went for the bacon burger, which was an enormous burger with cheese and a half a slice of gammon on top. H went for scampi, which was er, scampi served without the traditional bread and tartare sauce, cooked at too low a temperature which made it greasy (I suspect the fat could do with changing). I had the combi of spit-roast chicken which had a steamed quality, and a half rack of ribs which was tender and tasty, covered as it was in bar-b-q sauce. All of the specials come with chips or chips and all the salad you want. We were too full to attempt pudding, and that is saying something as we're talking the Richards family. I don't remember the old menu, but I don't think it was much different. It came to under £30 all in.

Weirdly, the customers were the same. Middle England low key respectables, mostly eating in groups of 4-6, most tables with a child or two. The odd table of work colleagues were there, out for a self congratulatory character assassination of workmates who hadn't come along. The change of the clothes and hairstyles was the giveaway. Most of us seem to have stopped wearing sportswear to dinner.

We were trying to come up with changes, but we weren't doing too well. The staff uniforms had been updated, with an all black dress code supplemented by almost floor skimming white wrap around waist aprons (sort of bakery style, I suppose). I have to assume that the dress code also said the aprons should be grubby, because they universally were. The music was mostly recent, Amy Winehouse is doing good trade. That's about it though.

I'm not sure that it should matter that not much has changed. The place was busy enough for 6pm on a Thursday. No sign of the credit crunch. Little Chef's lesson is that food businesses need to adapt to survive. In the words of Sam Cooke (and Barrak Obama) change is gonna come, maybe.