Harvester The Lowry Manchester Review
Reviewed by Emma Bradley
I reviewed the Harvester at Salford Quays with my husband, 3 year old son and a baby, at 6.30pm on a Wednesday evening.
The Harvester at Salford Quays is set within the Lowry Outlet Mall making it the perfect place to grab some food after shopping or before a theatre trip. The evening I visited was a particular busy evening with a double showing at the Lowry Theatre and an open water swim event in the Quays as a result I was very disappointed when choosing our meals large parts of the menu was unavailable. Bearing in mind that the restaurant would have been aware of this they really should have been prepared, I was keen to sample some of the new meals on offer but there was no salmon, beef ribs, lamb amongst other things.
Another negative was the free salad bar which was empty when we arrived and there were no bowls despite several people asking they were extremely slow to get new bowls and fill up the salad. However once the salad bar was replenished the quality of the food was great and it was a very welcome accompaniment to our main meal.
For starters we ordered the sticky duck wings which were coated in a gingerbeer and honey glaze and the fish basket which included crackerjack prawns, prawns and fish goujons. Both were hot and fresh and contained a generous portion. What I thought was particularly great was the fact that all the starters are on offer for 3 for £10 or any 4 for £12.50.
Main courses were a 12oz rump steak with fries which was cooked as requested, with a side of peppercorn sauce. The steak was great and very good value, the only sight criticism is the side portion of sauce was very small for the size of the meal. I decided that I wanted to try one of the new items on the menu and since several were unavailable I settled on the Harvester Veggie Fully Loaded burger which was a butternut squash and chickpea with three bean chilli topped with Monterey Jack cheese. Now I am not a vegetarian but I really enjoyed this substantial burger, I also ordered a sweet potato fries instead of normal fries which was a lovely change and highly recommended.
For pudding my husband had the cookie dough, caramel and chocolate fudge brownie stack, which was layers of fudge brownie cake with crunchy cookie dough and ice cream. This was a good size for a very sweet desert and thoroughly enjoyed. Both meals were accompanied by refillable drinks which is great value, we did have one issue with the drinks which was they were served in very small glasses, however looking around the tables everyone seemed to have different sized glasses so I assume that this is an issue with not enough glasses as oppose to it being the norm.
My son ordered from the children’s menu, having the fish fingers and fries from the smaller bites menu. It was a generous sized portion despite it being from the ‘smaller bites’ menu. For dessert he had the make your own sundae and loved building his own!
A special mention should go to our waitress Pam who was really efficient and personable even though the restaurant was very busy, we never had to wait long for orders and she was great with the children.
Overall I would love to have given this review a 5 out of 5 as the food was great quality and value and service on the whole was good. However the lack of available meals, especially of the new menu and the length of time it took to refill the salad bar was really disappointed, I can understand them running out of food at 9pm but not 6.30pm on a weekday. So I give this review a 3.5 out of 5.
Rating: 3.5/5
For more information, to view menus or to book a table visit:
www.harvester.co.uk/restaurants/northwest/harvesterthelowrymanchester
Lowry Outlet Mall, Salford Quays, Salford, Greater Manchester, M50 3AG | 0161 877 3952
