Harvester Malthouse Exeter in Exeter

My son treated me to lunch here. It's a lovely building and the inside was comfortable and warm. We sat by a window over looking the river. Our waitress Tipi? was lovely, very attentive without being overbearing. I had the risotto and my son had the linguini both meals were delicious. My risotto was one of the best I have ever had, beautifully cooked. We shared a dessert as we were both pretty full, the chocolate torte with the sorbet was very nice and a great combination. I would defiantly go back here and would recommend to friends.

Walked past with a friend, ended up dining and loving the atmosphere and food! Customer service was amazing and the food? We were so happy with it! Seabass risotto is a must try!

We booked for lunch on the 23rd December. Arrived on time. Dining room was rather cold. Waitress took our order after explaining that what we wanted was not available. We then waited over 30 minutes and two of the main dishes were wrong. The waitress went back to the kitchen and came back and said the lamb and the fish dish was not available and would the fish and chips she had brought to us be ok. We agreed. All the food was Luke warm but good. We then ordered desserts but again some were not available. One of the orders was lemon meringue . It turned out to be a small round lemen tart with no meringue.The waitress, called Tip, was extremely good and managed the difficult situation very well. The kitchen staff were obviously the problem. The a la carte menu has obviously not been read by the kitchen staff. Building was superb. I will not be going again.

Only gave 3 stars because we waited an hour for our boxing day breakfast, and although we were the first sitting they had run out of smoked salmon. Thought the price of a bucks fizz was also OTT

Family Christmas eve meal was disappointing. A 1/4 of the mains weren’t available which unfortunately were all the best ones! The food doesn’t match the price point: sirloin steak wasn’t great quality, roast cod didn’t come with enough potatoes. Desserts were very nice but not almost £10 nice. Waiter was great.

Turned up for breakfast left waiting at desk, took ages to find a table in an empty restaurant, then left sat at table while all three waitresses talked with their friends. Having told them we were short of time incredible. Left without eating and too late to go elsewhere. Get better staff !

Had a meal here last night 21st December. We waited over an hour for our starter. Most of the starters were off the menu so we ended up sharing a fish platter which consisted of slightly warm prawns and calamari. We then ordered the chateaubriand with fries and 2 sauces. Everything was cold so we sent it back. 5 mins later it was returned to us having been put in a microwave to warm through. This resulted in one end being overcooked and the other still cold. The fries were warm. Basically everything was inedable. We returned the food again. We were asked if we wanted to order anything else but it was nearly 10pm and we were not prepared to wait another hour for something else which might have been as bad. The waiter presented a bill to us for our starter and bottle of wine which included a 20% service charge. The bill was just short of £100 . We felt that because our whole experience was bad that this should be waived. We asked to speak to the manager but he didn't speak to us. When we refused to pay the bill the waiter spoke to the manager who agreed to waive the bill. We were not the only people who had a bad experience. The couple at the next table had waited over an hour for their starter and they decided to cancel everything and walked out as well. I will not be returning to this restaurant and would not recommend it.

Took 20 minutes to come back to tell us they did not have what we ordered, then everything else tried to order from menu waiter said they did not have 4 choices later had to have what we did not really want, fillet steak was tasteless, this was at 1 lunchtime and did not have hardly any that was on the menu, complained and had bill reduced but would rather have been able to have food we wanted, all manager said was issue in kitchen, had been looking forward to having a Browns restaurant, they need a decent chef and better trained staff

They might have spent a shed load of money on the decor, but the standard of everything else was well below what I would have expected from a supposed higher class restaurant. Service at best was mediocre, with staff not watching the tables and we having to call them over to request things. Many main meals were not available, on a Saturday night, disgraceful. Food was OK, but overpriced for the standard. Good to see a few draft beers on offer, rather than bottled. The bill arrived with a service charge already added, which we removed, as the cost of producing and serving the meal should be included. The choice of adding a tip should be down to the customer, NOT poorly run business. All in all they need to buck up their staff training and it very much looked like it was run by someone who had never done the job themselves and was probably sitting in an office, counting the pennies. Our local pub, ;The Tally Ho’, does a better job of producing good quality food, at a much lower price.I would personally rate ‘ Wetherspoons’, above the standard we received at ‘Browns’.

Awful, never again! Service was very slow, inattentive and lacking. Major items on the menu not available. Food mediocre at best, avoid the festive menu soup that is more like baby food purée. Over priced for food and soft drinks. Very disappointing. No large print menus.

Our server was really nice but unfortunately everything else about our experience was awful. None of the food orders were accurate and it took an hour for food to come despite the restaurant being basically empty on Sunday morning. Several members of the party have allergies but the food that came was inaccurate. Replacement food was burnt to a crisp. Thankfully we got the food removed from the bill and an apology but we won’t be back.

Atrocious meal. Really slow service. Took absolutely ages to get served. They had hardly any starters on the menu as they were sold out of just about everything. When the main eventually came it was stone cold and inedible. It's the first and only time I've ever sent something back. They basically warmed the same steak a bit more which meant it was lukewarm and overcooked and still inedible. At this point we gave up and decided to leave. We were then presented with a bill which still included 2 cocktails which were supposed to be complimentary and a huge service charge. We complained again and were told the manager would come and see us to discuss. They didn't bother (presumably having to deal with too many other complaints). Only good thing was that they eventually waived the bill after us arguing, but it ruined our evening and hugely wasted our time taking 2 hours to effectively not feed us. We ended up with pretty much no food so takeaway it is. Couple at the table next to us had the same issues and also decided to leave without being fed. I cannot recommend this restaurant at all. Genuinely one of the worst meals I've had and at the price they're charging they should be ashamed. All in all highly disappointing.

Considering the price range, you’d definitely expect a fine dining experience. However, the halloumi burger I got had no flavour, genuinely have had a better halloumi burger from Spoons. Took so long to get the attention of one of the many staff members throughout the night - they seemed to prefer standing around and chatting. Only 2 out of 12 on our table were happy with their food. Altogether a poor experience, however we very much appreciated the colleague who came over and listened to our complaints at the end of the night and compensated us as such. Overall wound not recommend.

Took over 50 minutes for a portion of fries and chicken skewers to arrive, bar staff all miserable, zero atmosphere, been to Browns often in London and was always good, unfortunately I don’t think they will last in Exeter, staff are clueless.

Only recently opened. The food was incredible. I ordered off the festive menu and is was delicious. The only negative is that the service was slow (which was fine for us - busy catching up). Would go back, very friendly.

We had a fabulous bottomless brunch experience here! Jo was our server, she was attentive, and nothing was too much trouble! Our food was tasty, and the Moët kept on flowing! We will be back!! Thank you x

I am disappointed reading the other reviews on here and Facebook, as our table clearly didn’t get the same service that other people have had and I hope that these were just teething problems being newly opened. Overall, I found the service very odd. We were welcomed and shown to our table and offered drinks-so a really good start. I was then given a glass that was cracked-easily fixed-if you can get the attention of a member of staff. Starters for those who were having them seemed to be good but whilst our party enjoyed their starters, the side for the roast arrived and then the starters plates were not cleared whilst we waited for mains, and the wait staff had to be prompted to clear the table. I just got the impression that we were a bit of an inconvenience to staff when actually clearing tables is basic. The pork belly was ok, the root vegetables and potatoes were average, the seasonal greens were not good….made worse by the fact that the food wasn’t that warm. Alongside this the kitchen seemed very selective about who got applesauce and who didn’t 😂. I would have really like to have tried a dessert but we decided to call it a day. Despite this, the building has been transformed into a much nicer venue and I hope that service can be improved (or that this was a one off) as it has the potential to be lovely and I hope to hear better things as Brown’s gets settled.

The food was delicious and beautiful cooked. Our server Chris (who also jokingly went by Helen should our service not up to scratch) was fantastic, very attentive and personable. Definitely recommend and will be back again soon

The restaurant is nicely decorated and gives a nice feeling. The service is not so great. 1. I have ordered the grilled fish for my daughter from the kids menu and asked if she could have some rice on fhe side, the waitress said that was not possible as was not coming with the dish ( they do have rice as side for other dishes on the kids menu). So had to order something else. 2. Once our food arrived no one came back to check on us and see if everything was ok, i had to call over the waitress after a while as I was disappointed with my main 3. I have order for myself the vegan asparagus curry which had rice on the side, the curry was without too much seasoning and flavour you, but the worst thing was the rice that was overcooked and so sticked together you could lift the whole thing with the fork without falling to piece. I have sent it back and the waiter said all the rice was like that. So I said I didn't want the dish as the rice is impossible to eat. 4. Once we finished eating no one came over to ask if we wanted desert or take the empty dishes away. I called the waitress over to ask for the desert which comes with the kids menu and handed the plates over. 5. Despite sending my whole main back they put it in the bill, and the waitress didn't check if the bill was right. My husband starter was about 12 £ on the menu and charged 20, I have asked the waitress and she had no idea why, we asked to speak with a manager and asked to take away the service charge, the dish i didn't actually eat and check the price of my husbands starter. I would not come back

Too pretentious to reply to emails about the opening. Avoid these overpriced mediocre chains and spend your money with a local business, who value your custom.

A little bit of a wait ( 15 minutes) for drinks when I arrived. Food really good! Our waiter Christof was lovely, warm and friendly and helpful. All other staff very nice too. Good atmosphere and view of the river. Thank you

Thought we'd book Browns for a Sunday roast .. We arrived, very impressed with the refurb, lovely atmosphere... We got seated .. ordered drink's unfortunately after 20 minutes had to remind our server we were still waiting..drinks arrived, we said we were ready to order "ok I'll send someone over" ..over somebody came order our food 1starter and 2 roasts, I also ordered my complimentary cocktail (as I signed up to the app) which just resembled a poor bucksfizz... So starter arrived Crab with Avocado on toasted sourdough... I'm sorry but this was taken straight out the fridge as it was fridge cold and definitely not toasted more like on a slice of brioche! Our mains arrived, nice generous portion but it was luke warm at best, I did order a glass of Rioja that never came ... At this point we decided to leave, I asked for the bill which arrived after I was asked where our table was !! ....including the wine that I never had ... So I asked for it to be removed and the service charge be taken off. Our server didn't seem to be aware we were there let alone waiting to be served ..we had to catch there attention several times, maybe the Maitre'd should be looking around the restaurant noticing this. On leaving I did convey my disappointment to the Maitre'd who did apologize but the whole experience was not a good one.

Food was OK, but service was appalling, we had to go and ask them after 20 minutes of waiting for them to take our order, there were 12 people in the restaurant and 8 members of staff, Nearly 2 hours for a simple course meal. I always tip and it takes a lot for me not to, this is probably only the third time in my life.

Beautiful venue, great food and a warm welcome! Thank you Christos and team for your excellent service.

I have been quite excited for the opening of Browns after many positive experiences at the Bath and Nottingham locations. We went for sunday lunch, my wife had the Roast Chicken and I had the seafood platter. Food took 45 minutes to arrive (which I can understand with it being relatively busy). However at £21 + £5 for the Roast Chicken and Cauliflower Cheese and £25.95 for the seafood platter, we felt that the value for money just wasn't there. The chicken was moist and generously portioned, however all of the accompaniments were medicore at best (they also forgot my wifes stuffing and Yorkshire Pudding.) In terms of the seafood platter, i received 2 scallops, 8 prawns, a few pieces of calamari and some padron peppers. I started with the scallops which were outstanding. The calamari was okay, but lacked seasoning in the batter. Prawns were a good size and tasted great, unfortunately they were overcooked. The padron peppers were tiny and burned. The service was okay. With these sorts of prices, i can't say this is a competitive offering for Exeter. The Ivy is cheaper and better if you want a place with an upmarket vibe. Mill on the Exe and The Hourglass offer a much better roast.

We really had a great time here last night. Staff were very attentive and the food was delicious. We paid £50pp for 2 starters, 2 mains, 1 dessert, 1 bottle of wine. We even stayed on in the bar after our meal. Really great to see a Browns in Exeter.

Great evening tonight only thing that would put it down is the cheese board very small for what you pay 10 biscuits 4 bits of small cheese

What an amazing experience we had at Browns Exeter, the food and service was second to none and I would highly recommend the Seafood platter as it looks just as good as it tastes. Thanks Browns and what a lovely addition to Exeter!

Loved it 😍 Browns is amazing, beautiful setting fantastic good and service Nikki was fantastic 😀

Browns have stolen my 5star Harvester review, pretending it's their review when they've not even opened yet..... An over-priced ponce bar..... yes, that's what we need in Exeter, not a family restaurant.... Mmmmmm. I hope they re-open a Harvester when you fail..... but the building will probably be posh flats instead..... Shame on you.

Excellent evening with friends in newly opened Browns. Enjoyed 3 course meal with lovely cocktails. Our server Christos was superstar. Warm and funny and friendly! Would definitely recommend.

What a spectacular addition to Exeter! Great quality food and incredible service! What an experience!

I was lucky enough to experience the new restaurant this evening and it was superb and all of the food my friend and I tried was delicious. Highly recommended

Not a family friendly restaurant at all. We’ve been going to Harvester for over 13 years since I moved to Exeter and have visited different branches around the country. First time to experience such rude service by our server Jo. Definitely an unpleasant experience. Management team is also appalling. I want to straighten the facts mentioned in the response of my review. Firstly, the kids did not persistently ran around. This only happened a few time where each time an adult kept telling them and grabbing them to sit down. If you have kids you’ll know how hard it is to contain 2 years old to keep still as well as a 6 years old. Also, if you don’t want kids to stand up and go to a chicken machine you have on display then please remove this machine as it attracts too much attention for kids! Secondly, nobody swore! I never realised saying ‘For goodness sake’ was a swear word. If your waitress and incompetent supervisor was not rude in responding when being asked what their name was, then your guest wouldn’t have been annoyed and responded in this way. Thirdly, I didn’t realise that a family friendly restaurant doesn’t allow guest to sit on another table (unoccupied table) to try and contain the ‘problematic’ little 2 year old guest your waitress kept moaning about. If your waitress Jo wasn’t so rude to shout at a guest and tell them to not sit on a table that was empty and the guest even offered to clean the table that was sat on but ‘NOoooo’ it was so much of an hassle for your staff member Jo to just be respectful to your guest! Fourth, please teach your staff the right morals in dealing with customer service. Your waitress Jo was caught lying when she told guests that the kitchen will be closing in 20mins. Order was placed around 19:20 when in-fact you still have a table booked at 19:45 which means that they have less than 5 mins to place their order when they arrive. How come this was accommodated? Is this the attitude you tolerate in your family friendly restaurant? Please do not blame the guest for the incompetence of your management team and poor attitude of staff. If kindness and appropriate service was given in the beginning you will not receive such feedback. On the plus note, I want to commend your waitress Millie for being so friendly and accommodating. You need more staff like her! She was the only thing good about your restaurant.

Service by Natalie was amazing, so friendly and helpful. The food was excellent. We've had a few occasions what the food had been under par, but every element tonight was banging. Chef was on form. SUCH a shame they are closing on 10th. Refurbing and changing to a Brown's restaurant, part of the same company. The menu is not even comparable and looks overpriced. We will not be coming back, such a shame to lose Exeter Harvester.

The place itself looked lovely, was clean, and the waitress was great. However, my husband ordered a burger and halfway through he found a green patch on the bun!! We complained immediately to the manager herself (I think her name was Carla?) and she took the remainder of the meal to the kitchen. When she returned, she was adamant that it wasn’t mould and was just packaging and she offered a replacement meal but this had made my husband feel sick and there was no way he wanted to eat another burger from the same batch of buns! We asked for the meal to be removed from the bill. The manager then proceeded to argue with me, stating she would only take 50% of the cost off as my husband had eaten the chips and some of the burger! Her response was absolutely disgusting and the fact that she argued that a portion of chips was worth half the cost of the meal was ridiculous. It was only after I insisted several times that I would not be paying for that meal that she agreed to take it off, but her attitude was terrible. She clearly has very little experience with customers and problem solving. I’ve never seen a manager argue with a customer like that. Whether it was mould or not, a bun should not be green!! She did also drop in that the restaurant was closing down so perhaps that’s why she didn’t give a crap and had a bad attitude.

Very nice and quiet place for good food and efficient service. A good place to spend time with your family and friends.

Probably the best harvester I've been too !!!!!

Nice food pleasant staff and didn't keep us waiting long although busy, thankyou !

My grandkids love this place. Unfortunately it is being closed down, refurbished and will be changing to a more upmarket restaurant brand owned by the same group selling better food but not the type they like. I may however, as TBF, I am not that impressed with the food outside of the salad bar. Also, maybe the refurbishment will improve the atmosphere. Service normally friendly but can be a bit slow as staff are always rushing about, as not enough of them.

Far from our local, but also far better. Cozy atmosphere, chefs who know what they’re doing and Rump steak on special too.

Brilliant place to eat. Friendly staff, great menu.

Good food and desert enjoyed my meal

Jo was a great host. The service was quick and efficient. Great menu knowledge. When the food arrived it was hot and delicious. Lovely lunch time and with amazing service from Jo! Thank-you :)

Quick service, good food and outstanding host (Jo).

Good food, good value and Isobel was a star waitress, thanks!!

Our table was booked for 8.15 We arrived and got seated and had drinks & food ordered by 8.30 But we then went up to get salad, and it was pretty much all gone. Staff were there filling up plastic take away boxes full of salad. Which left us with the dead, old bit in the bottle. Not all salad was available either! Very disappointed! As I thought we would have had top priority over takeaway boxs! When I said to a lady is there anymore salad she said no and kept walking! Rude!

Nikki was very efficient , attentive & friendly. The food , as usual was delicious.

Jo was absolutely fantastic. My Son came with us in his mobility scooter and Jo made sure we were all comfortable and adequately taken care of. She was friendly and helpful and a real credit to Harvester!

Couple of years ago had an unpleasant experience and never got back. After a long stint we came back and service was outstanding, evening was quiet more akin to a proper restaurant and food was really nice. Prices have gone up, but definitely more worth it now than 2 years ago.

What a joke this place is! Advertising food served till 9 pm, get there to find food served only till 8.15. Bought a drink and went in Restaurant which was virtually empty to be shown to a table with hard chairs. I asked could we have one of the ones with more comfortable seats to be told no!!? We finished our drinks and walked out of this very unwelcoming place.

Booked online (we were late by 15) but kitchen closed as no business. No phone call or email to warn us. Also tried goin 3 weeks prior but turned away as they didnt have no staff! I only wanted a bloody salad! 🍆🍆🍆

Staff were really pleasant, friendly and helpful. Food was on the cold side though..

The food was fine...kids pizza was tiny . Not enough for a hungry 8 year old OK for 4 year old ish .Main meals are expensive ...I guess to Compensate for the on line vouchers that seem to be available for most

I'm not sure how the food can be so bad. Frozen chicken from any supermarket would have been better. Absolute bland mush.

Things have changed a lot since I've last been. Service was amazing and food was great too! 10/10 service from Giovanni :)

The meal was nice. I like that it came with a free salad bar, where you can go and choose for yourself, what you like. Price around £15-£20.

Jo was an excellent server, food was unbelievably great… couldn’t ask for a better meal out

Jo the best ! We were weirdly turned away from an empty restaurant though, I then booked online and we got a table..?!

Lovely meal and lovely staff, our waitress Joe was lovely and incredibly helpful

Lovely food nikki fantastic waitress

Waitress was lovely and welcoming. Food fab, atmosphere quiet but welcoming decor lovely

The salad bar had almost nothing to select, and no bread rolls were out. The meals were not up to scratch either.

ABSOLUTELY LOVELY FOOD CANT FAULT IT

I’m not one to usually leave reviews but we enjoyed our meal here so much that I had to. Our server Sarah was brilliant, I kept saying to my partner how I’ve never had a waitress at any restaurant as friendly as her, the whole team who work there seem great! Everything was clean, the tables, the toilets, everything. Salad bar was topped up nicely and couldn’t be more happy with the service and atmosphere we received. So cheap for what kind of food and service you receive truly. Really recommend

Good food, lovely setting, reasonable price, friendly helpful staff!

We have been a few times and really enjoy the vist. The food is amazing and reasonably priced. The staff are all way cheerful and helpfull. Would definitely recommend

Asked to be seated in a place out the way & quite the man puts us in the some busy part of the restaurant sit down order food , foood comes put my peas on the plate massive hair told waitress didn’t seem bothered at all never again will I come to this harvester… Disappointed

Went here on Friday 3rd May with my two sisters as a treat as not seen them for a while. I have alot of allergy and Sarah was amazing in sorting it all out. She checked the menu, asked the chef. They tried to sort me out with a lunchtime 3course meal but it was not to be. We got there in the end and the food was amazing. The service was just outstanding. She deserves a payrise. I think it was a manager that assisted her with all the documents and allergy information I gave them and between them both they truly looked after me. If I'm ever down devon again I will definitely come back.

Pleased with the amount of tables available at 4.30pm, menus had plenty of options and the salad bar was kept clean and freshly stocked 👍🏻

Had a wonderful server today called Nikki she was polite friendly and helpful couldn’t have gone any more out of her way to make sure we had a great experience thank you very much

Wait 12 years to be served, then another 5 for food to arrive, only to wait a further 7 lifetimes for the bill. food was nothing to write home about and the salad bar was all but empty. will not be returning.

Arrived at 14.15 to be told there was no availability till 15.00 for a table ( for two people). We decided to wait and sit at the bar area. We were unaware that we could have picked a table and ordered of the app if there were any clean tables. At 15.00 we spoke to a member of staff who had just started her shift ( and was so lovely) and apologised and took us to the restaurant ( which was empty). We then ordered our food and then had to go and ask for bowls so we could have salad, unfortunately we use to like harvester but after experiencing the bad customer service the staff in tears and people walking out, I don’t think we will be returning anytime soon.

The waitress was absolutely AMAZING! We were a large party of 12, including children and adult with special needs. She remembered who had ordered what and was extremely helpful, ensuring our meal went smoothly.

Our server Jo was one of the most helpful and friendly servers we have ever had. Really good with our son too and made us feel welcome and made sure we were happy. The food was perfect and hot. And we had absolutely nothing to complain about. Recommended 10/10

Came for a lovely meal and was given amazing service by a lovely woman named Jo. We had a child with us and she made them feel included. Would love to be served by Jo again if given the option!!

Jo was an amazing server, very friendly and even made my sons evening by managing to get a plain waffle for him.

Our waitress Jo was absolutely lovely and the food was great.

Had hardly any food on menu very limited. Staff were friendly enough but for such a large harvester poor on availability.

Love the salad bar. Friendly helpful staff, especially Nikki. Love eating here.

Food was OK but we asked for our deserts and waited half an hour so went up to check turns out our server Isobel completely forgot about us and she was quite rude about it too

It was a lovely experience, nice food and a really unique building. The server was a bit rushed, but she's a young person working in the evening, I can't blame her for not being totally present! We will return for the food and the ease of parking, very important to us due to mobility issues.

Although this is a nice Harvester the person serving us seemed to be a bit eager to take our order and then forgot to give us the salad bowls also got one of the orders wrong. It is a nice clean Harvester and friendly staff.

Nice place. Had the ultimate mixed grill recently. Couldn't finish it, but it was great.

Amazing service from Nikki. A lovely warm welcome 10/10

Had a house beef burger, it was very tasty and all the ingredients were quality. Free salad and sauces were nice and our server Nikki was great. The free refills are great and drink selection is plentiful. 10/10 would recommend

Worst harvester I've ever been to. The staff couldn't even be bothered to serve us. We waited 20 minutes, and no one turned up. I had also been here before, but those experiences weren't decent either.

Very nice meal and excellent service from Nikki :)

The food was yummy and the staff are friendly.

Nikki was a brilliant host and looked after us well even though it was busy.

Slow service. Forgot half of our order and when we asked about it, it was served to us cold.

We were served by Lily and had a superb visit, despite it being her first shift she was very accommodating. Food was brilliant will definitely be visiting again :)

Fast service, decent food. Our server Jo was great.

Great service from Jo! Good food and great attentive service

Had a lovely breakfast here and couldn't fault it at all. The staff were really lovely and friendly and nothing was too much trouble. Thank you.

Food ok service excellent Jo wouldn’t stop apologising due the fact head office was telling staff the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday was a bank holiday and it isn’t according to the British Government. So wouldn’t allow the 25% discount as a first time customer.

Nothing to say apart from. No issues.

Nikki was very professional, caring really made us feel welcome.

Excellent server, friendly and polite

Food is basic, came out cold, the manager was rude I think her name was nikki She actually swore at my autistic child, the other staff looked miserable being there, glasses were dirty, toilets needed a good clean there was no toilet paper just a basic thing really, not surprised it's getting takin over its just a shambles in there oh and also the salad bar hardly had any thing there as they never been topping it up vile place avoid