The best restaurants serving Brasserie food in Priory Heath Ipswich East of England

I have been visiting this particular restaurant for years and it has always been good. Unfortunately this time I visited it was terrible. The restaurant has been declining for a while and this last visit on 27th October is likely to be my last one. When we got there I observed that the restaurant was only about 35% full. It was a Sunday evening and is to be expected. We were placed at a table and given menus. After about 15 minutes nobody had come back to even ask if we wanted drinks or to take our order. We went back to the main desk and asked to be moved to a different table stating that we were being forgotten. The staff said we weren't, it was just that a big table in the other end of the restaurant had been monopolising their time. I looked and this was only a table of 8 people - not exactly huge. Finally we were asked for our order, which was taken. We had been in the restaurant about 20 minutes by now. The restaurant was very cold and a lot of people were complaining. At one point the duty manager asked my wife to move so she could reach the temperature controls. Unbelievably these are located up high on a column. The manager had to reach them by standing on the seat! When done she didn't even wipe the seat where she had been standing, which was where my wife was originally sitting. We were given bowls for the salad bar. When I got there everything was very depleted. Some things had completely run out. All the sauces were empty. Appalling. We were then becoming acutely aware of the female chef standing at front of house. She was being loud, crashing around, talking constantly at full volume and flirting with other staff members. She was knocking back Red Bull like there was no tomorrow. I think she must have been on acid or something. It was making the atmosphere very uncomfortable. Even the other staff were complaining about her! After about another half an hour there was no sign of our meals. They again seemed to be concentrating solely on the 'big' table of 8. Food for this table was coming out sporadically and was being lined up on the counter for collection. Some of the plates were sitting there for at least 10 minutes with people walking past, the mad chef talking constantly and breathing all over them. I don't know about anyone else, but when a plate is ready I would expect it to be taken straight to the table. I was shocked. We were there for 50 minutes in total and this charade seemed never ending. By the end of it we were thoroughly pissed off with the atmosphere, staff attitude, lack of attention and having been there for 50 minutes with no sign of food in a restaurant that was only at 35% capacity. I also observed other customers being ignored in a similar manner. At this point we had had enough and got up and walked out. The staff weren't even apologetic - it was almost like they were glad to see the back of us. The whole experience was shocking. It was a Sunday evening and I get the impression that the staff didn't care and just wanted to get home. The salad bar being practically empty is also unacceptable - I expect to have the same level of service at any time of the week, as we are being charged the same amount regardless. The staff looked scruffy too. Many tables were not properly cleaned. This whole experience was dreadful and has completely put me off eating out. Shame on you Harvester - continue like this and you'll be out of business.