It's a Friday night and i had the very first English fish & chips. Harvester is a popular chain pub & grill in England. There are already three shops near Bristol.
The British are famous for his sense of humour. But without beer, they might be as monotonous as the Germans, b'coz they are able to come up with more jokes when slightly intoxicated.
So beer is as cheap as water in England.
This pub is quite spacious and can house more than 100 diners. The furniture is all made of timber. There's a small fountain and a pond in the middle. The kids love to play around it.
Instead of fish & chips, I had steaks. The price on average is to the same scale as that in HK (say the Outbacks). Firstly, we had the all-you-can-eat salad, which is complimentary for each order of the main dish. The veggies are fresh and juicy. Just as rice in Chinese cuisine, there is always potato in every main dish.
Plantation Platter (GBP 9.90 for single serving) - There are barbecued chicken wings, a half-rack of grilled ribs, spicy coated prawns, half roasted chicken, grilled pineapple, fries and corn. The roasted chicken is dry and there's not any resilence left.
On the other hand, the ribs are not so dry and more edible when mixed with the barbecue sauce. The best of all is the corn, which is sweet and juicy;
Totally stuffed mushrooms (GBP 6.49) - The mushrooms are stuffed with cheese and cherry tomato risotto. The aroma of mushroom fuses well with cheese cum tomato. Notwithstanding the presence of cheese, it is quite light and absolutely won't burden too much on your stomach.
Harvester Rack of Ribs (GBP 8.49) - I can say the standard of grilled ribs here is comparable to the best middle-class grill houses in HK. The surface is appropriately flame-grilled and able to retain the flesh juice inside.
Lamb Steak (GBP 7.99) - I like medium rare lamb steak. But when it is prepared by flame-grilling, I have no choice. When the lamb steak was served, it was obviously a bit over done. The steak was quite stiff. Some effort had to be made for chewing. There was hardly a trace of the taste of lamb flesh. A disappointing dish.
The pub was slightly undermanned during rush hours. You have to do something more to draw their attention.
The average expenditure per head is around GBP 15.00. In the UK, it is not a common practice to include a 10% service charge in the bill (it's not true for Chinese establishments). As a rule of thumb, a tips of around 10% is appropriate.