Harvester Clifton Moor, York - Restaurant Review

The other weekend we took a little drive up to York to go out for lunch as a family. When it comes to finding a restaurant that we all like can sometimes be a little tricky and we tend to stick to our well know regulars. So when we were asked if we would like to try a family lunch out at Harvester in York we could not wait to try it.

We always love a day out in York so this was the perfect opportunity. Harvester in York is based at Clifton Moor which is a shopping and leisure area which is just north of the city and just off the ring road. So it is really easy to access and there are plenty of great shops about and even a cinema so you can certainly make a day of it.

When we arrived at the Harvester we were pleased to see that there was plenty of parking. We were slightly worried as there are other restaurants in that part and we did not know if parking would be a problem, thankfully it wasn't.

When we went into the restaurant we noticed that there were plenty of staff about so we did not have to wait long until we were shown to our table. The waiting staff were all friendly and helpful and always made sure that we had enough drinks and that we were ok. When it came to ordering drinks we did find that a couple of drinks that were on the menu were not available at that site. This was not a huge inconvenience but I do believe that if you have items listed on a menu as available they should be. This was maybe one down side of having a generic menu for all sites instead of site specific ones. The children enjoyed having their own menu and were pleased with their pack of crayons and colouring in place mats. Having these little added extras really do mean a lot when dining out with children.

We had a good look at the menu and I was pleased to see that they offered "skinny" options for meals where chips are taken off or bread is excluded. They had quite a few vegetarian options on the menu but no vegan options. But if you are a vegan and are planning on visiting a Harvester with family they do have a great salad bar!

The twins were quick to decided on Simply Pasta and Southern Fried Chicken Bites. Joseph took a little longer, now that he has an adults portion he really was spoiled for choice. He ended up ordering a Full Rack of Ribs! The Hubby went for the Mixed Grill while I went for the Half Rotisserie Chicken and swapped the fries for a healthier plain jacket potato.

While waiting for the main course to arrive we were told that we could help ourselves to as much salad as we liked. With children, this is fantastic! They loved being able to go and have a look and select exactly what they wanted to eat. For me, one of the high point of the salad bar was the information that was with the sauces. I love salad dressing but when out you can sometimes forget the amount of calories that are in them. At Harvester they had all of your regular salad dressings such as vinaigrette, thousand island dressing and Caesar dressing to name a few, but on the labels they also had the calorie count per ladle. So when you are adding them to your salads you know exactly how many calories you are pouring over.

When our meals arrived we were pleased with the portion sizes. We were amazed by the size of the twins children's meals. Isabella received a huge bowl of pasta as well as some fries while Taylor received three pieces of chicken breast with fries. We were astounded by the size of Joseph's tray of food!

All of our meals were lovely. Isabella was not able to finish her meal but everyone else had clean plates! What I enjoyed most was the unlimited salad bar. While we were there I was pleased to see that the salad was regularly checked my a chef.. Each tray was checked with a food temperature probe to ensure that they had the correct serving temperature. This is not something that I can remember noticing in other restaurants that have salad bars!

Obviously we could not leave without trying their desserts! The twins enjoyed the children's ice cream sundae, which you can see were huge! Joseph went for Warm American Silver Dollar Pancakes, he got 4 pancakes with banana and ice cream with honeycomb and toffee pieces. The Hubby chose the Cookies and Cream with Oreo sundae which was a bowl of pure delight! I was very good and chose the fruit salad with vanilla ice cream.

As with the main course we all enjoyed what we had. I was definitely happy to see a healthy option on the dessert menu. This is something that you do not see very often!

If you are looking for a good family restaurant that will please both the children and the adults and not forgetting your credit card then I would definitely recommend a visit to Harvester. We enjoyed all of our food, had excellent customer service and had an all round good time.

Disclosure: We were invited to enjoy a meal at Harvester for the purpose of this post. No cash payment was received. All views, words and opinions are my own and 100% honest.