(This is my second attempt at wring this as I deleted it by accident just now..but I must write this..) We just got back to our room at the travel lodge after an amazing night at the Harvester Stagg and Hounds Basingstoke. Let me just explain that we are very regular at harvesters across the South and our favourite is beechurst. We go there regular however tonight being in a new city we thought we would try out Basingstoke conveniently placed a 2 minute walk to the travel lodge. Absolutely amazing food ... really fresh and cooked perfectly. They even cooked my eggs exactly how I like them. Hats off to chef Ollie Deadpan (hope I got your name right?) And the chefs on tonight. I loved my meal and so did my partner and her little girl. We were lucky enough to have service lady Claire Punter who is absolutely lovely and gwnuinely friendly. No fake smiles or fake care here.. this branch have lovely genuine staff and Claire made us feel really welcome tonight. Even the toilets were totally clean and well maintained. Seems a silly thing to mention but it's these touches that all build the picture. This is an amazing Harvester. Please try them. Stephen

The food was lovely and the staff were very pleasant.

Absolutely terrible!! I ordered the Beef brisket,the meat was so tough I couldn't even cut through it,the crispy onion was simply not edible and as fir the mash. I've attached a photo so you can see how bad it was. Complained to the female manager in charge as i didn't touch the meal so was leaving and not going to pay and also like to add had no starters just one bowl of salad. Her response was" hope to never see you back here" . After this experience I certainly won't go back here again

We were staying in a Hotel in Basingstoke, and not knowing the area, and having passed the premises earlier. We gave it a visit. Really friendly staff & the normal fare offered by a Harvester. The visit to the salad bar, pretty standard. The wife had grilled chicken with jacket potatoes, green vegetables & gravy. She said the gravy was really nice. I had the ultimate mixed grill ,- no lie there then. Steak,ribs, gammon steak, chicken, sausages, black pudding, mushrooms, fried eggs, peas & chips. All cooked deliciously. A total meat feast. Really friendly & helpful staff. An enjoyable start to the weekend. Plus we got diesel from the Fuel station opposite- perfect.

The food was great Service was very slow and it wasn’t that busy. It took almost half an hour to order our food and another 40 minutes for the food to arrive. Some items were missing but quickly brought out when reminded. Puddings took equally as long and came out two at a time with a good few minutes between them. Ultimately it took nearly three hours to have dinner and a pudding - not ideal with children!

Very nice steak and kalimari Friendly survice and nice salad

Not a great menu selection unless you like burgers and grills. What they do is nice though and a good price.

Visited for breakfast. Ordered our food relatively quick. 3 year old wanted a fruit bowl, which the waitress, (bit of an airhead) replied they didn’t have. So we ordered the pancakes with fruit which they did have. It was the same fruit. Took just short of an hour from sitting down to getting our food. My wife’s and eldest child food came out with ingredients missing only to be told when asked that that’s how it comes today as they have run out of them (would have been nice to have been told at time of ordering). Ordered a breakfast 2 over hard fried eggs, burnt sausages, black pudding that was like biting a biscuit, a portion of beans (all 37 of them), a portion of mushrooms which was 1 and a half button mushrooms cut in half, bacon was cold. The hash brown however was delicious. This used to be really nice to visit. I don’t know if they have new owners or lots of new staff but it has plummeted from the high service standards this establishment used to set to somewhere that seems to not have a care anymore

Always a good experience here. The new menu has loads of choices, including vegetarian and vegan. A go to for us and the family at this point. The staff were helpful and efficient and Kay was attentive despite how busy it was, extra star added for that 👍🌟

Had an amazing experience at the Harvester today and just wanted to leave a review to all the members of staff (three I think, they were understaffed today) and the kitchen staff of course!... thank you for a wonderful meal, but also, thank you for your attentiveness. Although it did get very chaotic you all handled the chaos in your stride... unfortunately I did not get the name of the member of staff behind the bar as I would love to publicly thank her (although you did tell me you only work one day a week so I hope you know I am taking about you!), and that Harvester can acknowledge the wonderful member of staff they have. In the midst of the chaos every human I saw you be in contact with you were completely attentive and present with that human. This is an incredible attribute. Truly wonderful to witness at a restaurant. You were so very CARE-FULL ... Full of care! Thank you also, to all other members who enabled us to have a beautiful experience.

Lovely meal with friend haven't seen for over 40 years my steak overcooked but replaced straight away 😊

Very slow service, despite not being busy. Had to ask for salad cart to be replenished, items didn't all arrive on plate ie eggs not put on mixed grill and brought out after we had started.

Went to celebrate our daughter getting her A level results. It wasn't too busy when we got there but it soon filled up. Our eyes were bigger than our bellies and no one finished their main meal but the girls had room for pudding.

As expected, first class in all but one area which to be honest you can not control, we dined at 14.00 hrs so the restaurant was sparcly occupied, but the staff were great.

Personally the salad cart fills me up ( had 1.5 portions). Main meal great, although a mistake on my part to upgrade the chips as I was so full couldn't finish them or had any room for dessert. Will definitely call here again. Staff very helpful.

All I can say is PERFECT. Good food lovely staff venue amazing. Will definitely be returning.

Me and my friend thought we’d just pop out for dinner and decided we hadn’t been to the Harvester in a while. I was straight away greeted with smiles and friendly service, and swiftly taken to our table. Our waitress Ellis gave us excellent service, telling us the best house drinks. I had the vegetarian bbq chicken stack, which was genuinely phenomenal. It is very rare to find a pub with decent selection for us veggies, and so I was pleasantly surprised to see their range and give it a taste. Overall a 10/10 and highly recommend. Many thanks again to our waitress Ellis and compliments to all the chefs.

Food was amazing, staff were very polite & helpful. Only downside was when I received my dessert it had a cone in it, I am gluten free so can't have the cone. Staff member removed the cone then tried to give me the dessert which I could not have as it was contaminated. This has only happened on two occasions but staff should really be trained in contamination when dealing with anyone that has coeliac disease or lactose intolerance etc.

Went here yesterday. They had Halloween decorations and costumes. It was a really nice atmosphere. They've upped their game with food too! Very filling and super tasty. The wait wasn't too long. Josie was our waitress and she was super approachable and friendly.

It was very easy to choose food for my niece who has a specific allergy. We could check online as well as with the member of staff. It's good to be able to choose for yourself again at the salad bar. The range of drinks now for the bottomless soft drinks is really good. The meal came quickly and all 3 of us enjoyed our choices. There is a good vegetarian selection and I like that you can swap your fries for other options including upgrades. Unfortunately too full to go for a Rocky Horror this time!

Front door has been out of action for a while, and new parking rules about giving them your registration? Bit weird. Gammon also tasted a bit, well it didn't taste of anything but rest of our mixed grill was great. Salad bar was spotless and topped up regularly during our visit, as were bread rolls. Bit warm indoors, but it's a big site and all doors and windows were open, not much more they could do.

Staff are amazing but seemed overworked. Busy restaurant and covering a lot of tables with two waitresses. They did really well and food was not delayed but they were like busy bees. Don't think would have time for breaks. Bar had queues as they were also short staffed, but again did their absolute best to keep everyone happy. Food was so so. Did think chicken slightly undercooked so left a portion of it as the texture seemed a little soft to me, but that's my preference and didn't feel it worthy of complaint. They had enough to deal with. I was alone as travelling for work and The waitress I had was very bubbly and made small talk when she could, really sweet person. I hope they get more staff soon as it will get busier over summer, they were turning walk-ins away and luckily I had booked and secured a table.

We went for brunch. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety on the breakfast menu. I opted for Eggs Mediterranean it was delicious. Would be a great place to go if you're looking for an American style breakfast as they have both sweet and savoury waffles and pancakes. The English breakfast options looked good too and were budget friendly. Coffee was nice! Staff were warm and super helpful.

Oh dear...as a regular user of the Harvester today was very disappointing. We arrived early and were seated in the area between the main restaurant and the garden. I've sat there before and it seems to be the forgotten zone. Firstly you are forgotten about. None of the waiting team wanted to come near us. Eventually the manager took our drinks order. He then had to come back to take the food order. Secondly in this area all the staff had forgotten about talking and smiling. Thirdly it felt like the food had been forgotten. After waiting nearly 40 minutes we had to ask if it was coming, and after another 10 minutes it arrived. The saving grace the food as usual was excellent. We were in two minds about ordering the puddings wondering how long they would take but they arrived quickly. During the time there it was possible to see others waiting a long time for meals to arrive and it wasn't that busy. Maybe it was the hot weather or just an off day but the waiting and lack of atmosphere meant leaving could not come soon enough. Shame as usually its a pleasure to be there. Here's hoping next time is better.

Great service, especially our waiter Tyler who was excellent - prompt service and checked out allergy info with order. All staff very friendly and helpful. We were found a table really quickly after a short wait even though we hadn’t booked. Food all very good and freshly cooked, and good choice from well stocked salad bar.

I have eaten here on many occasions but when I did today I don't know what went wrong with the service, my partner and I were seated and our order was taken all fine but it took 20 minutes for us to receive our drinks after ordering them (We got our salad bowls, visited the bar and ate it in the time we were waiting for the drinks). All we had ordered was two refillable pepsi max and after all of that we had to wait about 45 minutes for our food to come out from the kitchen, I can understand waiting for the food but for the time taken it seem a bit ridiculous. When we had finished our food we decided to go for a dessert and ordered a chocolate fudge cake, as it was getting busier by this point ordered it as a takeaway and it took us a further 20 minutes after ordering this till we finally received it. When it came to settling the bill the management who was on (sorry I didn't catch a name) help sort the bill out as our bill didn't include the £21.99 coronation course. The manager did take off the price of the drinks for us to make up for the inconvenience of what had happened on our visit which we do appreciate and just hope the staff are just having a bit of an off day and our next visit will hopefully be better.

The food was excellent. The menu was filthy with food remants in all pages inside. It took a long time for the dessert menu to arrive. We had to ask again. It began to get rather cold in there after 6pm.

The meals came out & was still piping hot. The quality of food for both of us was great & couldn't fault. The staff were polite, busy but polite & understanding. It was busy so expected a long waiting time. This isn't their fault, but a lot of people complained around us about it. Maybe next time, look around you. If it's full to the brim, food will take longer. It's a given fact.

Some friends and I visited the bar area for food. It was dog friendly in that section, which was great to see. The bar staff were welcoming and helped with our menu choices, when ordering up at the bar. The food was epic and the Lemon Blizzard dessert rocked!

Me and my family come for my birthday meal the service was 5 star excellent especially from our waiter John Henry Oakley he made my birthday meal one to remember the food was amazing and the atmosphere was amazing thankyou to everyone for making my birthday meal one I'll never forget I very highly recommend the stag and hounds Basingstoke amazing welcoming friendly place to go for a lunch evening meal with loved ones 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

The breakfast was good. I appreciated Jamie, the General Manager and Sam the Team Coach coming over to find out how the breakfast was. The bottomless tea is a great idea.

We avoided coming here for many years after slow service, often having to return food. But we have been a couple of times recently and can definitely say the place is massively improving. Service speeds have improved, we got served by Louie who was very friendly and seemed on the ball, food quality has improved, portion sizes are great. Had a great meal here for my daughter's birthday yesterday, staff were attentive, food tasted really nice and it was really great value for money. If you've avoided this place like this, give it another chance, hopefully you will come away as impressed as we were. Highly recommend the BBQ belly pork.

Visited on Wednesday 15th November. Party of 5 including my 38 year old son Chris who has Downs Syndrome, Autistic, with severe learning difficulties and is non verbal. He obviously gets anxious about new venues but we eventually managed to get him inside, where he chose a seat. He settled, had some pasta from the salad bar, which kept him happy for a while. He was getting more agitated and going around the pub making a loud noise. The staff and the Manager were so kind, they came to ask us if they could do anything to help. Unfortunately as he was getting more agitated, we decided it would be better if he left as it was unfair for him to be so anxious. Two people remained and the other three took their meals home. We so appreciated the kindness of all the staff, they were brilliant! The Manager also said we would be welcome anytime! Obviously some venues are not so understanding about people with Special Needs! The food was delicious too!

Good food,prompted service, clean and tidy,covid clean.

Booking was easy, location and parking was easy, server was friendly but due to covid 19 I feel people are half heartedly trying to keep safe. The server gets your salad for you but then hands you the tray to take back to your seat, servers bring your drink over but you can refill on the machine yourself so still touching where others have, people are sat next to eachother with no dividers, no masks are being used. I'm not ignorant, I know rules are changing and things are slowly getting to a new normal but it just baffled me. Other than that the food was great, the portion sizes are big and the cost is decent. Would return, thank you

Dont like the food here anymore just tastes prcissed and covered in salt and sauce to try hide it... you cant help yourself to salad bar anymore due to covid etc..i think its gone right downhill in my personal opinion however you do get big portions

Food was ok. Service very good. Covid precautions were in place. Gents toilets are horrible, not the worst but not in keeping with the standard of the rest of the place. Exiting the car park is tricky due to poor visibility. Pleasant stop to eat but used to be better.

Staff awful - our waitress was inattentive almost rude in her attitude to customers. Totally untrained! Food was dry as it had been left too long under the heat lamps for her to serveve. Ridiculously expensive with very small portions! Don't go unless you are desperate...

Bloody awful, food on both plates came out burnt and should not have been served. One dirty knife available on the table until we requested more, no napkins on table either, was like table had no between serviced between guests. Tried to pay with a gift card but they advised us it was invalid but upon checking the card once we left the card was valid and active but it seems someone didn't know how to use it on their system. Only reason I have given two stars in the lady serving us did her best to stay happy while what appeared to be a lot of pressure in her service area

Vast improvement on quality of food since we last visited before Pandemic. Food was very good and portion size improved. Great meal all round. Service was very good, staff were all very polite and helpful.

Excellent service provided.

Only went in for a drink and to meet friends Nice and helpful staff shame about all the empty table's to close to others if we wanted to stay covid safe to many tables that said do not use

Substantial amount of food per portion per person, l thought and not vas value

Need a good over haul toilets are disgusting

Booking a table online was easy and the staff were polite and friendly upon our arrival. The young lady Shannon that served us was polite however she got my drink order wrong, and my partners food order wrong with no apology whatsoever. When it came to ordering my food, the first two options I picked they didn't have in stock and when (for some bizarre reason) I apologised for picking out of stock options she replied "it's okay" and still no apology for not having any burgers in stock and no pre warning given either. For my partner who ordered gammon with sweet potato fries (at an additional charge) she was asked if she wanted a fried egg only to then be told they had no eggs in stock either and she was given normal fries. When we told Shannon there was no apology but the additional charge was taken off our bill for the sweet potato fries. Really didn't feel comfortable at all being there and as you'll see from my photo I ordered mac and cheese on the side for £2.99! Don't bother, it's three spoonfuls at most and a waste of money, most definitely not worth £2.99! That Plate cost me almost £20.00, still not sure if it's worth that🤔 First time here and not sure if we will be returning anytime soon I'm sad to say🍽️ especially as we love to support local businesses! I do completely understand it was a Monday evening, there was 12 tables at max from what I could see but to have no burgers and no eggs in stock really a little disappointing🥚

Asked for well done steak it was pink. Salads have shrunk in size since I last was there. Was not impressed to much with salad bar. Ricky horror I had was great. My friend had custard as no treacle pudding. Was surprised she didn't get extra custard. I would go in again it's OK. Lady serving was very quietly spoken could of done with speaking up. Must be honest I don't eat under cooked meat, was told to try and it did taste really nice.

We have been given the best service we can remember ever. Such a helpful, welcoming, professional and interesting lady looking after us. She didn’t stop - always ensuring each table was well looked after but also making us feel valued customers. Claire is a credit to the restaurant. The food was good too!

Very good for a Harvester. My meal was a bit cold when served but tasted nice. Our server, Iona, was excellent.

Went for a family Christmas get together its in the middle of us both! The staff were great! So friendly happy to help with any questions! Really helpful! The food was great! We were turned down from another place as we were to big a group (10 of us and a baby) but im glad now! Had a wonderful day!

Although the Calamaris was well cooked, the batter was only slightly softer than concrete. Total fail on delivering Main Course BEFORE ALL starters were finished. Done may call it quick service, I call it rude, especially as those that had finished their non bullet proofed starters didn't have the crockery cleared away so it was stacked on the table whilst Main Course was being eaten. Really not impressed.

Popped in the place was full, could not get a meal. So much for the virus and working from home

Had a great evening meal here friendly service which was quick enjoyable experience

The Harvester is a chain restaurant that is known best for the salad bar that comes with their meals. On the occasion we visited this particular establishment, we were also hoping for some relief from the heat. Unfortunately, either they don't have air conditioning, or it wasn't working. Our meals were still good, but we were sweltering. As a side note, we've had troubles in the past visiting this branch. Either there's been a problem with the kitchen or some other issue that has the place closed or with limited food. It's probably best to call ahead to make sure it's worth the trip.

Excellent food and excellent service! Well done to Katie our server who was great!

Had nice lunch food lovely can't fault that. Yes there's a but The toilets can do with an up keep no loo roll even when told and still none I even offered to to do lol Other then that staff very polite so yes I would recommend.

Everything was great until I got the bird burger and the chicken wasnt very nice

Food was good but expensive considering the service was shocking. We got sat in the bar area because they were full in the restaurant bit which was fine. It took a lifetime to get our food then no one took the menus away or gave us cutlery, or took away the dirty salad bowls, also kind of fine but we're at a bar table which is a bit smaller and we just had no room to breathe, the we ordered a drink, still no one took anything away or even questioned it. We ordered two ice creams to share and I had to ask four members of staff for spoons by which time the ice cream was a milk shake and we had mountains of dirty stuff piling up around us and not a single person who brought us anything out asked if we maybe disnt want to eat amongst dirty plates and menus it was silly. After spending £90 it just felt like it was way to over priced for service that is dreadful.

We had a table booked at 10:15 and arrived slightly early (around 10:10). We were greeted and shown to our table. The table we were sat at was next to the fire exit doors at the back on the restaurant. The table was very sticky and unstable, there were also a large amount of cobwebs between the blinds and the windows, in addition to this, there was dried food stained across our menu. We asked our server if we could move and he accommodated it. Once sat down he promptly took our order. We waited almost 10 minutes for two unlimited refill drinks (which when delivered, there was no apology). We then waited almost another 25 minutes before being presented with our food. My partner and I both ordered the create your own breakfast, one of which had poached eggs & mushrooms. When the food was finally delivered, there were three, count them, three mushrooms on the plate and fried eggs instead of poached. We raised this with the server who said we can order more, so we did. The overall quality of the food was poor and cold. We ate what we had as we didn't see our server again. We didn't have anyone come and check our meals, so once we were done, we walked to the bar to pay the bill (still waiting for the mushrooms & eggs to be delivered). As we walked to the bar, I heard our server say to another colleague 'where are they going, they haven't paid'