Plough Chelmsford Harvester

Staff were lovely, very polite. The unlimited salad bar was great. Didn’t realise it included bread! The food was ok. Standard chain pub stuff. Give it a look.

NICE PLACE, GREAT SERVICE, AVERAGE FOOD.
The Plough has obviously been a normal pub before becoming a harvester and its traditional vintage is maintained. It felt very cosy on a cold night. The Tables are reasonably spaced out and clean with baby high chairs and a traditional bar area for a quiet drink or somewhere to wait in comfort whilst your booked table becomes free.
Customer service was great — polite, efficient and friendly. I appreciated the fact that, having arrived on a Sunday evening with no booking, there was a 40 minute wait until a restaurant table became free so they asked myself and my 4 guests if we would like to stay seated at the comfortable table in the bar area which they then set up for food. Full marks for initiative.
Drinks came quickly followed by the food all within a reasonable time period. In a way, that didn’t matter as they had an eat-​as-​much as you like salad bar which had an excellent and fresh selection.
The only let-​down was the food. A number of the portions were very small (e.g. 3 small onion rings) and they decided to replace the sweet corn with peas without saying anything.
The bill was about £50 for four adults and a child.
All in all, a great place.

The Plough is part of the Harvester Chain. It is located towards the end of the busy Springfield Road, on your right upon leaving Chelmsford. There is a good sized car park which always seems to have spaces.
There is no booking system. This can work in your favour as long as you get there early (particularly groups), just speak to the restaurant manager upon arrival.
The bar area is a good size and provides comfortable seating if you have time to wait. It has the usual selection of drinks but is limited on Real Ales.
There are a lot of choices on the food menu, predominately meat, some fish. The free salad cart with a main meal is keep refreshed and always popular. The desserts are huge and not too expensive. If you come during Early Birds time (phone for details) you get a third off your meal.
The staff are friendly enough.

This Harvester in Chelmsford is slightly out of town on the Springfield Road. It has a good size car park outside.
The restaurant itself is fairly small and does get quite busy so you can sometimes wait for a table.
I find eating at any Harvester can be hit and miss and this one is no exception. There are times when I have really enjoyed the food although I would never exactly rave over it and other times I have been very disappointed.
A couple of times I have actually complained which is something I rarely do. I have had overcooked salmon, cold lumpy mashed potato and I do not think this is acceptable. All too often I have ended up thinking I can cook better than this which is not something I want to think when I eat out.
The staff are usually friendly which is good.

This is one of my favourite places to eat! The resturant is so cosy inside and looks cosy from outside too!
The prices are brilant value for money, as the food is gorgeous I really cant fault it! The only downside to this resturant is the size of it, its quite small inside so at peak times you cant get a table and have to wait in the bar area which is also a little on the small side.
They have a car park on the side of the building which is a fair size. Ive never had a problem parking.
All of the staff have always been polite and cheerful.