The Harvester chain is to set to open a restaurant at Bradley Stoke’s Willow Brook Centre.
An eagle-eyed Journal reader spotted notices in the windows of Town Square units 5, 6 & 7 this morning, which show that Mitchells & Butlers (the owning company) has applied to South Gloucestershire Council for an alcohol and entertainment licence on behalf of the national restaurant chain.
The Journal understands that the company plans to open a restaurant seating around 80 diners, with the possibility of further tables being positioned outside in the square.
Initially the business will be “dining only” but there is the possibility that a bar might be included at a later stage.
Objections to the licensing application must be made by Wednesday 15th September.
Finally 🙂
Somewhere I can sit down with the kids and the wife. 🙂
— gyre —
Excellent! Free drink refills 😀
I am trying to work out if it will be bigger than the Snuff Mills one…..
At least you won’t have trouble parking like most of the other ones in the area.
Disappointed!
I thought our “Town Square” was going to get a decent restaurant – not a glorified pub!
If I want pub grub, I would much rather support one of our local public houses!
An official press release from the Willow Brook Centre arrived after the above article was written. The only new information is that the opening is planned for late November.
Excellent!
Mr Bradley Stokes,
Maybe someone should have invited Raymond Blanc to open a sister restaurant to Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons on the town square?
To be honest, I think something like Harvester (or at a push, something like Bottelinos) was about the standard of fayre one could have realistically expected.
I agree with you Bert, the “Town Square” needs a restaurant that will appeal to the masses. I don’t personally feel that a Harvester really offers us anything we haven’t already got in Bradley Stoke.
The local pubs will ultimately suffer and the good people of Bradley Stoke don’t really get anything different.
There are many chain restaurants that could have offered us an alternative dining experience, Bottelinos being one of them.
I did hear a rumour that Heston Blumenthal was interested in opening a Bradley Stoke restaurant called “The Fat Ducker”
I’m not sure I feel all that bad for the local pubs. Three Brooks has a tendency to serve food that’s still frozen in the middle.
Just how difficult is it to use a microwave?
At least Harvester will be interested in feeding you (with drinks on the side) rather than getting you half cut (with the option of a microwave meal on the side).
I think Bert’s right. Harvester is about as good as we could expect and, given the number of take away options, I’m surprised the centre has still managed to attract a restaurant.
I’m quite pleased they’re moving in.
If this is going in between KFC and Ladbrokes, do we know what is going in next to Brantano which says ‘Shop opening soon’?
Whatever happened to the nice town we all thought we had moved to. Just another low level poor quality gaff to join the rest. Thank god we’ve got taxis and buses to get out of this squalid little place and find some elements of normal peoples life. It would be helpful if the so called restaurants etc would make up the short fall oon our house values as they tow us slowly down the drain.
Have you been taking the happy pills, Tim? 😉
well i think its a good idea at last somewhere that kids can go in nearly all the pubs here are adults only it is a family area but no family places to go except fast food.
I don’t know why people are so worried about the other pubs in the area because if you check out the mitchell and butler website they are all owned by the same company…
plus the other shop luke is going to be a boots
Interesting, I didn’t realise that Mitchell and Butler owned both Ember Inns and Harvester – Cheers Mark
Knowing this does now seem to highlight my previous point even more so…..
“the good people of Bradley Stoke don’t really get anything different”
We always knew variety and individuality would not be top of Tesco’s priority list when creating their, I mean our, town centre. It was always going to be a mini mall rather than a true town/village centre. However, other than a few uninspired shop choices I have to say it’s turning out to be a nicer place to pop in to than I expected.
Regarding the “low level poor quality gaff” and “squalid little place” comments earlier, the Lamb & Flag by Cribbs is a Harvester and I, personally, like it there. If anything it’s too popular as it can get so busy there’s often a queue for seats. So if this new place is like that (although probably lacking the character and quirkiness of the L&F building) then I’m happy to have somewhere like that rather than the likes of Burger King or McDonalds which could easily have been the alternative.
And if this little place is so squalid then you can always hire a removal van instead of a taxi – there are cheaper places in Bristol to buy houses and no-one is forcing you to stay here if you hate it so much.