Harvest at Hope Estate Winery

(Caveat: I spent 20 years in the hospitality industry working in places like this)The Hope Estate is a beautiful location with appalling management. I attended Bruce Springsteen this weekend, the E-street band are one of the best live performances in the world and this is not about them. The management of the Hope estate either couldn't find head with both hands or are deliberately ripping off their guests, Im not sure which is worse.Let me walk you through the evening.* Walked through several layers of security to get to the restaurant, being questioned and waved through each one. Finally get to the dining area only to be chased out and back to the start by staff. Apparently it was our fault that we hadn't been provided with lanyards to enter the restaurant.* We had paid a great deal of money for a sit down meal prior to the event. We sat down 3 hours prior to the main act in a room of 200 people. We had to chase up the entree as we never saw it. The main course came out 30 minutes before the main act, we never even saw the dessert.* Outside, there weren't enough rubbish bins provided, the ones we could see were absolutely overflowing with garbage. By the time we left the venue, the place literally looked like a public tip simply because there weren't enough places to put rubbish* The "free water" that was supposed to be available was just picnic water containers that seemed to be empty most of the time.Look all the staff were nice enough and seemed to be coping with a massive influx of people, but the Hope estate does these events on a regular basis. The process should be a well practiced factory, designed to pump people through at high volume with a good quality product. Instead its run on a shoe string, designed to extract as much money from you while providing as little service as they can, especially if you have pre paid for it. This is one of the biggest concert venues in New South Wales and attracts overseas acts and visitors. Its disgusting that this experience represents the state. All I can say about people who give this place five stars is either they are paid shills or they have never been to the Estate.

We chose Harvest restaurant due to its proximity to our hotel, the Pokolbin Village which was right across the road. The restaurant was quiet, in fact just 2 other couples were there, which meant more attentive and friendly service for us which was a treat.The food was spectacular, we had the 5 course degustation menu, and complemented it with a premium Malbec and complementary sparking on arrival.Topped off with wonderful views, I highly recommend Harvest.

A group of 6 friends for lunch, we had tried and failed to book in to 3 other restaurants.It was incredibly windy and there were bush fires all around. We went out onto the verandah which looked a little tired with its white plstic chairs and power cords all shoved in the corner.There were lots of things flying around so we moved inside.I was a bit concerned as I had booked it. I had nothing to worry about It was totally enjoyable.We all ordered the 3 course lunch for $69-unbelievable value, we all tried to order different dishes and we were all extremely impressed. The food was great-compliments to the chef. None of us had a bad thing to say about the food. Great flavours all round. The wait staff Jordan and Jessica were also excellent. I would certainly recommend this for lunch.

This restaurant has amazing food, with very friendly service Loved our experience and I would recommend Harvest to anyone

When you sit down to the picturesque setting, its a good start but they could pick up their game with the service. The restaurant was half full and they weren't paying attention and it took them a long time to respond. Food was nice and well presented and a bit pricey. The restaurant has potential if the staff doesn't play favouritism with customers and treat the ignored customers with a bit of respect.