COUNTY NEWS: Harvester apologises after man nearly swallows slug in pint

A restaurant has apologised after a man nearly swallowed a slug which was floating in his pint and he still was not given his meal for free.

A children’s birthday party got off to a sluggish start on Sunday night when father Grant Knight, from Hurst, took his first sip of a pint and felt a slimy lump in his mouth.

His wife Linda Knight, described the moment.

She said: “I think it’s atrocious. We were all chatting and he went to drink his drink, then coughed and spat something back into the glass.

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“He thought there was a big slice of onion, because it was floating upside down and it was white underneath.

“He said ‘what is that?’and we looked and it was a huge slug in the pint.”

Mrs Knight, of Willow Way, said when she took the drink, with the floating slug, to the counter and asked to speak to the manager, the manager came out but tried to slither out of the complaint by blaming the incident on the slug.

“He said: ‘Well it probably came in from outside’.

“I said: ‘Well this really is not good enough that could have been a child. If that was a coke we might not have seen it’, and I asked: ‘what is your procedure here?’ and he didn’t have an answer.”

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The adults did not want to end the 12-year-old girl’s birthday party because of the slug so they still ordered their dinner despite the fact they had all lost their appetites and Mr Knight felt sick.

Mrs Knight said: “The grandparent of the birthday girl couldn’t eat anything. We were all put off.

“It really ruined the evening. We never took any photos of the party, other than of the slug.

“When we went to pay, I said my husband shouldn’t have to pay. The lady said ‘no’.”

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They were given a 33 per cent discount off the party’s bill despite the fact several members of the party could not bring themselves to eat after witnessing the slug incident.

To make the couple more angry, when their daughter posted a message on Facebook to inform of the incident, she received responses from the restaurant staff who were strongly dismissing her claims.

The site has since deleted the conversation.

Mrs Knight added that the experience has stayed locked in Mr Knight’s mind.

“When he woke up this morning he said he had a dream about it and he woke up thinking about this slug in his mouth.

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“He said it’s like he’s on ‘I’m a Celebrity’ but they get paid to do what he did.”

A spokeswoman for Harvester said: “We apologise for any upset this has caused the guest when visiting the Harvester at Haywards Heath on Sunday May 24.

“The guest was given a substantial discount, which reflected the importance to us of the issue, and a replacement pint of beer at the time.

“We cannot comment on what was said on other social media websites but we have a guest feedback process that guests can register their complaints on via our contact us page on our website.

The feedback page can be found at: www.harvester.co.uk/contactus/