Miller & Carter Langdon Hills — Restaurant in Basildon

I struggle here, it's at both ends of the scale, some things are great and some not.

TL;DR I wanted to love this place and if I'd had just the meat with no sides, I would have given it 5 stars. I paid £170 for 2 people. The main attraction was on point. Starter, sides, sauce and extras had no love - stale, cold "decorations" that had potential to be amazing.

Full review:

Service staff were great, thoughtful, understanding and attentive. Perfect level of table service.

The steak was excellent. It was a good cut and the meat was cooked to my liking! This main attraction was on point for me.

The blue cheese side salad was great, fresh lettuce, nice dressing flavour. So simple and perfect as a plate addition.

Critical review detail:

Scallops starter; fishy, dry and overcooked. The deep fried string onion bedding tasted old, cold and oddly chewy.

The lamb rack was a very small main, we treated it as a side. The meat was cooked well and quite tasty, just the plated side garnish was stale again. The vege bedding looked a bit rough and old, I didn't taste it though.

The triple fried chips were soft and not triple fried. They were okay to eat and were close to what you would expect from a 'fish and chip' type of shop but not crispy, as I personally was expecting from the "triple fried" description.

The hollandaise sauce tasted old, as if it had days sitting around and potentially just microwave reheated, or it had been reheated repeatedly over days. There was a thick surface skin and it was lukewarm.

Tableware had dishwasher marks, the glasses looked dirty with crusty fluoride/limescale marks.

Cost: £170 for 2 people. 1 starter, 3 mains, fries upgrade and side salads. No desert, no wine. 1 gin and tonic and 2 pepsi drinks. Our choices were expensive ones, plenty of menu items are available with a lesser price tag. We arrived around 5.30pm only a few people on arrival but the full house by the time we left ~6.30pm.

Did I complain? I don't think I did, I didn't ask for discount or compensation. I did want to give an opportunity to try the onion and chips fresh, so I did politely ask for a replacement of each. No qualms from the service. The replacements were not much better. I was given a refund for the chip upgrade without asking, I appreciated the gesture(£1).

All moans with no solution? The kitchen could have been short staffed, worth checking chef loads during rush. The pre-prepped food is maybe done far too early and kept too long? Some sauces and sides need a review on their freshness. The chips need full resting periods between oil visits, allow the oil drip off, oil temp checked for crispy results. If they are not meant to be crispy, please reassess the value of triple fried? Add dishwasher salt to prevent limescale buildup and water markings...

Wow wow wow. The area manager and head office really needs to read these reviews. I can't believe Langdon gets away with such behaviour. I have been to quite a few Miller and Carter restaurants but this one is by far the worst. You would think a re fit would make all the difference but it really hasn't. It still looks the same inside just less booths. So have no idea what they were doing. They still have the mouthy female manager who with her attitude has just walked off the set of the only way is Essex. She needs to go back there. Or get some training in customer service because she certainly doesn't have the experience to be a manager let alone a waitress. Perhaps a cleaner as she's that rude. That would probably suit her character. I've never been somewhere with this much negativity. And certainly shouldn't have this attitude from staff. We complained because we were still waiting for hot drinks we ordered we could see them sitting on the bar and 10 minutes later bought over the same drinks so they were sent back. We literally watched them re heat out drinks with the steamer. Wow 🙀. Then like others on here out lettuce wedges thrown at us. Our children have never been here before as we normally go ourselves for a romantic meal once a month but our son had an awful day at school so we thought why not. Well to walk out of the restaurant with him crying you can imagine it made the day worse especially as he has autism. For christ sake miller and carter sort yourself out. From the look of other reviews it's certainly gotten worse and will continue if this is the way you treat customers

I want to add to my review as I read another on here and as a nurse the manager shouldn't have continued to cook with a burn as it's a health risk to other customers please see added photos. If anyone has become unwell from that evening that the person was in please seek legal advice as he has admitted to continuing to cook not long after a serious burn to his arm. As you can see in another photo below which is a screenshot from his comment it was serious enough to require attention so therefore a risk to others eating at the restaurant...

Thought we would go back and give them a second chance omg wish that we didn't. Served raw chicken for a starter which was sent back then raw bits taken off and re heated. Then fillet steak supposed to be medium again raw. So sent back. Trouble was we were sitting right by the kitchen because I'm disabled and always ask for a booth and the female manager with the pony tail who has been there a while said " if I knew they were going to complain I wouldn't have sat them there !" Then you hear the chef complaining! It says on the menu if you're steak isn't cooked send it back because they have had steak school training. Well I don't know where. We have travelled all over the world eating steak in a lot posher places and miller and carter is supposed to be the UK one. Think again about the one in Laindon. Rayleigh we have no issues with in fact the manager from there was at laindon tonight. It's just ashame the other female manager was such an embarrassment to the restaurant. She even walks around with the attitude from the start that she really doesn't give a flying fk. Tonight was supposed to be about celebrating or commiserate a year since a lovely woman passed away and this is what we get. I'm just glad our second server was lovely and the new manager from Rayleigh. Please go back there because Laindon will bring you down sadly unless you teach the other manager some manners to not speak about customers whilst they are sitting right behind you!! Never have I had my bipolar disorder challenged so much to not be able to eat my meal. And leave a restaurant upset... Shame on you. I find it absolutely disgusting that the owner has not replied.

Wow I find it absolutely disgusting that the general manager has verbally slagged of myself and my family this will be send...