Had visited the Miller and Carter steakhouse in Lytham St Anne’s a few months ago and enjoyed a very nice meal. Unfortunately this was an all together different experience and very disappointing.

I ordered the 3 course set meal at £15.95, my brother went for the 2 course option at £12.95. Salt and pepper calamari to start. When it arrived it smelt lovely but the taste didn’t live up to that. Was rather bland and had no kick or spiciness to it as I had expected being a salt and pepper dish.

For mains I had ordered sea bass fillet and my brother went for fish and chips. When the food arrived I was shocked at the size of the portions. I know it was a fixed price meal but really expected more for our money. The sea bass and dauphinoise potato were tasty at least but there was just so little of it.

One thing I will say is that the food was piping hot. Even the plates were hot. It annoys me that so many establishments serve hot food on cold plates. Thankfully not the case here.

For dessert I got apple pie, my brother the profiteroles. Nothing wrong with them but then nothing great about them either.

Now for the service. We found this a bit disconcerting. The service on our visit to the other Miller and Carter establishment was great. We were never asked if we had any food allergies like we had been before. And other servers were asking their customers this question today. Never got asked during the meal if everything was ok. Other customers were getting asked. We were asked if we wanted coffees while I was half way through my dessert. A little premature I though. As was the servers removal of the wine bottle and bucket without asking if we had finished or checking the bottle was empty. Only when he had walked a few steps away with it did he turn to ask if we had in fact finished with it. I joked with him that if we hadn’t he would have quickly been told. His reply was that he had done this before when people had some wine left. I advised him that would definitely not have happened with us. We didn’t ask for the bill. The server made that decision for us. He brought it over despite me having a glass of wine left and almost a full pint of lager.

Neither of us got the impression that our custom was welcomed. In fact by the end of the meal we felt a little uncomfortable. There was nothing overt but rather an atmosphere or sense that something wasn't right. Maybe I had got things off to a bad start with our server. We had ordered drinks pretty quickly after being seated. 2 lagers and a bottle of the house Sauvignon Blanc. Went for the white wine as we had both decided to have fish for our main course. When our server came back to take our food order he pointed out that the rump steak option was not available. Found this a bit strange. A steakhouse running out of rump steak mid afternoon. I tried to make a joke along the lines of don’t worry about it, we had no intentions of going for the steak otherwise we would have ordered a bottle of red. Maybe he didn’t appreciate this quip and it impacted on his approach to us. Guess we will never know but we both did think the service we got was way below what we experienced at the other establishment and this has been a factor in my score.

3 stars out of 5. It could have been lower but the venue itself has some positives. Its well set out. Loads of seats, plenty of room and choices of where to sit. It looked very clean and tidy. The toilets certainly were. Huge car park. Easy access to the building and wheel chair friendly. And despite the tiny portions for the mains the food was reasonably tasty. Just the overall experience was a big disappointment having had such an enjoyable meal at the other steak house not that far away. Maybe the motto to remember is don't order fish in a steak house.