Miller & Carter Chelmsford — Restaurant in Chelmsford

Do NOT waste your time or money here!!!

The whole visit from start to finish was a absolute shambles!!

Booked a table for boxing day 2018 .. Bare in mind we was only a table of two .. We was seated 45mins later than our booking .. Then the starter took another 1 hour and 10mins to come out .. Then the main took another 50mins after that .. We got lucky that our food order was correct because around us there was people returning their food multiple times .. leaving one person at a table to eat on her own an FULL HOUR after everyone else in their party had already eaten theirs ..

I appreciate it is a busy time with Christmas but the prices that are charged here do not reflect on the food or service you receive from this very disorganised venue .. even drinks took an eternity .. the female manager was quite rude when we was asking why we hadn't been seated despite being there before our booking time .. we was rather sharpishly told "It's only been 15mins since you last asked!! Itll be another 5mins" .. which turned into 15mins again.. either way we should of been seated on time or offered a free drink because of the delay or atleast just spoken to in a decent manner.. We ordered a lettuce wedge with bacon and honey mustard dressing to go with our starter .. it came with the main course .. the bacon that they put ontop wasn't crispy like expected it was pink with white fat that was still soft on it .. needless to say we scraped the bacon off as it didn't look very appetizing .. we was told by the waitress it is supposed to be crispy but sometimes isn't ..?!?!?! .. It should be cooked to the same standard everytime.. The onion loaf wasn't a loaf it was a overcooked oily bit of rubbery mess .. The mash potato on one of our plates had a skin on it where it had obviously been sat under the lights for far too long .. that is completely unacceptable.. We chose not to have a dessert simply because it would of took too long or would of been wrong ..

In the end we had to request a 'doggy bag' to take my main course home because we didn't have time to eat it anymore .. we had planned to be at the restaurant for 2 hours.. 2 and a half hours maximum for our meal .. and we had places to be afterwards .. we ended up leaving very disappointed by 3 hours and had our bill wiped by the management but the other unfortunate people around us was being seen to by a different manager and they only got offered 50% off despite multiple food returns..

I would NOT recommend this venue if you want to have a good experience or if you want to be seated on time or want your food to come out as requested within a decent time .. it wasn't just delayed due to Christmas there was so much disorganization it was unreal.. The amount of upset people that day was astounding .. our entire section of tables was complaining .. the poor waitress didn't know what to say in the end she was just getting the managers over table after table..

Miller and Carter lost a LOT of money that day!!

The picture is of my main course at home in a plastic tray which I was given as a doggy bag .. 3 hours was spent here just for me to take my full main course home?!?!

I personally will never return here or recommend it to...

First time - Last time.

We've been wanting to go for years, so booked around 6 weeks approx in advance, with special instructions that its for a special occasion to celebrate our engagement (just a few hours prior to booking I proposed!).

Both myself and partner smarty dressed for the occasion, or as they say themselves: "Dress to Impress!"

Interior is nice - looking from the reception - so was looking forward to the areas/booths they had - but - sadly we was taken to what felt like the 'riff-raff' area. Large group with kids all over the place, a mothers meeting and couple wearing sporting gear/tracksuits.

Not very busy time, would say restaurant about 1/4 full.

Looking around we noticed a few small couples/groups sitting in much nicer areas of the restaurant - clearly placed in such manner. We both made a comment about being moved to said booths or areas under nicer lighting - but was missed by the waiter, we thought: well, no point in letting it get us down so we sat where we was told too.

Food for myself wasn't up to what i was expecting, cold in parts. We requested the steak to be well cooked due to dietary but had pink within so gave it a miss.

Waiter clearly overwhelmed and wanted to move onto the larger groups quickly rather than taking the time to listen for us to finish our order - she left a few times while I was still talking/placing an order. Partner said to me to not worry or make a deal of it as she seemed overwhelmed. I eneded up biting my tongue and had my partner order for me.

Didn't order deserts we just wanted to leave.

Spent £60 between us both in the end, just main meal and drink, could of easily spent more if felt welcome, appreciated or even acknowledged. Was looking at spending £200+ between us for the occasion for starters, main, deserts, treats and drinks.

Would I go back? Not really, unless something could be done.

Such a shame.

on a positive note, got a nice picture of the...

My partner and I went here for a Valentine’s meal last Friday and we were incredibly disappointed by the food. Both my partner & I ordered a Wagyu steak, medium-rare, but my steak came out blue. We reported this to the waitress (who was lovely & we couldn’t fault her at all) and she managed to get us another steak. This did mean my partner had to have his food under a lamp to stay warm in the meantime, which wasn’t ideal. Unfortunately, when the second steak came, I had a few mouthfuls (which were fine) until I noticed the rest of the steak was again, blue (picture added). I couldn’t eat the rest of the meal as I was completely put off by my raw steak. We reported this again to the waitress who was completely apologetic and she got her manager. When the manager appeared, she also apologised, but we had to ask for the steak to be removed from the bill (this was not offered as a gesture of goodwill). We voiced how we weren’t going to eat the remainder of our meal & as we ordered from the set menu, we got the dessert to go (which we didn’t eat due to being put off from our main). I contacted Miller and Carter raising this issue and how disappointed we were with the service, despite still paying £90 for our meal, and we were told that “if your further issues had been brought to the attention of the management team, more could’ve been done on the evening to ensure that you had left as happy as possible”. We did voice how unhappy we were, but as stated, we had to ask for the steak to be taken off the bill. We didn’t want to cause a scene as it wasn’t the waitress’ fault, hence emailing Miller and Carter directly. I didn’t receive a response after this. Overall, we were highly disappointed by the food and will not...