Miller & Carter Kings Langley — Restaurant in Dacorum

This is a nice restaurant with great food. I dined there over 3 consecutive nights whilst staying at the adjacent hotel. The burger on the first night was really lovely, you can tell the pattie is made from quality beef. I declined the onion loaf as I am not a lover of onion, however I should have as on the 3rd night I discovered it was nice. The beef dripping sauce is fantastic. I opted for this on the third night too! The wings are nice, although I did find that combined with the rack of ribs, it was a little too much sticky sauce for one evening 😅. The ribs were good quality with plenty of meat. Now when it comes to steak, I know my steak. I extremely rarely eat steak at a restaurant in the UK, but with all of their own accreditation to steak perfection, I had to give it a go. I got the 50 day 6oz Sirloin and to be fair it wasn't to bad at all. It was well cooked and tasted great. I definitely think I'd recommend a steak from here, although many are rather costly. However as I discovered, you don't need to spend a fortune. The waitress was lovely and kept an eye on my drink level and topped us as required. I prefer water as I'm T-Total and not really a fizzy drink fan. So negatives... I don't like when handed the card machine, it instantly requires you to select the tip amount. Now if I were traveling and dining with family, I would offer a tip. As I travel for work I have to eat out and tips are not allowed to be added to expenses. If I were to tip the minimum 15% I'd soon be out of my own money. It makes me feel awful that I can't do so as everyone has to make a living. I must caveat and say that I explained this to my waitress and she was totally fine with it. She even skipped that step on my following visit having remembered. Another, not particularly negative, however I do think that at a restaurant like here, where it's a tad more expensive than some run of the mill places, then maybe an offering of bread at the start of the meal on the house would not go a miss. This tends to happen at most restaurants in the US and many abroad in general. Just a suggestion 😀 All being said would I recommend it?...

The food is ok but the service is shocking - our server ‘Mel’ actually casually leaned & kneeled on the banquet seating at our table every time she was at our table & to take our order, this did not come across as friendly in-fact it felt very hostile / dominating and totally inappropriate not to mention unprofessional in a restaurant setting with her long hair untied and down & dirty shoes on the seats right at the table but I’d hazard a guess this woman has had zero training & even less food or corporate life experience .. as I paid the £111 bill I quietly told her that it was an uncomfortable experience - her response was to say I offended her .. at which point I quickly reminded her she was being paid to be there & I wasn’t there for her opinion of me but I had paid for this shocking experience & had found it beyond over familiar and exceptionally unprofessional, she called me rude & smirked as said all complaints went to her & repeated this actually up in my face as I sat at the table with my daughter. I will be writing to head office as I’m pretty certain the extra bad attitude wasn’t an accompaniment to the steak dishes. Also as an extra insult It is not crème brûlée it is infact regular packet custard with a sprinkling of burnt sugar & the chocolate mouse was neither chocolate or mousse like - instead flavourless watery mush .. but it was kind of presented well, if that’s enough for £9! I cannot say the same for the servers who not only looked unkept but didn’t provide us with cutlery for our mains and despite questioning relentlessly on allergies we’re actually unable to answer any questions we had about the food and answered incorrectly for the dishes we ordered which we were assured were served with all sauces separately to the food .. this was not the case the lettuce comes smothered in sauce and needed to be returned despite us being told as we ordered that that didn’t happen - left with indigestion & the will...

I have been to this miller & carter a few times now.

The last 2 times service has been really slow. The waitresses themselves are lovely, but the service, for a miller & carter restaurant, is expect better, especially because of what your paying.

There was a wait for drinks after we’d sat down. We quickly realised the table hadn’t been cleaned as you’ll see by attached pictures, there was only 2 of us and we sat at the first 2 seats of the table, the side towards the wall was dusty.

The candle wasn’t lit, a bit of a pointless feature. The floor was messy with food and tissue over the carpet. Food was quite a while to come out. Food tasted lovely.

The table wasn’t cleaned after our main meal, there were some peas left on the table, which wasn’t offered to be wiped by the waitress. I ordered a crème brûlée for me & my mum, hers was fine, mine had mould raspberry on it which I placed on the side of the plate next to my pudding, I told the waitress and she scooped them up with her fingers from next to my pudding on the plate and said she’d show the chef….. I was shocked but I really wanted my crème brûlée…

I’d asked how often the tables were cleaned and the waitress replied “everyday”…. They clearly hadn’t been cleaned before we sat down.

Either it’s bad management here or the staff are lazy…. Which is a shame as they seem lively when serving…. One waitress looked a bit annoyed (that wasn’t serving us) she was on her phone a lot walking around.

Not great for paying in excess of £100 for a meal!! Not the service or ambience...