The Old Mill — Restaurant in Dacorum

Where do I even begin…

Unfortunately I have nothing other than negative and disappointing feedback. A large group of us went for lunch at the Mill and ordered 2 sharing platters of meat to start and separate dishes for main course. Due to there being a large group of us we were sat in the hallway next to a dirty popcorn machine and a candy floss maker.

Right from the get go the service was applauding, it took us 30 minutes to receive our drinks and an hour and 10 minutes to receive our cold meat starters. By which point we had all finished our first round of drinks. We had mentioned to the waitress at this point our starters had taken a long time to arrive and rather than being apologetic she rudely dismissed us and told us that wasn’t the case. We then received our mains another 40 minutes after the starters and quite honestly they were shocking, not one of us was happy with our mains. The homemade burger buns were drier than the Sahara desert, the burger meat was over cooked and poorly seasoned, the pizza and the pork were saltier than I am writing this review. After eating we asked to speak with the manager who was also one of the chefs. He began to inform us that he was extremely disappointed in us for not liking his food and didn’t care for our complaints. After this the waitress called one us a liar twice! Once the manager had finished telling us about how upset he was with us he walked off and refused to listen to the rest of our complaints. We asked if they would be happy to come to some arrangement on the bill and they were having none of it.

Overall the service was awful, the staff were rude, the food was poor and atmosphere dull. 100% do not recommend unless you enjoy a...

I really want to like the old mill. It could be brilliant. And it’s my local.. so I’d love to go there regularly. The food is good…if you manage to make it that far!!

Every time I go the service is terrible. It begins with trying to make a reservation (they don’t answer the phone, don’t return voicemails and don’t respond to email). When we sit outside, it takes forever to get a drink at the bar even when it’s quiet. When we sit inside, we have to ask for everything (menus? Order a drink? Where is my food?). When the place is almost empty they seat everyone close together (eg we were a large party with 4 kids, an older couple out for a quiet meal probably do not want to sit on the table right next to us when there are many many other options. They asked to be moved- why was this not pre-empted to save the awkwardness?!)

On my most recent visit they forgot my order so the rest of my table had nearly finished before my meal arrived- I expected my meal to be taken off the bill before it was brought to us and when I complained that it had not been, and questioned why everything has taken so long, rather than accept criticism I was challenged.

I feel a lot of thought has been put into the menu but little thought has been put into front of house which really really lets the place down. After multiple poor experiences I won’t be bothering again. It was pretty handy having a place you could go for Sunday lunch without a reservation but now I know why it’s always half empty. Sort out front of house and you could have a brilliant...

Inedible!

I visited to take my grandchildren (6&7) for a post school early tea. They ordered the margherita and Big Kids Pizza from the kids menu and a lasagne from the starter menu (for variety). I ordered the filled focaccia. After about 3/4 hour the pizza and 'focaccia' arrived. The pizza came whole so asked if it could be cut into slices, it came back in quarters, I them cut it smaller slices but struggled. The base was like a leather. The topping on the Big Kids pizza was a few chunks of frankfurter sausage and under cooked potato. My focaccia seemed to have been made of the same leathery pizza base rather than a light flat leavened oven-baked bread. In all we probably managed to eat no more than a quarter of the food. Can't comment on the lasagne as it did not arrive due to a mistake with the order. While paying for the 'meal' (£40+) I explained how we found the food well below par. Obviously the young inexperience staff had not been trained in customer service, as all I received was a platitude "sorry you didn't like the food" and we will take the lasagne (which we hadn't had) off the bill. Hopefully the chef was having the afternoon off to explain our eating experience. With experience the front of house staff, although very pleasant, will give better customer service. Worst food I have had in Berko (and I have eaten in most of the eateries...