Miller & Carter Lakeside — Restaurant in England

VERY DISAPPOINTING. We were gifted a £50 voucher for Miller and Carter last Christmas. Our first treat out in ages and had to use the voucher before it expired. We had been to this restaurant before, but not since before the first lockdown. In the past the restaurant has been great and we were looking forward to it. We shared the chicken wings to start with. It came with a small spoonful of blue cheese sauce and 3 x 1" quartered cucumber sticks. The wings were tasteless, they were pale and uninviting and we had to add Tobasco sauce to even eat them. We ordered the rib eye on the bone to share - just under £60. We asked for it to be cooked medium as per the recommendation. It arrived rare, as per the photo. We don't like to send food back and if it had been cooked again then it would probably have been tougher than it already was. The steak was tasteless alone, but the beef dripping sauce helped the flavour a bit. Couldn't eat it all as it was too underdone and very fatty. I appreciate rib eye can be fatty, but not if cooked properly as the fat then marbles and can be quite tasty. The mixed greens were nice and we added some halloumi fries which were lovely. The person we had serving us was new - however, she was really lovely, lots of smiles and was very welcoming. Believe her name could have been Lilly as that is what shows on the receipt, but not sure if she put it through the till or not. Hopefully we won't be given another voucher so we won't have to go to a Miller and Carter again after this experience. The voucher didn't cover all of the meal, so it wasn't as if it was a free lunch. Times are hard for everyone, so if you're spending money then you want it to be great and memorable, not left feeling resentful and disappointed. Based on our experience on 8/10/22 we would definitely not recommend.

HAD THIS RESPONSE TO THE REVIEW:

Response from the owner 5 days ago Tony Burke, thank you for taking the time to leave feedback about your experience with us and we appreciate that. We set a high standard for ourselves, so we are disappointed to hear that your experience with us was not a positive one. If you could provide more information to us, we would be more than happy to try and make this situation better. Miller and Carter Lakeside

THERE IS: No way of responding to this. Went on the website, found the page where you can make a complaint, say thank you, etc - but it hasn't been working since trying! Found a phone number, but who do we ask for? They want us to provide more information - what information? Is this response just so that they look to others as if you are trying to do something to help? We were sent an email asking for feedback - that link doesn't...

This was a very disappointing visit. We visited back in June where it was delightful and my son tried steak for the first time from the kids menu and he fell in love with it! So for his birthday yesterday his choice of restaurant was obviously Miller & Carter in Lakeside. We were all very excited to have a delightful meal once again. My son ordered from the Young Guests menu - the 4oz rump - but when it arrived he said to me 'what is that?'. What arrived was not rump steak at all (which you have to pay a supplement for too). It looked like an old flat minute steak. He took one bite and had to spit it back out because he couldn't chew it. When I asked the waiter about it and he took it back to the kitchen, the relayed message was 'it is a rump steak, it's just cut differently and if it was cooked again it would be the same'. I had an 8oz rump myself which was plump and juicy, much like my son's steak on our first visit. My son's steak this time around was disgusting and wasn't what was advertised. The waiter offered to go back to the kitchen to see what else could be done but then didn't return and I had to go and find him to ask what was happening. Which was obviously nothing. We were then mugged off by the manager and kitchen that we didn't know what we were talking about. Comparing my rump steak to my son's there was no comparison. My son's steak was not a rump steak. I even offered to share a picture of the steak he had before too but it was dismissed. No alternative was offered so I had to give my son my steak dinner which because I was having to have conversations with the staff instead of eating it wasn't that hot anymore, and my dinner ended up being chips and onion loaf. The waiter didn't come back to ask if the rest of the meals were ok either. The manager offered to remove my son's steak from the bill (after I had requested it) and when the bill came they still charged us for the starter part of the Young Guest set menu which I thought was a bit much when I didn't even have a meal myself! We won't be coming back here. It was a really disappointing finish to a wonderful day of celebrations for my son's birthday who ended up being upset because he felt bad that I wasn't able to have a proper meal.

The response from the owner about speaking to the manager isn't good enough. It was the manager of the venue who was dismissive, ignored us and basically said we didn't know what we were talking about so unsure how calling them is...

Unfortunately this isn't a good review at all :( We had a reservation for 4 people on a Saturday at 7.30pm (so we were aware it was peak time), we arrived a little early and asked if we could have a drink at the bar while we waited for our table to be ready. After a little frustration and prompting the staff, we were seated about 7.50pm (20 mins after our booking) - we were placed on a table inside the door which gave us a gust of cold wind everytime the doors were opened (ANNOYING). Our orders were taken around 15-20 mins after being seated and were all very hungry by then! The starters eventually came out and one of the servers spilled vinegar/oil over my husband's coat and on my friend's handbag (MORE ANNOYING), total accident, but we got very little apology. Halfway through the starter we found a hair in our mac n' cheese (DISGUSTING) - it was reported immediately, taken away and wasn't addressed after this (apart from an apology from our waiter) but still appeared on the bill at the end of the night with no acknowledgement or apology from a manager!! Our mains came out and my husband ordered a medium-rare t-bone steak. After struggling to cut into it he discovered it was cooked well-done and was too tough to eat (EVEN MORE ANNOYING), our waiter corrected this and sent a replacement fillet steak shortly after. We were annoyed by the time we asked for the bill and even more infuriated to see we were still charged full price for our sharer starter after finding a hair in our food (UNBELIEVABLE)! I asked to speak to a manager and explained the experience we had - to which she removed the cost of the starter from the bill and gave a small, meek apology. Most of this could have been avoided and put right, but this "head in the sand" and reactive managerial style does not work in a busy restaurant. Sincere and real apologies go very far, as do people who look like they are at least TRYING to make your experience better...keep this in mind when you get another complaint, as I'm sure you'll get more in the future! So disappointed, will not be...