Miller & Carter Northampton — Restaurant in England

We arrived for our food and were informed there was no 8 or 12 oz ribeye nor were there fries. We went to order our food and asked for calamari and a surf and turf fillet. This is when we were then informed they were out of lobster and calamari much to our disappointment.

We are a younger couple but I've worked in hospitality for years and never have I felt so disregarded by a team of staff.

The food was bought over barely warm, the butter in the steaks didn't melt. The steaks were ordered rare and medium rare and both were basically blue. The "check back" was done within a minute of receiving the food while we were both eating our (very chewy) steaks so we could barely reply. We weren't offered a second drink which I am sure would be within the training at some point to aim for more than one drink per cover. We then tried to get the attention of servers without being outspoken by which point we had struggled through most of our steaks as we didn't want to ruin the meal for each other but had both agreed our steaks were very under done. When we finally got the attention of a server (I assume he was a manager) he then acted as if our steaks were almost to the level of cooked we wanted them. He took them back and had them cooked to rare and medium rare which they were at this point.

We then finished our food and had waited for our plates to be taken as the server was relaying two tables right next to us so could clearly see we were finished. She then continued to spend about 5 minutes going to and from the same table while polishing cutlery which I am sure would've been done before putting the cutlery back in their respective draws.

When we were informed at the start of the night there were no fries they added we would get chips with no additional charge. This was not the case as they added an additional charge for chips.

We were planning to get deserts after our mains but after the poor service we decided against it. Obviously this is not a cheap restaurant but we were more than prepared to tip before our arrival however our experience with both the staff and food changed our mind. Our food came to a total of £118, £119 initially when they tried to charge us the additional fee which they wouldn't have been charging anyone on this particular evening due to their lack of stock.

Our server even took the liberty of skipping the tipping option on the card machine, whether this was due to her poor service or their presumptuous attitude I don't know but the service we received was nothing like what we did on our last visit, probably because we weren't with our families.

In my career of working in hospitality I have held many positions both front and back of house and I am sure that nowhere within the manager or servers training had they been told to provide such poor customer service. We should've got up and left during the period the server was polishing cutlery and attempting to empty tables. As a manger myself I wouldve happily taken money out of my own pocket to makeup for an experience like this for any of my customers but instead we were treated with the upmost ignorance.

We love miller and Carter and go regularly, normally to Milton keynes.

We will not be returning to the Northampton branch after our experience today (17/02/2025) and I look forward to a response to this review. Hopefully it will be from alternative staff to the ones we saw this evening as they were clearly unbothered by our dissatisfaction and the fact they were meant to be upholding some sort of reputation!

I'm sure they will know who they are, if the restaurant need further specifics to understand who to have a word with about dealing with young couples I'd be more than willing to provide our details and specifics of...

We visited Miller & Carter yesterday (Easter Sunday) for the first time. We had high expectations as a lot of people had told us how wonderful it was and how the food was outstanding.

Unfortunately, our experience didn't mirror other people's experiences. We booked our table on the app for 4.45pm. On arrival, the restaurant was busy but not full. There were plenty of tables available, so the restaurant wasn't working at full capacity. Staffing numbers seemed within the normal range of a restaurant, with the number of customers. Our waiter was polite and friendly.

We decided to opt for the Sunday set menu of 3 courses. Although ideally, we wanted just 2 courses, but was told that that was not an option. It had to be 3 courses when ordering from the set menu.

Our starter was the Sticky Chipotle Chicken. Which tasted very nice until I found a piece of chicken that was still pink in the middle. We told our waiter, and he apologised and said he would let the kitchen know.

We waited a very long time for our mains. Bear in mind that we were chatting away, but we still noticed that it was taking a long time to receive our mains.

We ordered the rack of bbq ribs and the Angus steak. The steak was on the small side, but it was nice and enjoyable, and the ribs were very nice. A bit stingy on the coleslaw, though, the tiniest of ramekins! 🙈

Unfortunately, where we were sitting, beside the work station where all the waiting staff were collecting food from the kitchen. This was quite distracting, and you were always aware of the staff walking in and out. Staff were congregating here, whille waiting for orders. While waiting, we witnessed them eating food from a plate (not a customers plate) and licking their fingers just before taking orders out to customers. Picking up customer plates with the same fingers they had just licked. We finished our mains, and our waiter cleared our plates. He left our sides plates/dishes and forgot to come back for them. He returned quite a while after and asked if we wanted anything else, which we replied that we would like to order our desserts.

Our desserts were the sticky toffee pudding with ice cream and the chocolate brownie with ice cream. The desserts were OK, nothing to write home about. The sticky toffee pudding had a different kind of texture in the middle. It tasted grainy, although it didn't look it. I'd never tasted a sticky toffee pudding like it. The chocolate brownie was ok, although slightly gloopy inside.

I forgot to mention that, while we were eating our desserts, our side plates/dishes (from our mains) were still on the table, and they stayed there till we left the restaurant.

After finishing our desserts, we asked for the bill. Our waiter returned to our table with the carder reader and told us the total of our bill, out loud. I asked if he had brought the bill so we could check that all was correct. He apologised and went back to print the bill, and returned ready for payment to be made.

Overall, we weren't impressed with Miller & Carter. It was our first time, and we don't plan to return, to dine here again. We feel the price paid did not reflect the food and service given. We're not normally ones to give a bad review or feedback, and we understand there may be many reasons as to why our visit wasn't all we thought it may be.

We both know of people who have visited and had a lovely experience as to why we had high expectations.

Even a lady who sat near to us complained about her meal and sent it back to the kitchen twice. She stated that she had been to the restaurant several times before and had always had a good experience. So it seems that yesterday wasn't the norm, but it was enough to make us feel that we...

Northampton Moulton branch - what can I say, disappointed is a understatement. We were not welcomed in a friendly manner by the assistant manager Brendon. Felt like we had done something wrong the minute we walked in, was only friendly on the phone after I asked for his name as I wanted to leave a review. We asked our server Chad if the fish was battered fresh in the kitchen which he ‘checked with the chef and said it was fresh’ which when we got the food felt like it was frozen from Iceland - didn’t even eat the Fish and made Chad aware but still paid £15 for something we could have had nicer from fish and chip shop. Dessert they produced half a cookie with 3 little scoops of Chocolate ice cream - could have made myself for £1.50 - told Server Chad we wanted this taken off the bill as we didn’t eat which went to the manager to take off the bill. (Please see photo) When coming to pay we raised our concerns with Chad who didn’t seem to care or apologize, we were disappointed the manager didn’t come over to talk with us. After we left I called the restaurant which I then spoke to the manager who told me he was sorry for not being welcoming but another table had annoyed him in regards to track and trace and it was a very busy restaurant for a Tuesday evening - this is not acceptable as your suppose to provide exceptional service regardless! We were also told Chad didn’t make the manager aware of why we were unhappy until we left - again if someone asks for someone to take something off the bill it is courtesy for the manager to come to the table to ask what the issue was before he took it off the bill! Or the server to actually ask what was wrong! I think the food has gone downhill since the last time I went, portions were ridiculous, and quality was just frozen. I think some servers need to have training on how to deal with unhappy customers and also need training on showing care towards customers. Management need to have training on how to welcome customers and also deal with unhappy customers. We will not be returning, this was my last meal at 8 months pregnant and should have just gone to hungry horse for better service and food for £10 instead of £92! @guest relations manager - I don’t need you to respond to this complaint as your responses are ridiculous and not helpful it is pathetic! Maybe you should respond with what investigations have been completed in the bad reviews and what outcomes there are in order to want...