The Mill at Rode — Restaurant in England

After another restaurant cancelled our booking, we had to find another place to eat, since it was our wedding anniversary. We wanted a nice place to go. The Mill in Rode was recommended to me, so decided to try. First impression was really good, explained to the person on the phone my situation ( who I found out later was the owner), and he was very accommodating. Went out of his way to help. They don't take bookings for outside, but he did it for me. When we arrived for dinner, we were greeted by a very nice blond lady. Showed us to our table, which they had set up with flowers and a bottle of bubbly. Was such a lovely touch. The lady poured the bubbly for us and went over the specials and asked if we needed anything else. 10 minutes later the owner came over to introduce himself and congratulated us, and asked if we were ready to order. We placed our order, and waited quite some time, 45 minutes. To be fair, they were extremely busy inside, we were in no rush at all, so didn't mind. I would say that some people wouldn't accept that wait and wouldn't understand they were busy. The starters came, I had the caramelized onion and goats cheese tart, my wife, the mussels. To be honest, the tart was a let down, just wasn't up to standard. Limp looking rocket salad and the tarts were pretty tasteless. My wife's mussels were great, just needed a sauce to go with the bread. We both thought the bread should of been toasted, maybe with some garlic butter on. We finished and then our mains came. Much better, lots of flavour, my wife had fish and chips, very well presented, I had the chicken, sauteed potatoes and tarragon sauce,recommended by the owner. Very tasty indeed, just needed a nice garnish, seemed to just be missing something to lift it out of the plate. After finishing the mains, the plates were cleared promptly, and offered the dessert and coffee menu. I had to have the sticky toffee pudding, not disappointed at all. So to top off, the staff were very attentive, food was good, just needed a finishing touch and price was pretty reasonable. £90 for two starters, two mains, bottle of bubbly, dessert and two coffee. Would get 5* if the little touches to the food was there. Have to add, beautiful location, and we only live 5 minutes away, will be back again. Thank you to the staff and owners for a...

I had passed the road sign for the Mill at Rode on the A36 literally hundreds of times. I decided on a Tuesday late afternoon to stop and have a drink and something to eat, as I have been on the search for a new venue in the local area for lunch dining for some time, for some reasons I cannot explain l had been putting the Mill at Rode to one side! I should have listened to my instincts! The Mill is a lovely old renovated building in nice grounds, plenty of parking with a nice little river running through, then it all goes down hill! Arriving on the decked entrance you’re are greeted with a table with a sign stating No bar service waiter service only, so we sat our selves down having taken two menus from the table, there was a huge choice of tables as only two were taken. After about 10 minutes and no sign of any staff, I walked into the bar area to be greeted by the sound of a young man behind the bar dropping a large tray of empties on the floor! He stood up and said it was no service at the bar, I replied that I had been waiting outside for 10minutes and could I have a glass of Pimms and a lager, he replied that as soon as he had sorted this mess out he would bring it to me! We had decided that the menu, one that promises to suit all tastes and pleases none! We would just have the drinks ! Another 10 minutes passed and the young man approached apologetic asking what would we like to drink! I repeated the order and said we decided against eating. We sat waiting patiently enjoying the ambiance of the river running under us for a further 15 minutes when we decided we had sat in lovely surroundings with no drinks for long enough, I had a tongue like a Sumos jock strap! I went to the bar and cancelled the order for the drinks. We went straight to our regular lunchtime venue The Bath Arms at Horningsham! Had great service and lovely food...

I went for an evening meal yesterday with friends. We waited a few mins to be seated but that was fine. I asked if we should get our drinks from the bar but the waitress said she would take our order. She didn't come back for 20 mins to take our drinks order then another 10 mins to get them. We were all veggies and I don't eat fish. Only 2 veggie options which was a lentil dahl curry with nan bread and NO RICE or margarita pizza 😐. I didn't want curry so I ordered pizza. Two tables who ordered after us got served before us and I had to chase where our meals were. Bearing in mind we booked our table for 7pm we got our food at 8:15pm which wasn't great service. The food didn't come out together. I had my very dry pizza and my friend had the curry but my other friend waited another 5 mins for her meal then eventually my other friends nan bread came out. Why were we not all served at the same time? For the rest of the evening I walked to the bar to get my drinks as our waitress didn't attend to us. When it came to dessert I asked what the cheesecake of the day was and the veggie dessert option for the day and the waitress didn't know. When she came back she told us the cheesecake of the day but forgot to ask the veggie dessert option of the day so she had to ask and go back again! I went to the bar to get a coffee but they had already cleaned the machine so I couldn't get one. Later on we went to pay and they tried to charge us 10% gratuity. I told him no way. The service was just shocking. They were clearly under staffed. We could have spent so much more money on drinks with them if the waitress had served us but she didn't so The Mill lost out. Please recruit more staff and get them to know what the specials of the day are at the start of...