Miller & Carter Newbury Park — Restaurant in London

If it wasn't for the staff and other elements,, it would be a one star. The gentlemen who greeted us at the podium, lovely! Asked if we had a booking and swiftly took us to our table, advised the name of our server and said they'll be with us shortly. Alyssa was good. Gave us time to look through the menu. Arrived around 6 so was able to take advantage of the 2 for £10 on the mocktails. First round came fast and fruitful, and 2nd round we ordered a different mocktail, was given something different to the passion fruit, she apologised and confirmed that particular drink was not available and that they gave us a Passion fruit cooler, can't complain... the two were cheaper than a tenner. Starters came, lovely!. The burrata was a bit too cold but thawed nicely when I started attacking the rest of the dish. Pork was flavourful, texture was like pulled pork, wouldn't have thought it was pork belly. Steaks came and looked ok. The pink piece of butter on top looked like a sliced thumb print that peeled off the steak just like it... so left that on the side. Oooo the peppercorn sauce was unbelievably great. Best peppercorn by far. Onion loaf as usual was great and even the tomato slice was juicy and kinda helped clean the palate after ever bite. Scallops tasted great but were overcooked and hard. The butter sauce served with it was amazing so I drenched my fries with it. FRIES! Or any side dish served in that metal up. Whether it's a lil cheeky way of cutting costs, to fold the parchment paper in a cone and serve the fries in it thinking there's more in the cup part... Just felt a lil conned on the portion considering it being £5.50. Thick cut chips tasted like oven chips... Thank god for the left over butter sauce.

Desserts... Yes yes yes the double Belgium chocolate brownie was pure SIN. Was basically a Haagen Daz Belgium chocolate classic in a warm brownie form. Love a sticky toffee pudding with custard... And hate when there's too much toffee drowning the pudding. Alyssa worked her magic and got the kitchen to serve it without the toffee and it was lovely; light and just enough sweetness with the custard. Please don't serve them on those plates. Aesthetically, great but not practical with a British classic. A bowl like the one for the lettuce wedge; helps to get a decent amount of custard with the pudding in a spoon. Doing that with the plate was like nails to a chalkboard.

Hats off to the bar team for the yummy mocktails, the gent who seated us, and Alyssa.

UPDATE Received a response from the restaurant who felt my rating of 3 stars didn't make sense.

Burrata should ideally be served room temperature, not cold. Should be one of the first things to be taken out of the fridge when ordered. 2nd round of mocktails. Was not told the passion fruit martini was not available but instead was given a passion fruit cooler. We were told after confronting Alyssa. She's not to blame as she was prob trained to do that a d try a d get away with it. Scallops overcooked and oven chips- 4 different sized scallops,cooked at 4 different heat. Picture clearly shows the size difference and for some keen eyed how overcooked they all were. The flavour was there and was used to save the thick cut chips.

Miller & Carter has a reputation for quality which was not to standard at this visit despite going to many different locations. Your "slight confused" comment felt sly and not taking...

We visited this location for an early valentine's meal. It was the first time I'd ever been and it was highly recommended by various family and friends. Firstly, it took over half hour to receive our drinks and even then, my husband couldn't get the cocktail he wanted as they was missing an ingredient. My cocktail had so much ice that it was completely watered down and after a few minutes, all I could taste was water. Very little drink for the amount charged. The starter was amazing and we enjoyed it very much. The floater coffee I ordered next was lovely. Our mains took a very long time to come out and when they did, I was unhappy with my steak. I ordered the fillet, and rare. It arrived well done. I don't like complaining but I informed the waitress and she changed it for me. It was replaced very quickly. This time when I cut into it, it was blue. I felt embarrassed complaining again so I just tried to eat it. However, it was SO tough and absolutely riddled with fat. My partner ordered the fillet also and his was beautiful. Nice shape, nice colour and cooked perfectly. My fillet looked like it had already been chewed. Odd shape, not how I asked it to be cooked (twice) and tasted very different to my husband's. I even asked the waitress if it was definitely a fillet as it didn't look like the right cut of meat and she assured me it was. The sides we had were lovely. My husband struggled a little getting his lobster tail out of the shell as they don't provide you any tools for this, but he enjoyed every aspect of his dinner. All in all, I was disappointed. For the amount of money they charge for a fillet (£31.50) mine was cooked incorrectly twice and extremely fatty and tough. I specifically order the fillet whenever I go out to eat because I don't like a fatty steak! Starter amazing, alcoholic drinks were overpriced and disappointing. Non alcoholic drinks were nice, sides were lovely, steak was extremely disappointing. The staff were also lovely but the service was extremely slow (2 and a half hours from entry to leaving with only a starter and a main) I don't think I'd ever return to Miller & Carter based on...

We are regulars here and always have enjoyed our food but the service on our last visit was quite poor. We booked a table last Sat (4.11) at 8oc for a family dinner, ordered the starters and mains at the same time. Starters arrived after about 20 min, which were lovely & waited for our mains. Others diners were seated and served their food before us so we asked our server how long our food would be, she said there four other tables ahead of us. We waited it must have been an hour and asked again and were told 'you are next'. I understand it was a busy time but felt it was too long so asked for the manager (Terry). When my husband tried to speak discreetly he replied "sorry I cannot get that close" but we were sitting down ! He appeared quite aloof and said the delay was between us and the server. How? She had taken our order and passed it to the kitchen so how is this our fault? We also ordered a mixture of sides which by that time were not available and didnt fancy the alternative. At the end of the meal we expressed our disappointment to the manager and he again said it was down to us & the server. We explained we were there two weeks before and had a different table/server and had a lovely time, he put his hand flat out and replied 'I dont want to hear about the last time/its nothing to do with me' and walked off. Finally we asked for the bill (there was a minor reduction) and while waiting our server from 2 weeks earlier came over to say sorry for our service. He and our current server both confirmed the managers attitude was the same with other customers - offish/cannot be bothered type - which is very disappointing. We offered a tip but our server refused knowing the service was very short that day. I have not included any servers name as they have always been polite and does not reflect on them. We settled our bill and left. This is not to say we would not visit again but hope we dont bump into...