Slug & Lettuce - Milton Keynes — Restaurant in Milton Keynes

I had a hen party here at the weekend, and I would not recommend it. I had never been to slug and lettuce, so I perhaps we should not have booked here as we did not know what to expect. We were sat on some uncomfortable stools, which was less than ideal for my nan, as well as right by a speaker. We could barely hear ourselves think. I would have enjoyed a bit of music, but the table was so large that we couldn’t talk to anyone sat a few chairs away as they couldn’t hear.

When we sat down, no one greeted us, or assured us that our preordered drinks and food was being prepared. My sister had to go and ask, so we all ended up ordering more drinks that all came separately due to having to order on the app, which the older people struggled with, and they did not explain to us (you could order at the bar but then you would have to carry all of them over yourself & deal with the uninterested staff). When the cocktail tree finally came, there was only 8 cocktails for a party of 12 despite the booking clearly being for 12 people. The website gave no indication of how many cocktails per tree there was and simply asked if we wanted to add them to our order, so some people had to have the Prosecco that was meant to go with the pornstar martinis.

I’m not sure what I was expecting with the buffet food, but I definitely assumed it would be more organised than it was. It all came out at once, on huge plates that there was no room for on the table. The table was so large that my sisters had to act as waiters to make sure everyone had an opportunity to have everything. Not to mention the food itself was sub par. They also brought out the desserts at the same time, despite the lack of room and they were so unbelievably sickly that most of them were wasted.

Also, at one point we tried to order shots at the bar, and the staff member who was standing the wrong side of the bar asked us what we wanted and when we told her she told us to order at the bar with a different staff member… which was confusing because why would you ask us what we wanted then? Also, one staff member would come over with drinks and yell the name of the drink (in a rude tone, and nothing else), until someone claimed it.

Also one sweet boy was obviously in training, and he was not getting the support he needed to serve us. He was abandoned at the bar and I could not help but feel sorry for him. I also dont really get why because there were hardly any other guests there to serve.

All in all, it did put a damper on the hen do as people had to walk around the table to even talk to one another, and it is certainly not the right place if you are a civilised group especially with anyone of the older generation.

I’m quite sad that we wasted our money here, but i hope people see this before booking so they don’t make the same...

After booking a table for the evening for my hen do , we decided to pop in earlier to eat at slug and lettuce and see where we would be spending the evening . I should of known that the quality would be bad , when walking in on a Saturday lunch time and the venue was practically empty . Where to even start regarding this venue !!!! food inedible, black burnt garlic bread !!!! steak over cooked to the point it was inedible ,cold chips , peas that were clearly microwaved , chicken that had been microwaved and was hard on the bottom , no cutlery given and when asked for cutlery , only got given enough for two people to eat there meal with . when finally getting the cutlery enough for only two people it was soaking wet , we ordered drinks they finally came at the end of the meal which they told us was due to a staff member needing to go to the shop for milk , I ate the prawns as a starter which seemed to be the only thing edible i spent the rest of the day with chronic diarrhea . Staff didn't seem to have any customer care and was more interested in gossiping with each other than working , one of the bar staffs skirt was so short her bum cheeks were hanging out of it which is not what i want to see while eating at 2.30pm , the manager on shift spent her time trying to argue to me about how the steak was cooked and that it was medium rare when it was clearly cremated , with my knowledge as a chef myself i was absolutely disgusted that they thought the food they served was exceptable , the chefs took no pride in cooking a half decent meal , we would have left straight away but had to pay in advance and wait to be issued a discount from the food we didnt eat , I'd be absolutely embarrassed to serve food like that . No pride was taken in any of the staffs work and I could understand if they were rushed off there feet slightly but the venue had little to no customes , we spent most our time chasing staff for basic things like cutlery our drinks and trying to resolve food issues that I feel I done a shift...

Was spoken to very rudely by Maria - seemed to be a supervisor. We arrived and there was no staff to speak to to direct us to an available table, so we sat at a table with no reserved sign - as this is custom in other S&L. Within minutes we were approached by staff who told us we had to leave as they had a big booking upstairs and were not taking walk ins, she also told us our table was booked for 20 minutes time. We apologised and politely said we would be leaving and we had no issue with this - we knew we hadn't booked a table and so accepted that we may not have been able to get one. Within a minute however, whilst we discussed where we would go instead, Maria rudely approached us and asked us to leave. I explained we were just about to leave but were deciding on which other bar in the Hub to try and book a table for, to this she replied very passive aggressively that we had to leave. I ended up having to explain twice to Maria that we were about to leave, but we were just googling other bars to book a table. We then left less than a minute after her pushy, unfriendly, and repititous request that had already been clearly communicated by her colleague. Her rude attitude was entirely uncalled for and patronising considering we were very apologetic and agreed to leave and started getting our things together when we were first told no walk-ins. I have no issue with being told that they were only taking bookings as I understand this is why it is advised to book (...despite the many empty and seemingly unreserved tables), but it was the rude and forceful way in which we were spoken to. I have never left a negative review of service before, which is testament to how unfriendly the staff were. I recommend in future that staff take a more hospitable approach to potential customers, especially as there was no reason for us to assume that we were not allowed to sit at an unreserved table in a bar that was, at this point, half empty - something which doesn't surprise me considering the service...