The Milehouse — Restaurant in Newcastle-under-Lyme

If you’re vegan, AVOID. I have had to send the below compliant:

Dear Milehouse Team,

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to bring to your attention some strong concerns regarding my recent dining experience at your establishment. Firstly, I was served an alcoholic drink despite specifically requesting a mocktail. This initial oversight was a disappointing way to start my experience dining with you, however, was rectified by the staff once addressed.

Additionally, three out of the five members of my party were served fish when we had ordered vegan fish and chips. When the item was placed in front of us at the table, it was specified that it was vegan fish and chips yet to our dismay, it was fish, contradicting our dietary preferences stated by ourselves when seated at the table. Resulting from this, we were saddened by the lack of accuracy with our order, and with trust broken entirely, we did not re-order.

Lastly, the meal that was supposedly vegan was accompanied by non-vegan tartar sauce, which further compounded the issue. On your menu this item is not listed under the vegan meal but on the three occasions I have dined with The Milehouse, I have consumed it, as it has been presented to me on actual vegan fish and chips. I want to stress the importance for you as a food establishment to cater accurately to customers' dietary needs, and I hope you can address these matters to prevent any occurrences in the future. I am greatly disappointed and left the establishment feeling very upset as my beliefs had been compromised and what was meant to be an enjoyable evening out, soon turned into utter horror.

The manager on site at the time did approach the table to offer their apologies and I understand that mistakes can be made, but this is a major incident, and I would like it to be addressed with the seriousness it deserves. It was mentioned that the individual waiting on us didn’t know there was a vegan fish and chips which is astonishing. As a food establishment, dietary requirements should be at the forefront of training.

Please review the vegan options you offer to ensure that ALL elements on the plate are in fact vegan. I would also suggest that it may be beneficial to have a separate vegetarian and vegan menu to avoid any confusion.

Thank you for your attention to this feedback. I look forward to your...

I have been previously and had a much more cohesive experience. Unfortunately there was a litany of small issues that added up to a subpar experience. I was part of a medium sized group (8 people). We arrived at approx 7:30pm and left around 10:30pm. We were approached 4 times by waiting staff across this time frame - The restaurant was less than half full. It took about 30 minutes for our drinks to arrive. I found my starter bland (salt and paper squid), the meat was nicely cooked but the ‘salt and pepper’ was almost nonexistent. I asked for the smaller of the two ribeye cuts cooked medium with garlic butter, I was brought a rare steak that resembled rump more than ribeye, and the garlic butter was missing. I had to send this back to be cooked longer as there was just as much blood coming from it as my friends rare steak…. It returned and whilst closer to medium was now more towards well done, and still no garlic butter. After waiting the additional time I just ate it as my friends were close to finishing their meals. For dessert my partner and I had the fudge cake and cheese cake, the fudge cake was a little dry and not very ‘fudgey’ it tasted like dry chocolate sponge that I could make myself at home (I’m not a good baker). The cheese cake was a little nicer but still quite ‘meh’ and far from £7 worth. We once again waited an extended amount of time to be waited on and pay the bill. I noticed that I had been charged for the larger size ribeye and the garlic butter and raised this, which was eventually changed, but before doing so I was told that as I had not specified a weight so the original server just put down the largest option and that I should have known it was the bigger one (something like 226g vs 285g or so..) I politely pointed out that I literally pointed to the one I wanted in the menu and indeed read out the weight of it as well, and that with a difference of 60g it is not like I have scales at the table to detect this weight difference, it is not like it’s 200g vs 400g that would be visual obvious. My partner and I left quite disappointed at the overall service and little (but many) errors, as it was our suggestion to the group to meet and eat there. We will be eating else where in the future. I hope they can take this criticism constructively and improve for...

Opening night...

This was a special occasion as it was a relative's milestone birthday, however, the food and service were not up to par.

Having pre-ordered food (which was explained to me poorly and clearly a cost-saving measure so they can order accurate levels of stock), we waited five minutes to be seated next to the busiest footfall in the restaurant (by the bar and FOH desk) and then sat on several tables of twos put together.

No server came to the table to introduce themselves or take drinks so we had no point of contact for the whole night, instead, we relied on a concoction of managers, bar staff and the occasional new starter (we even had to go to the bar ourselves to order drinks).

Following this, we then received the food. For the prices quoted, you would expect a reasonable, good-looking dish. Nevertheless, what came to the plate was a burger clearly wearing a sombrero as the bun was far bigger than the patty. The cheese was congealed and salsa topping was not seasoned. I made the assessment to not eat the dish and informed the FOH who did offer a replacement but did not comp this until later when we asked for the final bill.

We then waited, waited and waited for servers to clear plates, produce the final bill (which did not comp the meal until I explained the reason why I did not eat the meal again) and bring the birthday cake.

I can understand that Saturdays are busy but a restaurant that has been open as long as this should be able to do this easily. Instead, this was Sunday league stuff and I felt let down by the whole process.

Also, the audacity of charging the prices they do for this food is nothing short of ridiculous.

I will not be returning and will go to the only place worthy of the namesake, the fish bar...