Miller & Carter Oracle — Restaurant in Reading

Steak experiences are a thing! Who would have thought it, but I love this idea and its such good value for money. The service was impeccable with proper check backs throughout, suggestions on what to eat or how best to have it and things to consider that you wouldn’t otherwise think of.

As it was a celebration meal we were going all out and couldn’t miss starters even though the mains promised to be immense.

SALT & PEPPER CALAMARI - Crispy fried squid, oak-smoked garlic and lemon aioli dip. This was an interesting choice for me as I know very few places can cooked calamari without it being used as a hair band. This was good and delivered crunchy crispy battered calamari pieces that were soft.

BAKED CHEDDAR MUSHROOMS (V) - Creamy Cheddar cheese and spinach sauce with toasted breads. Rich and gooey, and a very handsome serving.

BEEF BARBACOA MAC & CHEESE - a goooood string pull, soft macaroni and plenty of cheese!

PRAWN & AVOCADO COCKTAIL - Fresh avocado, baby gem lettuce and Bloody Mary sauce. prawns were a decent size, cooked well with large chunks of avo.

Each main comes with a choice of a lettuce wedge. Not a dish for me, but I get it! Lettuce is freshly cut, nice palate cleanser and adds a good crisp cold crunch.

We tucked into 2 steak experiences at our table.

I shared the Millers Cote De Boeuf Experience which is a 24oz Côte de Boeuf steak with a bottle of Argentinian Malbec, grilled lobster tail, sautéed greens and beef barbacoa mac & cheese.

There is no way you are going to be hungry after this. We did however demolish the entire steak and sides as it was too delicious not too.

We requested our steak blue/rare and it was cooked perfectly and seasoned well. This came with a crispy potato cake, chips and sauces too. The lobster tail was smothered in garlic and delivered juicy and succulent to our table. The Malbec went down a treat and rounded off this meal perfectly.

This experience costs £100 but if you take into consideration the price of 2 steaks (around £30-£35 each) plus wine and all the sides, this is a good deal. So worth it!

The other steak experience was the Butchers Block 27oz. This is the best way to explore a variety of steak flavours and cuts. It included a 50 day aged Black Angus Ribeye 10oz, 30 day aged Rump 7oz and two cuts of 50 day aged Black Angus Fillet 5oz. Served with beef brisket and topped bone marrow, potato cake and sauces. This experience is £71.95 and again, I think good value for money.

Other orders to the table included Half Rack of Barbeque Ribs, which unfortunately arrived a little cold, but was soon whisked away and replaced with steaming hot ribs, and the Maple Glazed Chicken.

I’ll definitely be recommending Miller & Carter as a go to steak restaurant and I am keen to try the ones here...

Booked a company team meal for 8 people... Arrived and was directed to our table, the staff were lovely and overall we felt very welcomed, however, it sounded like a children's party (so much background noise, voices, shouting) in fact, it was SO hard to even hear the people sitting opposite me! Admittedly it didn't help the lads next to us were clearly getting drunk. Personally, I would have expected the staff to have noticed and politely asked them to respect other people in the restaurant. Being completely honest though that's not the main reason why I've provided 1 STAR - The waiter was actually so rude and unprofessional it actually really annoyed me! I ordered my STEAK along with everyone else which lets be honest, wasn't exactly cheap... all the food arrived at the same time which was fantastic - ONLY to find mine was stone COLD! I don't like to complain but considering the price of my STEAK costs more than 2 meals + drinks elsewhere, bottom line I wasn't HAPPY and called the waiter over to our table. Advised the waiter that my STEAK is COLD and his response was (It's meant to be like that sir!) Cut a long story short, the waiter argued with me at the table for about 5 minutes to which I replied: I've eaten at Miller & Carter in Basingstoke and know how this STEAK is severed, more to the point - I'm not happy with it! I asked the waiter WHY are you arguing with me which at that point the waiter looked at me and said (what do you want me to do - heat it up on the grill or make you a new one?) which shocked me and I said: I'm happy for you to warm it up if that's how the CHEF wishes to serve it back to me - at which point the waiter gets a little * and says (I'll just make you a new one). 2 minutes later the waiter returns to our table, leans down to my ear/side (so not may people can hear him) and quietly says (I'm really sorry sir, the chef advised the STEAK was cooked BLU which is not what you ordered and confirms why it was COLD). 10-15 minutes later, the waiter brings my new STEAK over to the table which was cooked to perfection - the ONLY downside was that I didn't now have enough time to eat it as we had a comedy event booked in Reading which was a real SHAME and a...

The man who served us was helpful and funny. The food was a big disappointment! For the price of the food, I would expect the quality of a high class restaurant. To begin with the crispy onions that come with the steak were piled in a basket slightly under the warming lights but left to go cold, which was not pleasant! My steak was the toughest ribeye I have ever eaten. I expect a buttery flavour due to the marbling of fat and an easy to cut texture. I had to saw at it to cut it and it had the texture of a much cheaper cut. We also had a fillet steak that was cooked to the point of extinction despite asking for medium-well. Finally, the fries tasted as though they had been pre-cooked then left standing for some time. Our server was helpful and understanding. We did not want to have our steak re-cooked as this would mean half of us waiting whilst the others are eating. One of our steaks was removed from the bill at the end and a 10% discount, but this was still expensive for a disappointing experience. In addition, I have been saving up for this meal since January when I visited Miller and Carter in Woking and was really impressed. I wanted to take my family out for a celebration before my son returns to uni. This was not the experience I...