Misya meze grill — Restaurant in Stevenage

DISAPPOINTING EXPERIENCE

We've been to Misya before as a group and really enjoyed it, but on this night we had a whole different experience, unfortunately.

ARRIVAL We arrived and were told that our seats were upstairs. We were not shown to them. Our group of 8 were sat on a long, thin table, which is never ideal for a large group; a round table where you can see and speak to everyone is so much better.

STAFF There didn't seem to be a member of staff stationed upstairs and the few staff we did see rushed past us, promising to return. We sat for almost half an hour before we were even offered a drink. Not great service.

MENUS When the menus finally arrived they weren't handed to individuals but literally plonked on the table. Not great service.

WINE We ordered 3 bottles of wine. One of our party wanted a dry white. You don't expect the staff to know every little detail about the wine, but when you're spending almost £30 on a bottle you DO expect them to know whether it's sweet or dry. Our waiter couldn't tell us and didn't offer to find out! Not great knowledge or service.

STARTERS Once our order was finally taken, the bread, dips and starters did arrive in good time. The starters were actually really nice, well cooked and presented.

MAINS On the whole the main courses were good, except 2 of us ordered the Chicken Misya Special, which arrived in the form of a few pieces of chicken submerged in a huge bowl of sweet, thick, yellow 'soup'. It was immediately likened to a bowl of sick, or the contents of an old fashioned tin of chicken in a wine sauce. After 2 mouthfuls I was struggling. Too sickly, far too much of it and it looked totally unappetising. My friend assured me that the pork chops were good and so were the mixed kebabs, although there was so much meat on the plate that the leftovers could have supplied a food bank for a week!

DESERT I can't comment on this because we weren't offered deserts. Not great service.

COFFEE I can't comment on this because we weren't offered coffee. Not great service.

THE BILL However, our bill did arrive, as soon as we'd finished our main courses. We didn't ask for it, but it arrived regardless. Not great service.

GET YOUR COATS It wasn't late, about 10.15 pm, but most of the staff were hanging around with their coats on by this point and were obviously keen for us to go home (I don't think the boss was there that night), so we felt obliged to pay up and leave, whether we wanted to or not. Not great service.

NOT GREAT SERVICE Overall, we enjoyed the evening, catching up with friends we hadn't seen in a while, the food was okay but I'm afraid the service was not great, really rather disappointing and actually verging on pretty awful.

VALUE FOR MONEY After the Service Charge was added (not optional by the way) we paid £100 per couple and it was NOT value for money. Perhaps we chose the wrong night and the boss being away meant that the staff weren't on their usual attentive form?

I don't know, but we will NOT be returning to Misya after this...

I booked a table for myself and 2 of my friends for a Friday. From the moment I booked I should have known it wouldn’t be the best experience. The person on the other end of the phone was quite rude. Anyway we went to the restaurant at 5:30pm as arranged and we were seated, from the beginning the staff seemed anxious about whether our other friend was coming we said yes he would be there soon. We opted to order starters first so that we could wait for him. Before we had even finished the starters one of the staff came to us quite rudely saying have you ordered your meals, we said no because we haven’t finished our starters yet and he shouted “WELL YOU HAVE TO ORDER NOW BECAUSE YOU HAVE A TIME LIMIT” we were shocked and quite frankly unimpressed. Anyway we quickly ordered our main meal and they brought them to us and pretty much lingered to make sure we ate quickly we felt so rushed that none of us even finished our mains. We felt very upset and uncomfortable. Especially because we had noticed another table who came in the same time as us and they were not rushed at all. Surely the time limit is the same for every customer we thought? They said we had only 2 hours and had to be out at 7:30pm. Anyway we ended up having to pack our food because we couldn’t finish it in the time they gave us. We felt like we were treated really badly and in a way it felt like we were treated like that because we were the only non-Caucasian people in the restaurant. Once we finished our mains they didn’t even give us the option of dessert they just brought the bill and card machine. We paid and were ushered out. I regret having spent money in that restaurant to end up being treated so poorly. No other customer sitting near us was told about a time limit and the table that had entered at the same time as us stayed even longer than us. As we walked out we saw a number of empty tables and so we couldn’t understand why they targeted us and rushed us forcing us to leave quickly before we even finished our food.

The food itself was average nothing special at all - big portions but quite tasteless. The drinks were fine. Service was awful. Never going there again. ...

Someone who is Turkish I am shocked by this restaurant. We went last night and appalled by their customer service. There wasn't any. We were seated for 20 minutes and not one member of staff acknowledged us. We were ready to get up and leave, but suddenly had a change of heart and called someone over to take our order. We were then served small bowl of cold bread that didn't get topped up. No salad. No simple meze served (this is usually given in other turkish restaurants). We had to ask 3 times for our drinks to arrive. Half way through our meal finally we got our drinks. No Turkish coffee offered at the very least at the end of our meals (another usual norm) and no dessert. Just because this isn't north London and just because there isn't many Turkish people in Stevenage, they think they can get away with how much they charge for the very little food you get on your plate and the bad appalling customer service. Never again will I be coming here and I will not recommend this place to anyone I speak to. Travelling to London to experience proper Turkish dinning is much much worth it and recommended. Also there is no social distancing at this restaurant. I had to squeeze past people to get to my seat and none of the staff were wearing any masks. They were not kept at distance. Everyone was sat next to each other. As for when leaving the place, I literally squeezed past the owner, staff members and customers to get out. Can not believe the rating this place has been given and the high stars given...