Miller & Carter Heaton Chapel — Restaurant in Stockport

Booked a table of 7 for 6.30pm and we were seated about 6.40pm. Initially the waitress came quickly and took our drink and food orders and she seemed knowledgeable and attentive but this changed quickly. The water for the table never came. We waited about 45 minutes after the food order had been taken and our lettuce wedges were served. They were small and seemed to be just thrown in a bowl without the usual care and presentation you’d expect at Miiller and Carter. After over an hour of being seated the waitress hadn’t returned to take drink orders and we were really hungry by this point having only been served lettuce, it was impossible to get her attention and we had to ask another staff member who was waiting on other tables for a drink. Those drinks took about 20 minutes to come and the water was brought which I ordered about an hour and 20 minutes ago at this point.

After asking how long the food would be it came to the table about 1 hour 40 minutes after ordering it. One steak block was ordered as medium and came rare and medium rare so that wasn’t edible for one group member. The onion bargies were stone cold. Some of the steaks were fairly cold and generally the temperature of the food wasn’t hot enough. The ribeye we ordered was tough. 3 of the plates brought to the table were dirty. My plate had what looked like a piece of onion bhaji stuck to the bottom of it and the top of it was dirty too with food stuck on it. I asked for a new plate which never came and the dirty plate was removed so I was sat without a plate until I could get the waitresses attention, for which I had to stand up to get her to glance over to be able to ask for a plate to eat my food on. It was honestly ridiculous. Cutlery wasn’t brought including steak knives, we then had to wait for that when the food was sat there on the table. None of the lettuce wedge bowls and used cutlery were removed from the table. It was a shambles and it seemed like the longer we were there, the more awkward the waitress felt about the wait, lack of service, lack of drinks and the less eye contact she made with the table so it became impossible to get her attention to ask for anything. She seemed to be avoiding being anywhere near the table and we hadn’t complained to her, which I appreciate might have felt difficult for her and impacted on her waiting on the table (not that it should have as we were depending on her during our visit) but that wasn’t the case as we weren’t able to speak to her to and get her attention to ask about anything so I have no idea why she was avoiding our table.

It was so frustrating and what should have been an enjoyable birthday meal for my boyfriend became a really frustrating wait without food and drink and without the ability to get any kind of service from the waitress. We were left sat in a corner and the waitress came over 4 times during our time there in 2 hours. Two of which was to bring the bill and take payment, which she was extremely quick to take the money from the table; a level of speed which we had not witnessed at all the entire evening. We just had to try our best to get the attention of other waitresses as they walked past and it was all really poor.

The manager was good and took money off the bill when we complained about the lack of service, wait for food and the standard of food and offered to recook things but at this point we were so hungry and so fed up that we just wanted to eat and leave. Also, it doesn’t feel particularly comfortable to send food back once you’ve complained so it should have come out right the first time.

Our time was wasted and what should have been a lovely evening became a drawn out frustrating evening for the 7 of us but particularly for my boyfriend whose birthday it was. It...

My wife and I have been regular customers and have always enjoyed our experiences, which is why this visit was particularly disheartening.

We ordered three steaks, all requested to be cooked medium-well. However, two arrived medium, which, while not ideal, was something we were willing to overlook. The third steak, however, was cooked very unevenly, with some parts so underdone that they were releasing red juices. My wife, unfortunately, found it inedible.

When our meals arrived, the restaurant was busy, and our server appeared to be rushed, understandably managing multiple tables. She placed our meals down and left without checking if we needed anything else. As our drinks had run out, we called another waitress to order more. She asked if everything was okay, but as we had only just started eating, we said yes at the time.

By the time our drinks arrived, we had almost finished eating and my wife had eaten very little of her steak due to its poor quality. When our original server returned to clear our plates, she asked how everything was, and my wife explained that her steak was undercooked and excessively fatty. The waitress responded that she would "feed it back" to the kitchen.

When the bill arrived, my wife politely asked if the steak could be removed, given that she had barely eaten any of it. The waitress refused. My wife then asked her to speak with the manager, explaining the issue again. She requested that the matter be handled discreetly, without a direct conversation with the manager. However, shortly after, the manager came to our table anyway.

Rather than addressing the issue with understanding, he simply asked whether we had been checked on during our meal. When we tried to explain that another server had asked us earlier—before we had fully realised the problem—he cut us off and refused to consider our request, stating that because we had been asked, he would not remove the item from the bill.

This interaction was not only dismissive but also embarrassing. Other diners were watching, and my wife felt extremely uncomfortable. Given how frequently we visit Miller & Carter and the fact that we were dining using a gift card purchased because we are such regular customers, this treatment felt particularly insulting.

We were not complaining about the entire meal, nor were we criticising the staff for being busy—we completely understand that restaurants can have hectic moments. However, what we did expect was basic customer service and a willingness to resolve a genuine issue fairly. Instead, the manager showed no interest in hearing us out or making amends, leaving us with a negative impression that has completely changed our view of the restaurant.

Sadly, after this experience, we do not feel inclined to return to Miller & Carter Heaton and will no longer be recommending...

This is my second visit to Miller & Carter and after our first time which was lovely I had high hopes but sadly the experience wasn’t so great. We were shown to our table and the lady explained who would be coming to take our drinks order and then who our waitress would be, about 20 minutes later she herself came back to take our drinks order, then whilst waiting to order we were sipping our drinks when the waitress finally came over and without looking cause she was clearly rushing asked us if we were ready for drinks myself and my partner just looked at her, it took her a second to realise we already had them so instead she took our order. Which she read back to me we waited 45 minutes for the food to arrive which okay I’d rather wait to have some nice food than it be rushed but what came out wasn’t so nice, my lettuce arrived out a good 10 minutes before the rest of the food, everything my partner had asked to be removed was on his plate, his steak was over cooked as were his fries making them hard. My steak was okay and I opted for the chunky chips and was served a small portion but we didn’t notice till we eventually poured the chips out onto the plate the mass amount of sea salt at the bottom of the paper the chips came in, but this was not stated that chips would be salted (and they weren’t on our first visit) unfortunately due to kidney failure I’m not allowed excess salt on my food so by emptying the chips onto the plate which I’d already started eating made it extremely difficult for me to carry on eating , we also ordered a mac and cheese on the side which was just dry and not nice unlike the creamy one we had before and we also order the side of beef shin which was outstanding, my partner really enjoyed that bit. When our table was being cleared the waitress saw how much was left and asked if everything was okay we told her unfortunately not and she asked if there was anything she could pass on to the kitchen, so we told her, paid the bill of £80+ and came home where I had to have a sandwich cause...