Mullans — Restaurant in Surrey Heath

A restaurant thrives on delivering great food and exceptional service, but my experience at Mullans, a restaurant in Camberley, fell far short of these expectations. As reflected in the history of consistent negative reviews—about overpricing, unprofessional behavior, and poor treatment of customers—my personal experience only confirmed this troubling pattern. Even our friends, a group of eight, particularly people of color, experienced negative treatment right from the door on a different occasion. This suggests a recurring issue rather than isolated incidents. The basics of good customer service were glaringly absent. My plate was removed without even asking if I was finished—a fundamental courtesy in any dining establishment. To make matters worse, a nearby diner, uninvited, meddled in the situation, escalating tensions further despite my polite request for her not to interfere, as the matter was between me and the waitress. Instead of resolving the issue, the staff mishandled it entirely. A tall male staff member from the kitchen even shouted across the restaurant, “Do not come back!” Such behavior is not just rude but utterly unprofessional. Was that necessary? What could have been done differently? Listening to the customer first, understanding the problem, and taking steps to resolve it calmly are fundamental practices in the hospitality industry. Shockingly, these were absent at Mullans. The food itself was overpriced, underwhelming, and served in small portions that lacked value for money. Even if the prices were high, exceptional customer service could have mitigated this shortcoming. Instead, the poor service magnified the restaurant’s faults. Mullans had an opportunity to turn a bad moment into a positive outcome but failed miserably. For anyone considering dining here, the consistent feedback about poor service, overpriced food, and a lack of professionalism should not be ignored. Customers are more than diners—they are ambassadors of your reputation. Unfortunately, Mullans has turned me into an ambassador of a negative experience. As a restaurant reviewer, I cannot overlook the lack of people skills, training, and basic manners displayed here. These qualities form the foundation of hospitality and professionalism, which are glaringly missing. This is a red flag for the owner: urgent action is needed to retrain staff in attitude and professionalism. No matter how beautiful your restaurant's physical aesthetics may be, rude staff will ruin your business sooner or later. There is a growing number of ambassadors of negative experiences, fueled by bad manners and awful hospitality of your team. The audacity of the tall male staff member to come out and shout, “Do not come back,” is astounding. You should be glad I didn’t have my video camera. Instead of de-escalating the situation, he could have shown genuine efforts to listen first, address the issue and make things right in a...

I do wonder if the reason they are #1 on Tripadvisor is because they are almost the only sandwich shop in Camberley.

There menu is very limited and very overpriced. From the 5 or 6 options that you can choose from (not including the Deli Sandwiches which they had run out, as well as no Orzotto) at 3pm, they all will set you back about 10 pounds each!!!

For that price, I expected to find more Boursin on my Steak Sandwich. I couldn't even taste the Boursin. And when I compared my Steak Sandwich with that of my Mother-in-Law, who had ordered it without the Boursin, you could barely see the difference. It also just consisted of 2 Bloomer slices, instead of for instance a Ciabatta or something like that which I kind of expected for a 10 pound sandwich. The bloomer had even been overtoasted as to make the crust inedible. Unfortunately, I had not thought to make photos at the time.

When asked how the food was and actually commenting on the lack of Boursin, I was told they never have any complaints about that Steak Sandwich. If you don't want the feedback, than frankly, don't ask for it.

There also doesn't seem to be much of a size difference in their coffee cups which is probably reflected in the price difference of only 10 pence. So a Large coffee felt more like a Medium here.

I also had a look at the cake counter which supposedly changes every day, so they don't have any signs there to clarify which cake is which. Although I could figure most of it out, because even though they said they have a changing cake display, it was mostly the British staples of Victoria sponge, Brownie, Chocolate Fudge cake, Flapjack, Carrot Cake and a Walnut and Coffee cake.

The place does look nice but unfortunately after my experience that seems to be the only thing it has going for it.

P. S. Telling customers to read the other 5 star reviews shows that you don't value the critical reviews and sounds like confirmation bias where you are only interested in hearing the positive. Our visit was not up to par, hence the rating, and I have experienced higher quality food and better service for less money at other small businesses. I'm not quite sure how you expect a customer to ask for more cheese when it's their first visit. And our plates weren't empty as they still had the inedible...

I was really disappointed with our first (and likely only) visit to Mullans.

We went in for breakfast one Sunday morning and the place was half-full at the most.

We were sat at a table quite quickly but that needed wiping. The staff member who showed us to our table said she'd be right back to wipe it down but didn't come back. Excusable so far, people forget.

We arrived at approx. 11am and had an appointment around the corner at 12am.

After about 20 mins of waiting, I checked the staff hadn't forgotten us and I was told that they hadn't but that they do the table waiting in order and that there was a system. Fair enough but again, they weren't even nearly at capacity and they hadn't let us know there would be a big wait which would have been better.

We waited a further 10 mins and then our order was taken. I asked about the menu to find there wasn't really anything I could eat due to intolerance so asked for eggs on hash browns instead of toast and was (quite rudely) told that they won't make substitutions when they're busy - which it does say on the menu but it was only on them taking the order after a 30 min wait that I could even ask about the menu ingredients and find that there was actually nothing I could really eat. I was then told I could pay for eggs on toast with no bread (£7.90) and then pay an additional £4.50 to add some hash browns as a separate portion. So it wasn't that they can't do hash browns due to the time, it's that they wouldn't.

Retrospectively I really wish I'd left after the first 20 minutes but as we were worried about time, I paid for a proper portion but had two eggs and avocado (for over £10) and my friend had to rush her food for us to pay up and leave to get to our 12pm appointment as we ended up waiting at least 45 mins for two eggs, some avocado and for her, a yoghurt parfait or something. Crazy.

Overall, the place is nice, and the food was fine but I found the service pretty abysmal and I dread to think how it runs with a full house.

I don't often leave a review but as the staff member dealing with us was also quite abrasive despite us being very accommodating, I still feel pretty annoyed at the...