Miller & Carter Cardiff Thornhill — Restaurant in Wales

2nd Update: spoke to Chloe on 19th Feb. 8 messages left. Still, no apology or follow up from management.

Original post: Booked for husband's birthday for 6 people. Had to wait 15 mins beyond booking time to be seated, but it was Valentine's weekend. Put this down to very busy restaurant/kitchen, so we didn't mind overly as they were doing their best to seat us. It gave us a chance to look over the menu. When we were seated, we could see they were still very busy and waited patiently for our server. After we'd we ordered, we were told the Sunday sharing platter wasn't available... on a Sunday... at 4pm. The waitress couldn't believe that was true, so went to check with kitchen. She returned explaining the kitchen had run out of the sides that accompanied the Sunday sharer platter and wouldn't budge on cooking any substitutues or alternative sides to accompany it despite having the meats. Ordering was further delayed as we had to select alternative meals. Our poor waitress could see we really had our hearts set on the sharing platter and asked in the kitchen again, stressing it was a birthday meal. The kitchen staff refused again. Our poor waitress was obviously embarrassed and put out by the kitchen's refusal, so she offered us a free round of drinks. After we'd ordered, we had to wait over an hour for our food. I appreciate it was a very busy weekend for them, and they must have been tired by then, but the food when it finally arrived was so disappointing. It was tepid and looked flung together, and my lamb meal was awful. Not the standard of food I would expect from any restaurant, let alone a Milller and Carter who pride themselves on their meaty dishes. Normally I would have returned my food but as I was so hungry after the hour plus wait, I was ready to eat anything... even cold meat. It was also a really small serving, so I wasn't anywhere near satisfied. My meal had obviously been kept warm somewhere as the dauphinose had lost its ooze, and the broccoli was wilted and had the frazzled look of veg kept under a heating lamp. The pea puree had a crust. The only thing that looked fresh on the plate was the pea shoot green that was there as an eye pleaser on top of the meat. The other reason I said nothing was as it was my husband's birthday meal and didn't want to make a fuss for his sake. I really appreciated the waitress's attempts to keep us happy, but in the end I believe she found it too embarrassing to serve us our food when it was up, as another member of staff brought our meals to the table. After a further 5 minutes we even had to remind the staff that we were a side order down. This was at least hot when it arrived, but very average. The restaurant was very busy and had a complete change of diners on the tables around us in the time it took for our food to arrive.... some of these tables even dining before us despite being seated well after us. At the end of the meal, a small tray with happy birthday written in chocolate sauce with a biscuit and two raspberries arrived. I'm not sure if this was meant as a peace offering from the kitchen staff, or just a kick in the teeth from the kitchen staff, as though some chocolate sauce was to make up for the wait and cold meal... lesson learned.... be more select with where we book a meal on that weekend in the future. Either the kitchen had woefully misjudged the requirements for the Sunday sitting plus leftover Valentine diners, or management hadn't put on enough kitchen staff to cope with demand. Shambles all in all. But a big thank you to our waitress who did her best in a rubbish situation and actually should have had a tip but didn't... I'm sorry, I couldn't face parting with any more money to Miller and Carter on this occasion. It's such a shame that the waiting staff had to suffer because of the kitchen. As a customer, I tried to appreciate how busy a weekend it must have been, but the food was downright poor. There's a saying chefs, "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen". Poor experience we...

After having a nice lunch today with a friend l had to leave this review as l am absolutely shocked and disgusted at the way l was treated by the male barman . After our meal my friend and myself took our drinks outside in the garden and after a bit l went back inside to order myself a coffee at the bar. There was nobody waiting other than myself and the barman saw me standing there and did not look my way or give me any acknowledgement whatsoever. I could see he was preparing drinks l presume off the tabs but he just let me stand there with no eye contact or even a "won't be long ". A female member of staff walked behind the bar and l asked her if l was at the right area to order a coffee and she replied " yes" then walked off. The male barman then looked at me but still nothing from him so l said to him "l wasn't sure whether l was in the right place as l can see you walking back and fore preparing drinks but no acknowledgement from you". He then came over and said "what you want?" very abruptly. I said a latte and he went over to the coffee machine and he started slamming the cups and equipment down in an aggressive manner. I couldn't believe what l was seeing and hearing. I told him he was very unprofessional and he replied " l am nice to people if they are nice to me"! I was gobsmacked at his attitude. I then asked him if he was the manager and he replied " yeah one of them" and l said "right well l will be reporting you for your attitude" , he then replied "go for it!", l was appalled..I then saw a female member of staff and asked to speak to the Manager as at that point l was so upset and shocked. The Manager came over and l explained what happened and he told me that the barman was actually a Team Leader not a Manager and that he was sorry this had happened and that the member of staff would be spoken to and he didn't want staff like that working for him. What was even more disrespectful was when l was telling the Manager what had happened l was facing the bar and he was smirking in the background so this just says alot about his character...This has ruined my visit at the end after a lovely meal and being treated so badly by a very rude and unprofessional Team Leader. Miller and Carter why have you got staff like this representing your company. Disgusting and unprofessional barman with a stinking attitude. I have also complained to head office as l have never experienced anything like this in any other restaurant or pub l have visited....

I’m not one to put a negative review up but unfortunately due to the service received on 26/01/24 I have to put a honest one up.

It started with me ringing the restaurant to book a table as availability wasn’t showing online. The lady on the phone was polite, but gave out incorrect information. I asked if the 3 course set menu was available for lunch time today and was told “no” as it would not be returning until February, I queried this as it was showing up online. Lady then said that they were doing the rare treat menu, (which is the same as the 3 course set menu). I also asked if I could use my voucher on the meal and was also told “no” but after reading the terms of the voucher it did state that you can in fact use it on the set menu.

We arrived at the restaurant and were greeted and shown to our table. After a while our server Stephen showed up to take our drinks order. We explained we would be doing the three course menu and asked if we had the mini dessert and hot drink if we could have the coffees straight away and the brownies at the end. Stephen said it wouldn’t be possible to do this… So we just asked for him to bring it out first and we would put our desserts to the side. We then continued to orders cold drink to have Stephen rudely just walk off… We didn’t know if he had put any of our order though and if our drinks were coming?

Our coffees did turn up without the brownie so glad he was able to sort that out. He then took the rest of our order and we also reordered our cold drinks.

The food came out in a reasonable time and it was all pretty good, decent amount and very filling. Just a shame they were out of the salad dressing I would have liked.

I asked the lady who brought the food out if she could light the candle on the table she said that she would get a lighter and was never seen again (sure hope she turns back up).

Just like the lady with the lighter our cold drinks never turned up, so I just went to the bar myself to order them myself.

I will say that lunchtime was pretty busy but it’s not nice to feel like you are an inconvenience to your server. Unfortunately this was not the best visit and I will just stick to Miller and Carter Cardiff Bay going forward.

Lastly at Miller and Carter they let you know who the chef is that will be cooking your steak they didn’t this time but thank you for a well...