Miller's Ale House — Restaurant in Bradenton

I typically prefer leaving positive reviews, but I feel it's important to share my recent experience at the new Ale House. My husband kindly took care of dinner for our family while I was working late, and he encouraged to treat myself to a nice meal before coming home. Excited to try the Ale House, I arrived and was informed of a 20-minute wait for a table on a Friday night, which seemed reasonable for a new restaurant.

To pass the time, I decided to sit at the bar. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the lack of awareness and attentiveness of both bartenders. Despite the bar not being overly busy, many people, including myself, had to wait an extended period for service. It took 35 minutes for me to receive a simple tea and a mixed drink, and to pay my tab. The bartenders seemed completely unconcerned of customers waiting to order or cash out. I have never seen bartenders work with their heads down. Not ever scanning the bar to see what may be needed or try to make eye contact with anyone. Most people flagging them down like they were placing a bid at an auction. It was frustrating and disappointing. I had considered enjoying my meal at the bar, but the poor service made me rethink that option.

I cashed out and said well I’m going to wait it out and try the food. Another 10 mins or more later I finally get to a table. I knew what I wanted and ordered it.

I ordered a rare filet, baked potato and soup. I had to ask for my soup to come before the meal after waiting a good while with nothing. No worries, but then I have to flag the server for a drink refill. I received my meal, and my potato is cold and my rare steak is pretty much raw. I eat the potato anyway as I waited for the sever to return. A while later I finally ask a lady who I thought was a manager to have them cook it up. It was a host and she has to go find my server. Sever comes and takes my plate and has them cook it up. Returns and it was cooked perfectly and warm so that was a win!

As I’m getting ready to leave I see they have strawberry cheesecake. Which are two of my favorite things. Im picky about cheesecake but I thought I’d try. I order it to go along with a check and a Togo drink. Sever comes back and drops my check and I give her my card. She takes it and returns with the dessert the drink and my card. Cool! I peak at the cheesecake and it’s a plain cheesecake with an unripe strawberry on top and a small container of cool whip. I re-read the menu and it says strawberry sauce and fresh strawberries. I waited for her to come back. Again have to flag her down as she just whisks by me several times. I ask for the strawberry sauce and she says ok. Goes back to the kitchen a few mins later she returned and says they are out of strawberry sauce so here is some raspberry sauce. 😑I hate raspberries. I just took it and left. Maybe my husband will eat it. I get home and made me a little strawberry sauce with my own strawberries lol. I sat down to eat my cheesecake. And take a bite and blahhhhh they put friggin raspberry sauce on the bottom of the box!! 😠 now I’m just annoyed. They made the decision to just sub the sauce and shipped it out the door without even asking if I wanted it. I just took it because I had already paid. But to get home to find that I was just so disappointed. ☹️

It’s totally first world problems but at the same time, I bust my tush and to get a completely unusual night out to enjoy a meal solo without my kids and spend a good amount to have it go like that just stinks.

I will give it another shot down the road cause it’s new and sometimes things just don’t go right. But, I’d say the biggest thing here is inattentive service (makes you or breaks you) and don’t send out a substitute on a menu item with a key missing ingredient without informing the person. I thought they just forgot. But they didn’t they knew and just made the choice. Sad to toss a pretty desert and waste my homemade sauce. 🤦‍♀️

I understand that new establishments can face challenges, and I hope they take this feedback...

We were so excited to hear a Miller's was opening in Bradenton! First time going to one. We decided to place a mobile order to go after calling and being told it was a 1 hour wait.

We arrived to pick up our moblie to go order, and the front door hostesses were super nice, and directed to the to-go pick up counter. The to-go hostess was eating with her hands, no silverware, behind the to-go counter, and asked me to hold on, and took another bite of whatever she was eating.

Then she proceeded to get up and she said, "your order isn't ready yet", and went to the back. She came back empty handed and then realized my order was already there sitting on the lower shelf in an open bag. It was already paid and she handed it to me with the kids drink and ice cream separately which I appreciated.

We were all so excited to eat, and opened the bag and my youngest said "yucky" after trying the chicken tenders and I tried them and they were truly disgusting, no seasoning at all, not even salt. Then I gave her the mash potatoes and gravy and they were ice cold, I mean it was bad.

The adults got the Chicken Nachos to start, and they were great, flavorful, all the toppings, not soggy, and some of the chicken was overcooked and in large chunks, so we tossed that part but the rest of the nachos was good.

The surf and turf dinner entree had fried shrimp and a steak med rare w a loaded baked potato. The shrimp were good, it came with cocktail sauce, the baked potato wasn't loaded it only had cheese, scallions and bacon, no butter or sour cream, nowhere in the bag either. The steak was atrocious. It was leathery, hard, had a large tendon going through it, could not even cut it with a serrated steak knife and no seasoning at all, again, not even salt. Steak was stone cold as well. The other side was broccoli and it cooked very obviously in a microwave, it had brown burns all over and was like eating old grass, fiber and I couldn't even chew it. Nasty. So very disappointing.

The other entree was the Big Red Chicken sandwich with fries. The sandwich was good, pretty small though, not what you would expect. The fries were cold, and you already know, no seasoning whatsoever. At all. Not even salt. Super gross.

We called the restaurant to let them know, and we were on hold for about 20 min (we could've just driven back with the food, it would've been faster). A manager answered and we explained what was going on, and she was amazing, top notch customer service and sincerely apologized and refunded us immediately. We also received an email with an apology from the GM which we appreciated as well.

Customer service A+.

Food was subpar, disappointing, mediocre at best.

No one in the family wants to go back. I had hyped it up and it was such a let down.

We ended up going to Dairy Queen on 64 for the youngest to get something edible, and they never dissappoint! Food is always fresh and...

My wife and I have been to Miller’s in South Jersey and also in Sarasota and now we have one right down the road in Bradenton! We’ve been eager to try this location but it has been extremely busy since grand opening.

Food: On par with our other experiences. Zingers are our favorite because they have a great fry on the outside and still juicy on the inside. Their selection of sauces is great. I got Garlic Parm with Buffalo sauce on the side. The side of buffalo arrived half empty because it was spilled on the plate. I was fine with this, but others may not have been. My wife was able to easily customize her order of the Zingers Tikka Wrap to just Zingers and buffalo sauce in a wrap and she was happy with it. We both got sides of fries which were crispy outside, fluffy inside, and well seasoned. We also got a pretzel which is another favorite because it comes with beer cheese and tasty honey mustard.

Miller’s has a great selection of draft beers including local brews. I had the Orange Blossom Pilsner, a Florida beer, and it was cold and delicious.

Service: We arrived right at 11am opening to ensure we could try the new location without a wait. We got a spot at the bar and were taken care of immediately and we were checked on throughout our meal while the place filled up. We never had to wait for a request because of the bartenders’ attentiveness. Christian and Megan were the bartenders. Christian was our main bartender and gave great service. After my first beer I wanted to try a different one but the keg was kicked and they didn’t have another so I stuck with what I had previously. A short while later Christian arrived with the beer I requested and said they found another keg in the walk-in. He graciously said it was on him. This was great customer service and in doing so we stayed a little longer and ordered a pretzel, increasing revenue for the restaurant. Win-win!

Atmosphere: This location is smaller than others we’ve been to which we believe is a contributing factor to the long wait times others have commented about and we have experienced. We tried to visit a few weeks ago when family was in town. We were a party of 9 on a Monday night at 6pm and were given a wait time of 1 and a half hours so we went elsewhere. Being inside today, we saw that the restaurant is largely booths accommodating 4 guests. There were only 3 high top tables that could be used to accommodate larger parties. There is also wasted space by the bar where there are benches seemingly for guests waiting to be seated for their meals. This area could easily accommodate 16-20 additional seats in a multitude of ways either booths, freestanding tables and chairs, or high tops.

Space and dining room seating arrangements aside, the restaurant has 2 bars with ample seating. One bar is inside and another is open to the outside via overhead rollup doors providing a nice open...