Miller's Ale House — Restaurant in Dr. Phillips

First thing first, this isn’t the place for large parties. Anything over a party of 6 is a bit awkward. There’s only one small section that can accommodate the size and if it’s taken you’ll have to sit at a high table with a partition between your party.

We arrived Sunday evening around 7:30pm and were met with that dilemma; we said party of 8 and immediately whisked away to the two separate tables, a heads up of what to expect and our options would have been nice. We walked back to the entrance to speak with the host and the 3 women there seemed to have an attitude. 6/8 of us noticed it, and the 2 who didn’t, were small children so….Anyway, after trying to see if something better would work we settled for sitting together….but separate. So large partition between us and it felt like we weren’t all having dinner together.

Our waiter, Storm, was amazing. As busy as the place was he took the time to chat with us about shared interests and was just, perfect! I hope to see him again.

There was an issue where someone in our party ordered a certain drink that was supposed to come with jalapeños and cucumber but she didn’t get those garnishments, and he made sure the drink was fixed properly by the bartender (not Storm’s fault of course). I had the Top Shelf Long Island, so tasty but I’m pretty sure they maybe sliced the lemon on the same area as the jalapeño or something because it had an odd spice to it, but was good, I also had a draft Blue Moon and my sister had a gorgeous smoked old fashioned.

Anyway, on to the food, we had a selection of things; 2 kids meals, chicken tenders/fries, and shrimp/fries, the 3 chicken tenders were huge!, and the shrimp were fried perfectly (realized later we didn’t get the ice cream included in the kids meals after we left when my babies asked for it). There were also ribs, burger with prime rib, wings, Mimi’s rice bowl (forget the actual name), pot stickers and fried jalapeños as appetizers, and everyone loved everything!! However, my sister is allergic to shrimp so she asked for extra chicken as a replacement, fine, thing is, we had 2 orders of the entree, one with shrimp, one without. So when the food came out, they presented a bowl and before they sat it down we asked is that with shrimp or without, WHY were we met with more attitude? I guess the one woman didn’t realize we ordered 2 different bowls, but it was a lot of back and forth, like girl, does that bowl have shrimp or not? Simple yes or no question because the way she was holding it, we couldn’t see. The other woman finally said yea this one has shrimp, then went back for the other bowl and said, “and this one has no shrimp, extra chicken”.

But I had the Pork Osso Buco and OMG! You have to try it! Marinated, seasoned and cooked to perfection! So tender. I ate half and was stuffed! I can’t wait to dig back into it tomorrow.

Overall, I would definitely return, aside from a few hiccups, we really enjoyed our time and the food was delicious. But please, tone down on the attitude. Unfortunately I didn’t get...

Rude staff, abusive manager, and horrible experience.

I showed up at the desk and let the staff know we would be a party of 8. They then proceeded to lead us to a table for 6.

Thinking they misheard me, I reiterated that it was a party of 8. Their answer? "Just use 2 tables then." And then they walked away.

When the remaining party arrived a mew moments later, we waived them over and told them what the staff said. My party, understandably wanted to all sit together.

We asked if we could grab a 4 top from outside to add to the table so we could all sit together. We were first told that was okay. Then, after we did it, we had a different staff member come over and say it wasn't allowed.

Then a manager showed up and said he was there to help. I asked if we could find a way to sit together and he said we couldn't sit together there.

As I was talking to him, the hostess who i didnt see because she was behind me and out of line of sight while talking to the manager, in a very rude and condescending manner said, "If you would just listen, you'd know what I said."

Waiting to know what she said, she finally concluded by repeating the same thing she started with, we can't sit there.

Finally we were told we could go outside and sit together.

Upon getting outside, the tables were still 6 people to a table. So, we grabbed the 4 top again, only to be told that it was somehow a fire hazard, even though it was taking up less space than before.

Why were we the ones doing it? That's a great question! I was wondering the same thing on why the guests had to prep their own tables.

We were seated, handed menus and then, before we could order, another manager came over and told us we couldn't sit there.

Frustrated, I walked out and walked over to Twin peaks next door.

Perhaps against our better judgment, one of our party spoke to the general manager who acted like he was appalled at what the others did and sat us down back in the same exact spot we were.

After being jerked around, literally some of us walking to another restaurant, we finally came back together and sat down.

The manager NEVER came over to apologize, there was no free round of drinks, no free appetizers, no discounted meal, nothing to show any concern or remorse for all the horrible ways we were treated.

I come to this area 1 to 2 times a year with a convention that stays in town for 4 to 8 days and with 150 to 250 people who all like to go out to eat.

This location will NEVER be suggested again from me and I will speak up and against it any time it is brought up in conversation.

I have never had such rude, horrible service anywhere I can remember. The fact that the manager didn't event come over and apologize just baffles me.

Our server had to be tracked down for a few different things and didn't seem to check on us any more than she needed to. Even so, she was probably the best interaction...

My family and I visited Miller’s Ale house today, it is a fav of ours for a few reasons; good TVs, dependable food, and a fun, relaxed atmosphere. The Ale house on Vineland in Orlando did not disappoint. We arrived as soon as they opened and were greeted by Jason, who also ended up being our server. He was professional, friendly and immediately seemed happy to help and ready to work. He was very attentive to our needs and engaging, appeared to work well with his other tables too. I believe he truly altered his serving style to meet the needs of each individual table, which is important and appreciated. He was friendly to our kids and did several extra little things to make his service above and beyond. Thanks Jason! Michelle, the manager, also checked in on our table and was pleasant and available. Our food was overall tasty and accurate. Our only knocks would be that the draft beer was uncharacteristically on the warmer side, and although I understand that with the economy these days that Miller’s can never go back to the ridiculous chicken nacho mountain they used to serve when we were in college, I wish their current nachos were at least more real cheese and chicken forward rather than sour cream, guac, and salty queso…but we did not complain as this is consistent with other Miller’s we’ve been to, and I’m sure Jason and Michelle would’ve corrected our concerns had we of mentioned them. But the overall vibe was so pleasant, we preferred not to ruin our good time with negative comments. Really, it’s a corporate thing, cutting back on quantity is unfortunately the new norm everywhere. I still give Five Stars because five stars doesn’t necessarily equate the unattainable goal of perfection, it means I’ll always say yes to going here! Would definitely return to this Miller’s in the future and would be very happy to have Jason as our server. :) If you do go, don’t pass up the opportunity to get their Big Red, best Buffalo Sandwich! It’s big enough to eat half there and take half home, Ive learned to always order it alongside my hubby because I don’t want to be jealous of my husband later that night when he eats his other half (even more odd, is it’s delicious cold too!) We added on side salads this time that we ate with the nachos so we could take our whole chicken...