Miller's Ale House — Restaurant in Manheim Township

First time...and last time...customer.

If you've ever had an experience where EVERYTHING went wrong, you will understand my experience at Miller's Ale House in Lancaster.

First issue was that our server had a trainee. OK. Someone has to train them. But they weren't operating together. So the trainee would come by and ask if we wanted any appetizers. No. Then the server would come by and ask if we wanted any appetizers. No. Then the trainee would return and ask if we were sure we didn't want any appetizers. No. Then the server would return to ask if we were sure we didn't want any appetizers. You get less up-selling at Jiffy Lube. At one point, the trainee came back after we'd been waiting about a half hour for our food and asked if there's anything we wanted. It took everything for me not to say, "well...some food".

There were 6 of us. 2 were happy with their New Orleans pasta. Two had ordered a steak or steak combo with the tiniest steaks I've ever seen. 4 bites at most. When they cut into them, despite ordering medium, they were grayish brown and looked dryer than beef jerky. I would not have kept them but they didn't want to create an issue. I ordered the 35 shrimp...and if you like salad shrimp with enough breading to make them look 3 times bigger...these are the shrimp for you! Embarrassingly small, way over breaded, overcooked, and tough. Never one to leave a shrimp uneaten, I left almost half of them because I realized while I was eating them that they were really bad. 10 good shrimp would have been much better. The last person ordered one of the house specialties, The Zingers, and pro tip: Go to McDonalds and get the crispy strips...infinitely better than the tough, chewy chicken encased in what looked and felt like vinyl...and WAY cheaper.

Food aside, out of a party of 6, 5 of the bills were wrong...wrong items, wrong prices. The server had double billed my debit card, charged one of the other people's bill on my debit card, and billed the others for things that they didn't have. She blamed it on the fact that one in our party had gone to the bathroom, confusing her, despite the fact that she'd given us the bills before that person left the table. Once we realized that she'd double billed me, she returned to the back and came out with new receipts only to find that she charged another person's dinner to my credit card without refunding the first mistaken charge. This time, she threw the trainee under the bus even though the trainee had only gotten us drinks and asked us if we wanted appetizers over and over. By the end...I had 8 receipts with charges and refunds...completely confused whether I'd been overcharged or not. The manager came out and told us that he had to calm the server down because she was so upset. What he SHOULD have done was come out to calm ME down because it took 25 minutes to straighten out the bill for a lousy dinner.

Bottom line, if you like noisy restaurants with bad service and mediocre food, THIS is the place for you!

UPDATE: I truly appreciate the owner’s quick response. I believe it shows that they’re conscientious. Unfortunately, restaurants are one place where it’s hard to make a second first impression and with so many eating opportunities in the area, I’d be hard pressed to return to one where I had a bad experience. That said, if this spurs them to up their game, I wish them the best in...

Not that great; not terrible either. I’d like to give them another chance sometime.

We went at 2:30 on a Thursday, so the place was dead. Staff was friendly and didn’t keep us waiting at the door for someone to notice us. So we were immediately happy with that.

Our server didn’t put in our appetizer order so we had to ask about it when the meals came out. Mac n cheese from the kids menu was dry and caked together and my chicken zingers were cold and soggy. Clearly they were done first and sat in the window. Initially, I declined a fresh order, but then changed my mind when I tasted the cold chicken. (Ok, not like refrigerated, but absolutely room temp. Colder than the 98.6 degrees of my mouth. Not enjoyable.)

Second order of chicken was reverse-blowing, lava hot, which was delightful. The crunchiness only lasted for the first bites, though. By the time I was done with the second of my seven pieces, everything was soggy. There was just way too much sauce on them. Annnnnnnd, whatever sauce was on the first plate they brought out was not the same as the second plate that reached the table. This was my first time eating here, so I have no idea what the first one was. (Maybe sweet Thai chili?) Fries were great. Hot, crispy, well-seasoned. We all loved them. Same for the fried jalapeños. I’d definitely order those again.

I’ve been a server, so I get it. I always struggled when I had fewer tables. It’s hard to find your rhythm, you lose track of time because there’s no need to hustle… So I don’t want to trash talk this place after just this one experience. I had a tough time deciding what to order because there were lots of good looking options. I’ll also go at a busier time of day and see if that changes things.

One more thing, the table we had was sticky. It’s not because it wasn’t wiped down. The finish on the table had gone from glossy to tacky. It was a gross feeling, even though we knew it had nothing to do with cleanliness. I’m sure ours wasn’t the only one. They should look into refinishing those table tops or at least deep cleaning and scraping the years of debris and accumulated gunk and residue. Might be an idea for some side work on a slow Thursday afternoon sometime in the...

My sister and I went there a few days ago for the first time. Hostess was very kind (make her a server or promote.) Unfortunately though, we were not asked where we wantrd to sit if it was more inside or outside. we got the far booth by the bathrooms in the 2nd bar. There is a bad draft there from people going outside. The waitress got our water. Then came back and we ordered a drink each and a appetizer. We got the appetizer before our first drink. I was watching the bar girl. She must have helped 7 or 8 people before making our drinks and was only till our waitress reminded her because I was frustrated we didnt get our first drinks yet. Does she not get tipped for making the table drinks? My valid omplaint of where our drinks were put the waitress off i felt like. Maybe to the point she didnt want to do anything for us. We had been easily waiting for 10 minutes for a beer and a mule. We got our food and were never asked how the food was or if we wanted another drink. Let alone getting our water refilled even once. So i poured some of my water into her glass so she could have it. We still wanted a 2nd drink. We got our check and went over to the other side of the bar and got 2 drinks each and took 2 desserts home. 1st girl could of got tips on that i suppose. The food was prettty good and the prices were good. Looks like u have some good daily specials too. Conflicted if i want to go back. Poor customer service is a huge put off.

Please train staff members on how to take fair feedback. To get your appetizer before your first drink is standard restaurant rules no no. Asking if your food is ok and if u anything else is basic. Filling up someones water once in a visit is standard.

Also in an hour visit at 5pm on a saturday we saw no general manager checking in with guests. I think we saw what looked like a kitchen manager but nobody in the building that dressed or acted...