Jamison Publick House — Restaurant in Milford

The worst dinning experience that I have ever had. My family will typically come to the Jamison Publick House for special occasion meals but after Sunday, we will not be back.

We had an out of town guest and decided to stop by to take them to a nice dinner. We arrived around 5:30 and was greeted by a waiter. He asked us if we had a reservation. We said no. He let out an exasperated exhale and said "Let me see what I can do" and walked away. There were at least 4 empty tables on the left side of the restaurant and nobody at the bar. His instant attitude problem left us feeling quite perplexed since we've eaten here before and never made reservations. He walked past and said that it is always best to call for a reservation when coming. Really?? Understanding that maybe some of the empty tables were reserved we decide to blow off his comment. He set up a table and motioned from across the room for us to go sit down.

When he brought us menus he rudely says again that next time we need make reservations. At this point I am very angry. My husband was trying to make the best of it and said that he appreciates him fitting us in. We order drinks and decide to ignore the rude and arrogant behavior of our waiter in order to try and salvage dinner with our guest. After waiting 2 hours for our sandwiches with french fries only 4 out of 6 dinners show up. Our waiter informs us that the chef made a mistake and made 2 chicken salad sandwiches instead of 2 chicken parm sandwiches that were ordered. Then he continues to tell us that making the 2 extra sandwiches were going to take "some time" to make. My husband quizzed him on the problem and the response was as follows. "When you showed up without a reservation you overwhelmed the chef and he made a mistake." The way that he treated us was completely unacceptable. I have never been treated with such disrespect.

Now 4 of us have meals and 2 are left with nothing in front of them to eat. Incredibly the fish wrap was not prepared how we ordered it, without tartar sauce. I know the waiter heard that instruction because he repeated the order back to us as I saw him write it down. So not only was our waiter completely out of line but the chef did not prepare half of our meals properly. After probably another half hour the 2 other sandwiches finally come, along with the waiters attitude. My husband told him that we are not paying for the 2 sandwiches we waited 2 1/2 hours for.

It was by far the absolute worst dinning experience I have ever had. My husband and I were shocked and our guest was stunned. The level of incompetence was astounding. And by the way, not all those empty tables filled up with other customers. We will be finding a new place to go for special occasion meals as we will never set...

The only reason I gave it one star was because the bartender was amazing and her drinks were delicious! It starts with three women having an 8pm reservation. Our table was not ready upon arrival, no big deal so we went to the bar for a drink. We were seated around 8:35pm, still not a problem for us. The waitress took our drink order then came back for our app order. We had a few questions which she gave us an attitude answering. She walks away and before putting in the apps turns around and comes back to.our table and says "our kitchen closes at 9, so you need to put your food order in." I'm sorry but we had an 8pm reservation, and we were just sat. We needed a few minutes to look at the menu. Steve then comes out, the manager/cook. "Is there a problem ladies?" "Yes we are being rushed when it was not our fault that we were sat late and your kitchen closes." "Well your waitress is right, it does close, you need to order. I am an essential worker, working long hours." "Great sir we appreciate it, we are also essential workers trying to have a night out, without children to have a nice dinner, bringing a friend in from out of town ." He walked away and another patron from another table comes over and was telling us she has been having problems with our waitress as well. Steve comes running back over and yells at the women " get back to your table, they don't need to here about you. I'm sorry ladies you know your waitress has been a problem for us and her boyfriend as well who also works here." I couldn't believe what I was hearing and seeing. Never in my life have I ever been treated so poorly at a restaurant, even being in the business for 15 years before my career. It was so chaotic, disrespectful, embarrassing... the list goes on and on. I will never eat here ever again, and I definitely do not recommend. My posts are usually positive ones so this is disappointing to right. There is a lot more that was said but this is long...

We have visited Jamison's three times now; twice in the last month. We showed up once for lunch and once for dinner, both times without reservations. In order to be seated outside, a reservation is needed; that was okay as we were one of only two tables inside at lunchtime. Dinner was much busier; we were unable to make a reservation, as we kept getting the recording that said to call back, so we took our chances. We were a group of 7. The room was pretty full, and none of us would have been comfortable there, but it didn't matter. They gave us a room of our own!

As for the food: not one dish was in any way a disappointment, in any of our visits. We all agreed that this restaurant is superb, and will become a regular for us. Dishes we chose included: scallops, burgers, fish and chips (which strangely are served with fries; take my advice and ask for the house-made chips instead! Heaven!), Jr. turkey club, salmon, cream of cauliflower soup, and a pasta dish I can't recall... the person who ordered it loved it, though!). The dessert menu was tempting, but we were quite full. One word about the fish and chips: the very light breading makes it so much better than any other fish and chips we have had, and elevates the dish.

Service was well-paced, with drinks served first and a leisurely amount of time for us to enjoy them and each other before the first course was served. We weren't rushed; nor were we ignored. The waitstaff is friendly but not in your face; available when needed, but busy doing their jobs, not hiding in the kitchen.

Recommendation: Make a...