Miller's Ale House — Restaurant in Pensacola

November 12, 2024 (Tuesday) It was me and my mother’s first time coming to this place. We were sat down and our server was Shae (Shea?). We came around 2:20-2:30, so it wasn’t busy at all, only a few others eating inside and outside combined. From the first time she walked up to our table I did not find Shae to be personal or cheerful (as I would think a waitress/waiter usually is). She was pretty nonchalant and I immediately thought her vibe was weird and it seemed like she did not care much about us having a pleasant experience as first-timers (which we mentioned to her). My mother was trying to ask Shae what she recommended and thought was good on the menu; though she gave some recommendations, Shae still did not seem very interested to be waiting us. My mom had a question about the steaks, as one of them was titled something along the lines of “cut of your choice” and didn’t understand what it meant. When asking her what the difference between that item and the ribeye was, Shae replied “um, idk. I think it means like the size”, while my mother pointed out that the size was already listed on the menu as a six ounce. Shae replied “So are you asking me the kind of steak? I’m trying to figure out what you’re asking because I’m going to ask the cook because I don’t know”. My mom decided to forget about the steak because of this interaction and just go with the chicken Alfredo. As soon as Shae walked up to us at our table I didn’t believe that she was experienced because in no way was she even trying to be interpersonal or even act like she cared about helping us have a good experience, and the fact that she had to guess about the menu? It never seemed like she was trained at all; the only reason my mom thought she was experienced was due to the fact that she didn’t have anything to write our orders on, so my mother assumed that she would just remember them, as she is also a server and does this often. Like I mentioned before, it wasn’t busy at all in the restaurant. After ordering, Shae would be walking across the restaurant avoiding the side of the room we were on. She also spent a while outside, and at this point my mom and I were ready to go somewhere else based off of the blatant lack of care regarding our experience. Aside from ordering, our server only came to our table twice within the span of 15-20 minutes, and her arrival at our table was only due to my mother calling her over both times. On the second time we explained that we would be leaving, to which Shae replied “can you wait? I can have your food in your hands in three minutes”. My mother told her that we needed to go, and the response that we got was “what do you want us to do with your food”, followed by an “ok”, with a splash of sass and attitude written all over the waitresses’ face. There was no reason why we should have had to wait the amount of time that we did when there weren’t much people at the time, and we definitely did not come there out of curiosity of how much arrogance we could get...

So to start...Millers has always been my go to so for it to get a failing grade hurts me. So to start I am traveling and am in Pensacola and decided to go to one of my favorite restaurants. It was not busy when we got there at about 2pm yet there was no one at the door to seat us or the group in front of us...and there was no-one there for a good 3-5 min. I was about ready to call the place when a girl came down and seated everybody. I later found out that this girl that is suppose to be in the front was in the back sharing photos and stories with some waiters so she was busy with her Social Media stuff and not with work. Back to the review. We decided to get the nachos, and we ordered the rest of our order pretty much the same time...my wife ordered fish and chips and I got the cheese burger with fries and a side of onion rings. The Nachos came out....and before we could pretty much start eating it, the rest of our order came out. We are both not a fan of all the food coming out at once so this was strike 2. I asked for more ketchup and they bring the ketchup out in what they said was prefilled plastic cups with about a tenth of the cup full of ketchup or something they call ketchup as it was kinda lumpy which to me is a waste since they keep bringing ketchup out in these plastic containers as I like ketchup, just bring the bottle and we will be good. Also, instead of getting A burger with fries and a side of onion rings, I got a burger with rings and a side of fries. This sounds the same but from a price perspective it is just a little bit cheaper (burger plus onion ring with side of fries was $1.99 for rings upcharge and $2.99 for side of fries where is the other way is no charge for the fries and I think $5.99 for rings so $1.01 less for the way the waitress wrote it up, but...) not what I asked for because I wanted more onion rings than fries but ended up with far more fries than what I wanted and next to no onion rings (photo of the rings and partial rinds are attached). So that was strike 3 and 4. The waitress was fine, although she changed my order to save me money but not what I asked for and it seemed like more of the waiters and waitresses that work there behind hidden walls by the bathrooms were too busy on their social media accounts than taking care of business, strike 5. Although the food tasted good...everything else out weighted that fact. Maybe this is what things have come to now.... Really a shame.

Review Update.

Management really turned things around and was plesently pleased when we were invited back to try again. We went back 3 months later, did not tell management we were there, and everything went excellent. Service was excellent and food was great. So I have updated my review from a 2 star to a 4 star...nobody is perfect but they are certainly headed in the...

Ok we went to Millers once again ..... I know why .... Well we tried it a few weeks back and we were sat right by the sliding doors and every time it oped the heat and the noise came rushing in . We ordered and food was received but my chicken was raw but I had only noticed it after have taken a few bites .Of course we called to speak to the manager . Very nice man his name was Eric .He apologized and did proceed to give us a 30$ gift card . So we went again and today first impressions the front greeter was less the cheerful. When she attempted to seat us in the very same table that we had the last time we asked if we could please be sat at a different table and she was visibly upset and placed us close to the bar at a high top table .Our. Waitress was preslie very pleasant young lady . However we were both able to see the bar area very clearly and witnessed the bartender with long blue hair pull a hair comb out and directly in front of where the food sits waiting for pick up comb her long blue hair .. So if your dish has a hair in it and it was blue that is where it came from .Sorry Millers but we won't be coming back .Went to Miller's Ale House Pensacola on Davis Hwy and the first thing we were told when we walked in was it was going to be about a 25-minute wait or we could sit at the bar and they were full service. Well we ordered our drinks and we ordered our food and we got our appetizers and our drinks about 10 minutes after we sat down and then we proceeded to sit and wait for our food about 25 minutes later we received our food one dish was cold we sent it back told the gentleman who came out to speak to us that we didn't really want another he then in turn went and got another and put it in a to-go box for us which we did not eat when we got home. We were told that they only had three servers for the entire restaurant which if you ask me is a management problem not the problem of the people coming to the restaurant to eat food. If management can't handle the people that they've hired then maybe the owner of the establishment needs to investigate the management problem. Needless to say we left not very happy with our service we shared a meal because one was horrible. Thinking twice about going back here again unless management changes and Staffing changes.I am a firm believer that staff don't leave the business because of the job staff leave the business because of poor management skills. If a manager cannot run a restaurant and keep his staff motivated to show up even when times are tough then it's a management problem not a...