Toby Carvery

Been here a couple of times when I wanted to roast dinner but couldn’t be bothered to cook. Its not too bad if you’re very hungry. Service at bar not so good but the chefs serving the meat are friendly. It’s ok but nothing too special. Good for the price you pay but at approx £7 each what more would you expect from a carvery.

I’ve been there a couple of times and the service is clearly far from friendly. The carvery is ok, yet if you’ve been scarcely served, you won’t have any more (unless you like vegetables). In addition, it is not even clean

I waited ages to be served and when I was eventually shown to a table it hadn’t been cleared, so they took me round to try and find a clean one. I was seated at a semi clean one.
I ordered the food but it was cold (no I didn’t order a salad) so I walked out!

A fairly typical busy Toby Carvery sharing a car park with an Express by Holiday Inn.
On the night I called the place was very busy. I went in and stopped by the desk and in a period of 2 minutes the queue I was in had got to over a dozen people and despite several staff noticing us nobody came to service the queue. I came back later and this time I was attended to straight away, although in this case they took my name and I had a drink for the advised10 minute wait.
Although the bar area was busy, it was reasonably civilised. When I was shown through to my table I nearly walked out. I’m sorry, I was a family man, but that was 20 years ago. The place was like a kindergarten. Most of the tables had 2 – 3 children or babies on them, and most of them seemed to be having a competition to attract the most attention. Several of the small children were playing in the isles. I must admit it probably sounds evil, but after a while I was secretly hoping that someone would fall over one the little angels to teach them and their parents a lesson this isn’t a play ground it is a restaurant! Still fortunately despite my ill-​wishes nobody came to any harm, but the floor had to bear the brunt of the onslaught with some children repeatedly and deliberately dropping food onto the carpet. Most of the parents simply didn’t care.
I was very tired and hungry, so resisted the temptation to walk out, and instead hung around until the over-​worked (and no doubt under-​paid) waitress came over and took my order. She was amazingly cheerful, and deserved the tip I later gave her just for her positive attitude in the face of adversity.
The starters typically cost around £4 and included mushrooms with coriander, melon, prawn cocktail, skewered king prawns, bacon & cheese potato skins, smoked haddock fish cakes, soup and my choice Chicken Tikka pieces served with pitta bread and a yoghurt & mint dip.
Mains were under around £10 and included various salads, beef & Theakstone’s Ale Pie, Chicken Tikka Salad, a vegetarian option, cod fillet in sauce and of course the signature carvery: your choice of hand-​carved beef, gammon or turkey with a selection of extremely over-​cooked variables.
The food was generally overcooked, but quite edible and good value. Service was poor, but friendly: I think the staff were trying hard, I think there were to many customers and too few staff.
If you fancy your meal in a kindergarten give it a try.
If you are a hungry, tired businessman then I suggest you don’t go before around 9pm when most of the kids have gone home: at this point it is cheap and chearful!