Carveries are the work of the devil

Probably because this is a special offer and not the usual price?

What carvery is going to keep the complete hot buffet going at 5.15 on a Tuesday? All stocked up with fresh cooked yorkies etc?

Also the closer to a motorway the worse the food is often true

Mumsnet is such a strange place sometimes. People are on here raving about their £6.00 carvery, yet when I said (on a thread some months back) that I went to one with DH that was £6.49, I had a flurry of people telling me it must have been shit for that price, they would never pay less than £15.00 for a carvery, I must have gone to somewhere in a rough area, the veg must have been rejects from Poundland, the turkey probably had salmonella, and I will very likely have come away with dysentery.

None of the above was true. It was a lovely classy country pub who did a cracking carvery, and DH and I went once or twice a month for several years when they first started it. It was rammed every time. Still go once every 6 weeks or so.

Inexplicably, we never got dysentery or ANY kind of food poisoning!

@Soontobe60 YABVU, many carveries are great, and I find it odd that you stunk of boiled cabbage and cooking fat after a few minutes of standing in the Toby Carvery. I have never stunk of anything, after being in ANY of the eateries I have ever been in - ever, in my life.

There is much snobbery from some people when it comes to carveries. It's almost laughable actually.

You have to like your veg cooked 1970s style to enjoy a carvery.

I love the Toby and so do the kids. Husband not so much but we just go without him 😃

@BlueberryLatte Next time I will burp SOS in morse code! 🤣

Like a couple of pps, I’m more intrigued as to why you went to not one but two carveries in the same evening when one of you is a vegetarian who ‘won’t touch a ‘carvery’.

Not to mention why you thought anywhere off a motorway would be serving good food.

I'm not a fan. The quality of the food can vary, as with any restaurant, but for me the point of going to a restaurant is to sit back and relax while my various courses are brought to me at my table. I don't want to be standing in queues carrying a plate around. I've also found that they tend to expect people to fill up on mounds of indifferent Yorkshire puddings, so they can get away with not giving you much meat!

Carveries are in the same category as all-inclusive holidays for me. Never been to one and no desire to ever go to one.

Judging every single carvery on one you didn’t eat at and one you didn’t like is really odd.

You lost me at you came out "reeking of cooking fat and boiled cabbage." 🙄
After 5 minutes. Yeah, ok.

Yes! OK, here's what we do - if you're at a Toby's under duress, unbutton your shirt and let your belly rest on your legs. Wait a minute...

I love a carvery but DH thinks they’re the work of the devil 😭😭

I too would only be there under the same circumstances. Perhaps we need a special signal so we can help each other escape?

Near the motorway is your issue.

They likely exist to serve passing traffic, they don't need good chefs, most visitors will be one and done, not repeat custom. They're also on very antisocial hours in those locations, so tend towards staff who need to take what jobs they can get.

The Toby Carvery near us is next to a business park, so depends on repeat custom from workers there, and is therefore very good. Likewise the one near my in-laws which is the cheap option next to a posh suburb.

I don't know why people fuss about the buffet element, most parts of a roast can be kept warm as you coordinate at the end, and I've never been to a carvery that wasn't replenished regularly.

We don't have a Toby anywhere near us.
Our DD is in Nottingham and we generally go to one there.
It's great. All proper veg, nothing frozen, and brilliant Yorkshire puddings.
I love it

No good food exists on the side of a motorway.

I think you have just been unlucky where you are, it is a bit hit and miss.

I would have raised that with the staff - he was no appropriately dressed.

We visited a TC for the first time a few weeks ago and I certainly wouldn’t hurry back. The carvery station was an absolute mess with food everywhere and nobody even attempting to keep it under control.

On the other hand we have a local restaurant that has a carvery on a Sunday and it’s always absolutely delicious 🤷🏻‍♀️ always fresh and piping hot, small dishes of things so being constantly replenished 😊

Honestly I've been to a Toby carvery once and there was a large man sitting opposite us with his shirt fully unbuttoned and belly resting on legs. Good grief

Hmm not sure that says what sort of oil is used or if they coat the potatoes in anything. It doesn't mention Yorkshire pudding or gravy and also says they have to be made "at an industrial level" due to having to make so many.

I am not going to a carvery in this lifetime....unless I am forced to, in some weird scenario where I am kidnapped by a carvery obsesses maniac and frog marched into Toby's...so no skin off my nose. But I wouldn't assume you're getting an unprocessed meal if that's genuinely why people go there.

You literally picked something out that one half of you doesn't eat anyway???? That is so very very bizarre

I think you have to sign up for their loyalty card to get offers, I've received the £6 one this week. They send out lots of offers so we use them to meet up with friends. Oh and the honeycomb ice cream dessert is lovely!

What!? Where??? Can't find that anywhere