Page 8 | To think Toby Carvery is working class ?

JoanneTeresa · 2025-10-26T18:46:01+00:00

I went this week and was looking around at the likely demographic

BitOutOfPractice · 27/10/2025 09:17

Bambamhoohoo · 27/10/2025 08:04

Also goes to show you can’t shop your way out of the class system 😂

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Well quite. Or dine your way out either. It’s utterly ridiculous to pigeon hole anyone in the sort of ways I listed. I have no idea what class I am, nor do I care.

Hussaini · 27/10/2025 09:14

Bambamhoohoo · 27/10/2025 09:11

How does earning £100k make you upper middle class? 😂😭

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its top 4% of the uk salary so they sure as fuck are not middle class. Which is fine but why not own that? Unless they don’t know what middle means.

Bambamhoohoo · 27/10/2025 09:11

Hussaini · 27/10/2025 09:03

I’m middle class and eat there, btw there’s a lot on here who claim to be middle class when what they describe is actually upper (100k salary and private school) not to mention the ones claiming to be working class because their great grandfather worked in a factory.
Huge obsession with downplaying and humbling themselves not sure why. But toby carvery is good

How does earning £100k make you upper middle class? 😂😭

Ponoka7 · 27/10/2025 09:09

BitOutOfPractice · 27/10/2025 07:52

Im 58, went to an RG uni no less, I’ve run my own marketing business for 27 years erm, I’m trying to think of any other MC markers. I shop at Waitrose and John Lewis. I live in a “naice” city in the south east, mortgage paid off. I listen to radio 4 and read avidly. My kids both went to RG universities and now have professional jobs. But I like a Toby Carvery and have an accent from the provinces. I’m an enigma. And it just goes to show that class distinctions are basically ridiculous.

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You use the term "gravy dinner", you are just a wrong'un.

Hussaini · 27/10/2025 09:03

I’m middle class and eat there, btw there’s a lot on here who claim to be middle class when what they describe is actually upper (100k salary and private school) not to mention the ones claiming to be working class because their great grandfather worked in a factory.
Huge obsession with downplaying and humbling themselves not sure why. But toby carvery is good

Nitgel · 27/10/2025 08:59

Our tc is very mixed demographically. But as an aside I've noticed they really oversell now and the queues are awful so I don't bother.

AllThisTime · 27/10/2025 08:57

Umbonkers · 27/10/2025 07:51

Absolute rubbish - most of the veg is fresh, roast and mash prepped and cooked from fresh potatoes and yorkshires also cooked fresh. Turkey is UK red tractor. The food is excellent quality for the price and prepared fresh every day in their kitchens. It’s cheap because, if you get the business model right - which they do- it’s an efficient way to serve food. Oh and it’s owned by M&B not Whitbread

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The red tractor thing has been shown many times to be worthless. Farms with it don’t always comply in the way they’re meant to.

Original poster

JoanneTeresa · 27/10/2025 08:35

Thepeopleversuswork · 27/10/2025 08:09

Who cares?

My mum would have had the vapours about me eating at a carvery (she was a roaring snob). My OH (who comes from a working class background) loves it. I had never been before I met him.

I love it. What do you think it going to happen if you eat in a working class restaurant? Do you think you will suddenly start dropping consonants overnight?

Chill.

lol!!!!!

my mum was a roaring snob !

my DP is council estate, uneducated background working class

my DP drops consonants like confetti and I love it ! 🤣

OP posts:

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 27/10/2025 08:29

Well yes I guess it probably is.

Although I don’t think it should matter and everyone should just go to places they enjoy. The concept of class is very blurred now anyway.

I always think I’m too foreign to belong to the class system but in reality a. I’m not actually that “foreign” as a couple of generations in now, and b. Most people would call me middle class.

JJZ · 27/10/2025 08:24

Umbonkers · 27/10/2025 07:51

Absolute rubbish - most of the veg is fresh, roast and mash prepped and cooked from fresh potatoes and yorkshires also cooked fresh. Turkey is UK red tractor. The food is excellent quality for the price and prepared fresh every day in their kitchens. It’s cheap because, if you get the business model right - which they do- it’s an efficient way to serve food. Oh and it’s owned by M&B not Whitbread

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I don’t eat any meat that is “Red Tractor” assured. I would do a bit of research if you think this is a high standard of welfare.

Bumblebee72 · 27/10/2025 08:23

DickDewey · 27/10/2025 08:19

I’m working class (laboro, ergo sum).

Yet I have never been to, nor even seen, a Toby Carvery. I googled, there is but one 10 miles away.

The menu, looks er, interesting. I’m not a huge fan of roasts, but the alternatives sound somewhat repugnant and grammatically offensive. ‘Yorkie wraps’, ‘Bacon & Cheddar Loaded Roasties’, ‘Poppin' Chicken’?

I remain to be convinced.

Literally no one has the alternatives other than. If you don't like roast dinner going to a carvery would be like not liking rice and going to sushi restaurant - its just never going to suit you.

Bumblebee72 · 27/10/2025 08:20

Love a Toby Carvery! It is a good example of a place focusing on one thing and doing it well, in an affordable way.

If it is working class I'm good with that.

As long as it is a busy Toby Carvery so they keep the fresh food coming out - I wouldn't want to go to a quiet one.

DickDewey · 27/10/2025 08:19

I’m working class (laboro, ergo sum).

Yet I have never been to, nor even seen, a Toby Carvery. I googled, there is but one 10 miles away.

The menu, looks er, interesting. I’m not a huge fan of roasts, but the alternatives sound somewhat repugnant and grammatically offensive. ‘Yorkie wraps’, ‘Bacon & Cheddar Loaded Roasties’, ‘Poppin' Chicken’?

I remain to be convinced.

uggmum · 27/10/2025 08:11

It’s not middle or working class. It’s just shit. My local one is overdue a refurb. It’s dirty and unkempt.
the staff seem to have given up.
where the food is served is always really messy too.

Thepeopleversuswork · 27/10/2025 08:09

Who cares?

My mum would have had the vapours about me eating at a carvery (she was a roaring snob). My OH (who comes from a working class background) loves it. I had never been before I met him.

I love it. What do you think it going to happen if you eat in a working class restaurant? Do you think you will suddenly start dropping consonants overnight?

Chill.

Original poster

JoanneTeresa · 27/10/2025 08:07

JillyJoy · 27/10/2025 07:19

Are you missing Berni Inns?

Very much so

OP posts:

Bambamhoohoo · 27/10/2025 08:04

BitOutOfPractice · 27/10/2025 07:52

Im 58, went to an RG uni no less, I’ve run my own marketing business for 27 years erm, I’m trying to think of any other MC markers. I shop at Waitrose and John Lewis. I live in a “naice” city in the south east, mortgage paid off. I listen to radio 4 and read avidly. My kids both went to RG universities and now have professional jobs. But I like a Toby Carvery and have an accent from the provinces. I’m an enigma. And it just goes to show that class distinctions are basically ridiculous.

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Also goes to show you can’t shop your way out of the class system 😂

Screamingabdabz · 27/10/2025 08:03

We went to one once and it was singularly one of the worst eating out experiences I’ve ever had. I think it’s a pile it high, fill your boots, don’t worry about the quality sort of place. The place smelt of damp, the customers were mostly surly and fat. One table were wearing pyjamas. Food was swill. We left in a hurry.

labradorservant · 27/10/2025 07:57

We earn what Mumsnet would call mega bucks, top 1% etc. Think we would be MC, don’t really care. We love a Tony Carvery. In fact DS is coming back from uni next week so you’ve just given me a meal out idea.

EleanorReally · 27/10/2025 07:55

i have never been
it is not very appealing to me

BitOutOfPractice · 27/10/2025 07:52

Bambamhoohoo · 27/10/2025 07:07

I assume you’re under that huge banner of “gen x/ millennials who were brought up working class but went to university” ?

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Im 58, went to an RG uni no less, I’ve run my own marketing business for 27 years erm, I’m trying to think of any other MC markers. I shop at Waitrose and John Lewis. I live in a “naice” city in the south east, mortgage paid off. I listen to radio 4 and read avidly. My kids both went to RG universities and now have professional jobs. But I like a Toby Carvery and have an accent from the provinces. I’m an enigma. And it just goes to show that class distinctions are basically ridiculous.

Umbonkers · 27/10/2025 07:51

RosesAndHellebores · 26/10/2025 18:55

It serves cheap poor quality food.

I'm not entirely sure how the term working class can be attributed to a chain restaurant owned by Whitbread? It usually refers to human beings rathwr than bricks and mortar or a brand.

I could see how "the Toby Carvery brand appeals to people with low incomes". However, to have a low income doesn't mean someone is working class.

Our local Toby is surrounded by houses worth £1m to £2m. There is a significant retired population around the Toby. They use it heavily for lunch Monday to Friday. Neither poor nor working class on the whole.

I suspect someone who says "To think Toby Carvery is working class", probably sits close to the bottom of educational achievement.

Absolute rubbish - most of the veg is fresh, roast and mash prepped and cooked from fresh potatoes and yorkshires also cooked fresh. Turkey is UK red tractor. The food is excellent quality for the price and prepared fresh every day in their kitchens. It’s cheap because, if you get the business model right - which they do- it’s an efficient way to serve food. Oh and it’s owned by M&B not Whitbread

JillyJoy · 27/10/2025 07:19

Are you missing Berni Inns?

Pennyplant19 · 27/10/2025 07:10

LemonLymanDotCom · 26/10/2025 19:22

Now been inspired to google and my closest Toby is 4 miles away & 57 minutes by public transport in Wanstead… Is it worth the visit?

They are on Uber Eats in my area - worth a check 😉

Bambamhoohoo · 27/10/2025 07:07

BitOutOfPractice · 27/10/2025 06:55

Hmm maybe. I was brought up working class. I was proud to be working class. But when I try to claim that now, people laugh. So I’m class confused. I guess the Toby Carvery question is the clincher and im Still working class. Hurrah.

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I assume you’re under that huge banner of “gen x/ millennials who were brought up working class but went to university” ?