Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To find the obsession with Toby Carvery baffling?

111 replies

Kaykay90 · 11/11/2025 16:47

I went on Sunday and won’t be returning. Tiny portion of meat, kids running riot and it smelt like stale farts.

Anyone else struggle to see the appeal?

OP posts:
LadyKenya · 11/11/2025 18:33

happygarden · 11/11/2025 18:12

I think they are gross too, it’s a quantity over quality thing.
Whats the mash all about?! who on earth wants mash with their roasts when you can have roast potatoes

Surely that is the beauty of it, they can have both🥔

NoSoupForU · 11/11/2025 18:31

It isn't my thing at all. But its obviously popular because it's cheap and easy. The only food going on your plate is food you like. And people like having plates piled full.

ThejoyofNC · 11/11/2025 18:29

I think it's garbage. I class it as the fast food of toast dinners.

FarmGirl78 · 11/11/2025 18:28

BillieWiper · 11/11/2025 17:06

I'd quite like to try it but there isn't one anywhere near my house. It feels like you need to drive anyway as they're not really in towns/city centres?

The roast in my local is getting more and more mediocre each time I visit, and I think it's about £25 at this point. So frankly Toby's would be a breath of fresh air (not literally if the farty aroma is a certainty) in terms of price.

Loads of kids running amok would not be my cup of tea though so I guess I'd go when they were at school or late evening.

Ha ha ha You're in for a shock if you think 'late evening' in a Toby Cavery means an abscence of shrieking running children and their sweary parents. It just means overtired shreiking children not running quite as fast.

ThatCyanCat · 11/11/2025 18:28

It's cheap and cheerful. Your local one might suck, the one in the next town might be better.

PiccadillyPurple · 11/11/2025 18:27

FarmGirl78 · 11/11/2025 16:56

And theres so many kids running round screaming and "What did I tell you about your fucking behaviour? You're a little shit!" shouty parents, because for all the local scutters it's a really posh place to eat out for family birthdays. Every few years I venture back and immediately remember why I hate it so much.

That sounds quite entertaining - I love watching other people's dramas unfold (as long as they don't descend into violence).

I prefer my food brought to me rather than having to queue for it, so I don't go to carveries for that reason, but I don't mind other cheap and cheerful chain restaurants - our local Brewers' Fayre is quite decent as long as you accept it for what it is - a 'don't fancy cooking tonight' place rather than a really special meal place.

HighLadyofTheNightCourt · 11/11/2025 18:26

happygarden · 11/11/2025 18:12

I think they are gross too, it’s a quantity over quality thing.
Whats the mash all about?! who on earth wants mash with their roasts when you can have roast potatoes

Why can’t you have both?

WalkDontWalk · 11/11/2025 18:25

.....bluuuuurk....

AgnesMcDoo · 11/11/2025 18:24

Who is obsessed?

it’s a chain. Some good. Some bad. Like all chains.

purser25 · 11/11/2025 18:22

I think there is snobbery around Toby Inns they are good value for money. Ideal for older and younger people who like plain food. Also children of all classes and from different income families can be unruly must not squash Saffrons or St John’s spirit!

happygarden · 11/11/2025 18:12

I think they are gross too, it’s a quantity over quality thing.
Whats the mash all about?! who on earth wants mash with their roasts when you can have roast potatoes

republicofjam · 11/11/2025 18:11

Kaykay90 · 11/11/2025 17:01

We are going to stick to our country pubs for a home cooked roast in the future. Yes, you pay a premium but it’s worth it IMO - and also helps with regulating the clientele.

Alternatively, stick to candlelit suppers.

RawBloomers · 11/11/2025 18:10

I haven’t been to a Toby in years, but I remember them as being generous with the meat and it and the gravy having lots of flavour.

Wjdbxb · 11/11/2025 18:08

I’ve never been to a Toby but there is a Greene King carvery near me that we occasionally go to as my partner likes a carvery. I don’t like it - the meat is nice enough but the vegetables are beyond soggy and flavourless and the roasties are crap. And, yes, it smells of stale farts. I’d be interested to know if that’s the general standard for Greene King or if we just have a bad one.

Zov · 11/11/2025 18:08

ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea · 11/11/2025 17:56

Who’s obsessed with Toby Carvery? Apart from people who start threads on MN slagging them off. Not just you OP, there was an identical thread around a fortnight ago.

Yeah this. It's either Toby Carvery, or Aldi, or Taylor Swift that people start threads on, saying how 'awful' they are. Some people have a weird obsession with certain things that they claim they don't like... Wink

fivebyfivefaith · 11/11/2025 18:02

FrankSinatraonToast · 11/11/2025 17:49

Does it smell of stale farts?

Edited
Show quote history

Definitely not. It’s just been refurbed

ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea · 11/11/2025 17:56

Who’s obsessed with Toby Carvery? Apart from people who start threads on MN slagging them off. Not just you OP, there was an identical thread around a fortnight ago.

Megapint · 11/11/2025 17:53

My local Toby is lovely. The tables are big enough that my family can get together with wheelchairs and highchairs in the group it's clean and the staff are helpful. There is something everyone likes and the price is good.Maybe I'm just common!

DontGoJasonWaterfalls · 11/11/2025 17:49

Love a Toby Carvery. Can't afford more expensive places and anyway, where else do you get macaroni cheese with your roast dinner?

Go midweek; I can't be doing with the weekend crowds.

FrankSinatraonToast · 11/11/2025 17:49

fivebyfivefaith · 11/11/2025 17:45

I go to the local stonehouse carvery, you get more meat there (so my dad reckons)
it’s clean, the food is hot and fresh and never any kids running about

Does it smell of stale farts?

WhatATimeToBeAlive · 11/11/2025 17:48

Our local one is bloody lovely - and I'm fussy about my roasts.

mamagogo1 · 11/11/2025 17:47

I have observed (very unscientific and very much anecdotal) that number of carveries (of any brand) is inverse to household incomes in an area, we have zero within a 30 minute drive, annoying as I was fancying one when dh was away for work, whereas craft beer outlets increase with income (we now have 4 for 25k people, none serve food)

MorningBliss · 11/11/2025 17:46

Never seen an obsession with it but there has been loads of threads about it recently? Probably all from the same person

fivebyfivefaith · 11/11/2025 17:45

I go to the local stonehouse carvery, you get more meat there (so my dad reckons)
it’s clean, the food is hot and fresh and never any kids running about

FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee · 11/11/2025 17:44

I bloody hate them. I don’t get it at all.

Swipe left for the next trending thread