Carveries are the work of the devil

[Soontobe60]

DH and I decided to go to a Carvery after looking after the grandchildren,Daren earlier this evening. It’s on the way home and meant we wouldn’t get stuck in commuter traffic. I’ve not been to one for years!
The one we chose, a Toby carvery, is just next to the motorway slip road. There were about 4 cars on the car park and a couple of tables were occupied; mainly it was empty. We stood waiting for 5 minutes until someone came to see to us, asked us if we had a booking and said that as we hadn’t they couldn’t serve us as they only had enough food for the reservations they already had. It was 5.15 on a Tuesday evening!
When we walked out and sat in the car laughing, we realised we reeked of cooking fat and boiled cabbage 😳. Looking at the building we saw it was basically falling down - I think we had a lucky escape.
there was another Carvery a few 100 yards further on so we went there. No problem getting a table, no horrible smells, all looked nice and well kept. Clean toilets (very important!!). DH ordered a bean burger and chips - he’s veggie and wont touch a carvery - and I went to get my food. It wasn’t great, but wasn’t inedible - soggy veg, mushy roasts and gloopy mash, but tasty meat and gravy.
DHs on the other hand was very much inedible. A stale bun that shattered as he cut through it, a bean burger that seemed to have been stored unwrapped in the freezer for weeks so was rock hard, uncut table and certainly inedible. It was the colour of uncooked pastry! (maybe they had used butter beans). Chips were very undercooked and soggy.
I took the plate back and the staff were very apologetic, refunding the meal instantly. He ended up having cheese on toast for tea. I’m gutted - I was so looking forward to a tasty mid week meal!

It just seems like a throwback to another era — back when a roast and vegetables was ‘special food’, so there was major appeal in being able to eat as much as you liked of it..? Food culture has just moved on so much that it does surprise me too that carveries still exist.

Thanks to this thread I discovered it was £6 carvery week at Toby's carvery. I have the app, and whilst we do not go often, DC was home for a few nights from uni and there is one on the way into York which we stop at when I drive her back. Off course it is not high dining and does not pretend to be. The the roast potatoes (choice of cooked in goose fat or vegitarian) and yorkshires are definitely freshly made on site- not frozen. The vegetables and selction are also pretty good, as is the choice of gravy. It is good value in the week and I have never been to a Toby Carvery where I thought the quality of the food was poor for the price. This thread is pure snobbery. You know what you are getting and it is often on a par, if not better, than many pub roasts. It is also nice to choose a selection of meats, not cook and wash-up.

I used to love Toby but then I (stupidly) read an article about how many dirty hands have touched the utensils before you do…and now the thought (as well as the thought of salad bars) turns me. 🤢

What would be odd would be to expect a non-meat eater to suddenly start eating meat because their family members who do enjoy steak choose to eat at a steak house. As I say, personally I find them good for fresh fish and even vegetarian dishes which tend to be freshly cooked from actual vegetables and grains as opposed to the fake meat offerings in many other places.

Euuughhh Toby Carvery 🤣

We used to go to a Toby which was a bit run down but the staff were great and the food was fabulous. It changed hands earlier this year and we’ve not had the chance to go yet. Hoping it’s still as good!

As a future tip should you want carvery that’s less likely be bad.

Go to a pub that does one on a Sunday, and where people also choose to go and eat the rest of the week.

Toby work on a mass, budget catering style. Whereas the dining pub will be working on a professional restaurant style.

Well if you'd ever worked in a kitchen (I'm sure you haven't from your tone!) then you'd realise that kgs of potatoes are tumbled in to a large spinning drum that removes the peel.

Real potatoes too. Like, from the ground.

For me, that was 30 years ago so fuck knows what witchcraft they perform these days.

🙄

That’s not going to work for us when we want it on a Tuesday evening though.

And yes, the Yorkshire puddings are homemade.

I haven't had a carvery in years as most are based in shopping hubs out of town here and I'm unable to drive. But... Toby was always 3 massive joints of meat that they'd slice in front of you. If you didn't fancy the fake fatty bit on the fake massive beef joint, you could say so.
They probably stuck them on for authenticity.

Bless you.

I agree.

I have been to a few near me in the last few years when we have wanted a roast but as its just me and DD now, it costs about the same to eat out as make a roast at home.

But they never lived up to expectations! Meat is usually ok but the veg is either overcooked and mushy or undercooked and hard as nails! We dont bother now I just wangle an invite to my parents whenever my father is doing a roast!

OP strikes me as the kind of sunbeam who leaves a 1 star Amazon review with the comment "don't know haven't opened it yet".

Wrong! I only ever leave a review if I’ve something nice to say,
I am, however, very interested in knowing why you think that?

YABU to go to a carvery when 50% of you are a vegetarian.

Well given that the veggie 50% was happy with the arrangement, whats the issue?

😂😂🤣🤣🤣

They are always hit or miss. Best chance of good food is when they are moderately busy, too quiet and it’s dried up, too busy and apart from the queues I find potatoes and bed can be seriously undercooked

Not everything they sell in a carvery is meat based 😂
Carrots
caulifliwer cheese
roast spuds
yorkies
mash
peas
cheese and onion pie
red cabbage
onion gravy
veg sausages
etc…

Nothing worse than an undercooked bed!

To follow up from my initial post, went out to an Italian restaurant last night with a group of friends (no DH) and recounted the carvery tale to them. Turns out that a Toby carvery in particular seems to be a guilty secret of many of my friends - lots of whom usually prefer to frequent the type of restaurant that only does tasting menus or ‘small plates’ which when translated means ‘expensive forkfull of something tasty’. Every one of them agreed that it was daft of me to not have booked even on a Tuesday teatime and all had some humorous anecdote to tell, some of them about the same carvery I tried to eat at. Some of them use the app where you can buy a bag of left over food at the end of the evening and then reheat it the next day!

YANBU. The first and last time I went to a Toby carvery pub locally it was definitely quantity over quality. Our party were the only ones not several stone overweight, with plates piled high with meat and potatoes. The food was awful.

We have a Toby carvery local and sometimes go on a Sunday when I can’t be arsed to cook. We’ve not had one bad meal there. Reasonably priced and some good cuts of meat.

No it's not a throwback to another era 😂 lots of people enjoy a carvery, it's always full when we go. It's still making a profit. All these people carnt be wrong. You don't like it, fair enough. That dosent mean it's from another era

We have a pretty good pub car very near us that’s super popular, I don’t tend to go as much prefer a home cooked roast. Toby Carvery is grim, went once with a friend who proclaimed it was amazing…it was utterly dreadful, never again!

I live in between maidenhead, Old Windsor and Langley…all three are absolutely revolting! Dirty, shit food and dirty looking rude staff! Don’t waste your money. See my previous post 😂