To find the obsession with Toby Carvery baffling?

[Kaykay90]

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?

No, that’s not what I said. I’m on about those who allow their multiple children to run riot.

I love a Toby carvery and I don't get this snobbishness that prevails around them.

You're entitled to feel how you want to feel.

I love a carvery though! And I don't recognise what you describe to be honest.

It's cheap and cheerful roast dinner. It's not for me but I can absolutely see the appeal.
DS and his mates go because it's cheap, filling and a good night out for just under 18s who can't go to regular pubs.

We’re big fans of a Toby Carvery in our house.
It’s not fine dining but it’s cheap and our local one is always good quality,

🙄

Don’t think it’s about poor people. Think it’s more about the type of people that the OP sees there - swearing and letting kids run riot.

I’ve not been personally and from these descriptions I don’t think I will! 😂

Last time I went the Yorkshire puddings were completely flat. Unacceptable. They weren’t great the previous time but I gave them another chance. Wont be going back.
No kids running round whenever I’ve been there in the past though. Surely that’s a parental responsibility to resolve first and foremost. Then staff if they don’t.

I used to be absolutely obsessed with tovy carvery pre pandemic and go more than once a week, but it’s changed so much now. So sadly agree. The whole set up plus food and price, just no good now

What obsession?

I haven't been for a while but it served a purpose when DC were young. No need to wait for food and if I made them drink water real food cheaper than going to McDonalds.

They vary a lot, very dependent on location to put it bluntly. We had a lovely one half way between us an my parents unfortunately they have now become a Miller and Carter (same company I think), i presume the area was deemed too nice by management

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

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

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

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)

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

Does it smell of stale farts?

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.

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!

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.

Definitely not. It’s just been refurbed

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...

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.

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.

Alternatively, stick to candlelit suppers.