Only thing that was a positive is we had a table booked and it was ready for us. Other than that it was a shocking experience of a toby. After 10mins someone came and took our drinks order, 20mins later I had to go to the bar too get our drinks as all the staff seemed to be having a party in the kitchen. The carvery only had turkey and dry small bit of lamb. Apparently they didn't have anymore gammon or beef! The veg selection was shocking. Half of it was stone cold. Don't think I'll return to a toby for a while as this has put us off.
PAULA LANKSHEAR
I never write reviews but felt I had too. I paid £132 for Christmas day dinner for me & my boyfriend. I have never visited this toby carvey before so I decided to put my trust in them for a special first Christmas Dinner for me & my boyfriend. He lives in Southampton but I don't. We was 50 minutes late be seated to our table. Table wasn't even ready. Half the cutlery missing & no crackers. It took us 1 hour & 10 minutes from our table booking time to actually get our starters. Everyone one around us was complaining to the manager about the wait & the poor quality of food. People was so disgusted by this they wasn't waiting for the rest of their food & demanding their money back. Its wasn't nice sat there while trying to make the most of a disgusting service with everyone complaining around us. 2 members of staff were crying under pressure. The food we had was OK but the lamb was a bit tuff. What should've been a nice special Christmas meal turned out to be the most horrible experience I have ever had eating out. I feel absolutely gutted to have paid all that money for bad service. It wasn't cheap at £65.99 pp. I hope with all the complaints that went in on Christmas day that toby learn from this. ?
nathaniel bremner
Yorkshires were huge bubble of air too big for the plate , potatoes were reheated we think as they weren’t very nice too look atSome of the menu was unavailable ?Vegetarian options weren’t great or available ?All in all a poor experience and it was dearer than the local competition you have and there’s is more presentableSorry if this is not what you wanted to hear but this is a honest report
Alexander Mitch
As a previous member of Mitchell's & Butlers, and as a customer that has visited the premises again, I was really disappointed. We arrived at the pub with a 5-year old with a severe nut allergy. The friendly lady that showed us to our table could not re-assure us that there will be no issues with our little one's food. We do appreciate the gentleman's help after asking to speak with the manager, when he provided us with the allergen info, however I believe all staff members should be aware of your procedure in these cases and should be able to reassure us about our little one's food. Also, I believe it's an awful image when one of the chefs comes out of the kitchen with their hands inside their pants in front of customers. The food was dry and tasteless. By the end of our meal we had ordered a desert for our little one and an extra beer, which took quite some time to get to us even though the restaurant was almost empty. Again as a previous waiter myself and my husband we appreciate the fact that the team are there on a Christmas Eve to serve us, and we really know how it feels, however that is not an excuse on the cleanliness of the restaurant or any of the above issues. Right next to where we were sitted there was a window obviously decorated for Christmas, but there were spiderwebs behind the decorations right next to us with even more insects trapped in it as our view. I had brought my family from abroad to experience a full English Sunday roast/ Christmas dinner, and they could barely stay inside due to a weird smell of old burnt oil throughout the pub, to the point I actually felt embarrassed myself. Again as we tried to explain to the first lady that helped us to our table, there was nothing personal but there should be more awareness as to the allergen procedure when it comes to life threatening allergies.
Becca Lacey
It was awful. I got 2 slices of meat, the veg was either not there or the little left in the containers were dried up and looked like they’d been there a week. After my meat got served the lady who cut the meat went straight to the kitchen so I waited 5 minutes for her to reappear to ask for another slice of meat. I’m a regular at this carvery and her service was shocking. When I asked a server to go and ask her to come back out so I could ask for another slice of meat, she rolled her eyes and gave me a tiny, dry slither of gammon- like this was an inconvenience to her and any meat that was left at the end of the night she got to take home. I had a party of 4 and all of us were appalled by the carvery. We certainly won’t be back until this carvery gets a wake up call with how to serve food and treat customers
Suji Ellen
Food was good,but we waited so long on the buffet.
Ginny Thompson
Lovely festive menu. Will the waiter was above and beyond amazing, so professional, attentive and joyful. Food was great and we had a lovely time. Lush Christmas pudding with vegan custard. ?
Gabriella
Visited on Sunday 11:30am. Standing in line for 40 minutes to be served. Veg and gravy was cold, generally unpleasant and roasties were pale and undercooked. No parsnips. Disappointing, very busy and can’t see myself coming back. Service was good but slow as the place was packed.
Honest Reviewer
This is a very nice Toby Carvery with a big carpark, just remember to add your cars registration number on the screen inside the carvery!The staff were nice, and the food was well cooked. Everything you would want was there too, even roast parsnips!For dessert, me and the wife chose profiteroles. When looking at the Toby advertising and customer reviews for this dessert, it shows a glass full of profiteroles with a bit of spray cream on the top, however, our dessert consisted of a glass full of whipped ice-cream with 2 profiteroles on the top, covered in caramel and chocolate sauce! This may be due to profiteroles running low, but I think it should be made like that ALL of the time as it was delicious!!! The whole combination went together exceptionally well.A totally recommended carvery at a very reasonable price ?
Val Hall
Carvery food was great as always, although disappointed there was no lamb.Also various items missing from menu overall - no ice cream, no soda water, no lime. However, not the end of the world, although lack of ice cream meant many puds were off the menu!Service however was lacklustre at best, downright surly at worst. Servers were very slow taking our order and slow to serve drinks etc, but very rushed when they got to us eventually!One server was very grumpy and seemed like they couldn't care less about how well they served us, doing us a huge favour by taking our order. Even the person on the carvery itself was grim faced. It wasn't busy when we arrived, we left just when it was getting busy, so absolutely no excuse for being so charmless and ungracious! Felt like all the staff had just been given some terrible news and were all in a bad mood because of it!I'm afraid no tip left because of poor service but the carvery always makes it worth returning.By the way, decor is looking a little tired, and walls are very dark, making quite a gloomy atmosphere. Outside, the wall of the building that faces the road looks really drab and uninviting- corporate colours presumably, but could do with a face-lift!( You are probably not at all interested, but my grandmother grew up in the house, I have some lovely old photos of it in its heyday, circa 1910 )Parking: Free to park but remember to input your car registration when you go in.
The reason you go to a Toby is not for the atmosphere (which was ok) or the service (which was actually very good) but the food (which was practically inedible).I guess when you go to a carvery and don't order a carvery you're asking for trouble. But we wanted to try some different things so we ordered 4 'taster' dishes. Kind of like the Toby equivalent of tapas. Basically everything felt like it had been sitting under hot lights for about three years. The popcorn chicken was so hard it tasted like leather. The mac and cheese was just mac. The cheesey mushrooms actually weren't bad, not great but as it says, mushrooms in cheese so it was as expected. I did actually pour the left over cheese into the mac. It didn't help. The loaded potatoes were a few dried toasties with bacon bits and some Yorkshire pudding (and about a teaspoon of gravy). The Yorkshire pudding was actually nice. It made me wish I'd ordered the carvery.
Andy Clark
Carvery was great, as always.After an hour of waiting the deserts we ordered hadn't arrived so we had to leave.Table next to us didnt ever get their starters.Our server was super apologetic - they had alot of practice! Apparently the desert makers also pot wash. There isn't enough of them so the deserts get left. Very odd business model. Employ more staff, make more money.Sadly, we won't be back.
Karen Hudson
Oh dear I have been to many Tobys but this one needs an area manager to do there job and do a spot check..I had to ask one of the 3 on the front desk to come and remove a large cobweb which was hanging over the tables.She never said a word, no sorry, nothing.. She reached up and grabbed what she could and gave me a dirty look.! Quite appropriate as I saw most of the lights had cobwebs on them, and 2 large spiders. There seemed to be little work on the front desk but lots of playing on phones and talking...Maybe one of the three could have checked the ladies as this needed attention...The good part was the chefs were working flat out and the food was good.
Avenging Terrier
It would be nice if they actually answered the phone. I called the place six times over the space of four hours an not once did anyone actually bother to pick up the receiver - and this situation made it impossible for me to order a table for a party of eight.The problem is made worse by the fact that they now seem to operate a bookings necessary system, wherein where you used to be able to just walk in, when you do so not without first booking, you get talked at as if you're causing them a major problem, and in my experience, that's simply not acceptable. I've worked in the food service industry, and I was always taught that the customer is always right (with some notable exceptions).I'm sure there are problem customers, but for the rest of us who just want to enjoy the food, the environment, but are told on arrival (without a booking) that we should have booked, it feels like a 'telling off' and that makes me extremely uncomfortable.One last thing, the portions are small, frighteningly so.
Debbie Ward
Very unclean, over cooked potatoes, completely flat Yorkshire puddings, extremely slow carving, bar staff nagging at each other, all veg over cooked. Sides not wiped down. Staff seemed very unhappy.Our server, Sarah was lovely however and cared about our experience. I tipped her because she was clearly very overwhelmed
Only thing that was a positive is we had a table booked and it was ready for us. Other than that it was a shocking experience of a toby. After 10mins someone came and took our drinks order, 20mins later I had to go to the bar too get our drinks as all the staff seemed to be having a party in the kitchen. The carvery only had turkey and dry small bit of lamb. Apparently they didn't have anymore gammon or beef! The veg selection was shocking. Half of it was stone cold. Don't think I'll return to a toby for a while as this has put us off.
I never write reviews but felt I had too. I paid £132 for Christmas day dinner for me & my boyfriend. I have never visited this toby carvey before so I decided to put my trust in them for a special first Christmas Dinner for me & my boyfriend. He lives in Southampton but I don't. We was 50 minutes late be seated to our table. Table wasn't even ready. Half the cutlery missing & no crackers. It took us 1 hour & 10 minutes from our table booking time to actually get our starters. Everyone one around us was complaining to the manager about the wait & the poor quality of food. People was so disgusted by this they wasn't waiting for the rest of their food & demanding their money back. Its wasn't nice sat there while trying to make the most of a disgusting service with everyone complaining around us. 2 members of staff were crying under pressure. The food we had was OK but the lamb was a bit tuff. What should've been a nice special Christmas meal turned out to be the most horrible experience I have ever had eating out. I feel absolutely gutted to have paid all that money for bad service. It wasn't cheap at £65.99 pp. I hope with all the complaints that went in on Christmas day that toby learn from this. ?
Yorkshires were huge bubble of air too big for the plate , potatoes were reheated we think as they weren’t very nice too look atSome of the menu was unavailable ?Vegetarian options weren’t great or available ?All in all a poor experience and it was dearer than the local competition you have and there’s is more presentableSorry if this is not what you wanted to hear but this is a honest report
As a previous member of Mitchell's & Butlers, and as a customer that has visited the premises again, I was really disappointed. We arrived at the pub with a 5-year old with a severe nut allergy. The friendly lady that showed us to our table could not re-assure us that there will be no issues with our little one's food. We do appreciate the gentleman's help after asking to speak with the manager, when he provided us with the allergen info, however I believe all staff members should be aware of your procedure in these cases and should be able to reassure us about our little one's food. Also, I believe it's an awful image when one of the chefs comes out of the kitchen with their hands inside their pants in front of customers. The food was dry and tasteless. By the end of our meal we had ordered a desert for our little one and an extra beer, which took quite some time to get to us even though the restaurant was almost empty. Again as a previous waiter myself and my husband we appreciate the fact that the team are there on a Christmas Eve to serve us, and we really know how it feels, however that is not an excuse on the cleanliness of the restaurant or any of the above issues. Right next to where we were sitted there was a window obviously decorated for Christmas, but there were spiderwebs behind the decorations right next to us with even more insects trapped in it as our view. I had brought my family from abroad to experience a full English Sunday roast/ Christmas dinner, and they could barely stay inside due to a weird smell of old burnt oil throughout the pub, to the point I actually felt embarrassed myself. Again as we tried to explain to the first lady that helped us to our table, there was nothing personal but there should be more awareness as to the allergen procedure when it comes to life threatening allergies.
It was awful. I got 2 slices of meat, the veg was either not there or the little left in the containers were dried up and looked like they’d been there a week. After my meat got served the lady who cut the meat went straight to the kitchen so I waited 5 minutes for her to reappear to ask for another slice of meat. I’m a regular at this carvery and her service was shocking. When I asked a server to go and ask her to come back out so I could ask for another slice of meat, she rolled her eyes and gave me a tiny, dry slither of gammon- like this was an inconvenience to her and any meat that was left at the end of the night she got to take home. I had a party of 4 and all of us were appalled by the carvery. We certainly won’t be back until this carvery gets a wake up call with how to serve food and treat customers
Food was good,but we waited so long on the buffet.
Lovely festive menu. Will the waiter was above and beyond amazing, so professional, attentive and joyful. Food was great and we had a lovely time. Lush Christmas pudding with vegan custard. ?
Visited on Sunday 11:30am. Standing in line for 40 minutes to be served. Veg and gravy was cold, generally unpleasant and roasties were pale and undercooked. No parsnips. Disappointing, very busy and can’t see myself coming back. Service was good but slow as the place was packed.
This is a very nice Toby Carvery with a big carpark, just remember to add your cars registration number on the screen inside the carvery!The staff were nice, and the food was well cooked. Everything you would want was there too, even roast parsnips!For dessert, me and the wife chose profiteroles. When looking at the Toby advertising and customer reviews for this dessert, it shows a glass full of profiteroles with a bit of spray cream on the top, however, our dessert consisted of a glass full of whipped ice-cream with 2 profiteroles on the top, covered in caramel and chocolate sauce! This may be due to profiteroles running low, but I think it should be made like that ALL of the time as it was delicious!!! The whole combination went together exceptionally well.A totally recommended carvery at a very reasonable price ?
Carvery food was great as always, although disappointed there was no lamb.Also various items missing from menu overall - no ice cream, no soda water, no lime. However, not the end of the world, although lack of ice cream meant many puds were off the menu!Service however was lacklustre at best, downright surly at worst. Servers were very slow taking our order and slow to serve drinks etc, but very rushed when they got to us eventually!One server was very grumpy and seemed like they couldn't care less about how well they served us, doing us a huge favour by taking our order. Even the person on the carvery itself was grim faced. It wasn't busy when we arrived, we left just when it was getting busy, so absolutely no excuse for being so charmless and ungracious! Felt like all the staff had just been given some terrible news and were all in a bad mood because of it!I'm afraid no tip left because of poor service but the carvery always makes it worth returning.By the way, decor is looking a little tired, and walls are very dark, making quite a gloomy atmosphere. Outside, the wall of the building that faces the road looks really drab and uninviting- corporate colours presumably, but could do with a face-lift!( You are probably not at all interested, but my grandmother grew up in the house, I have some lovely old photos of it in its heyday, circa 1910 )Parking: Free to park but remember to input your car registration when you go in.
Restaurantji Recommends
The reason you go to a Toby is not for the atmosphere (which was ok) or the service (which was actually very good) but the food (which was practically inedible).I guess when you go to a carvery and don't order a carvery you're asking for trouble. But we wanted to try some different things so we ordered 4 'taster' dishes. Kind of like the Toby equivalent of tapas. Basically everything felt like it had been sitting under hot lights for about three years. The popcorn chicken was so hard it tasted like leather. The mac and cheese was just mac. The cheesey mushrooms actually weren't bad, not great but as it says, mushrooms in cheese so it was as expected. I did actually pour the left over cheese into the mac. It didn't help. The loaded potatoes were a few dried toasties with bacon bits and some Yorkshire pudding (and about a teaspoon of gravy). The Yorkshire pudding was actually nice. It made me wish I'd ordered the carvery.
Carvery was great, as always.After an hour of waiting the deserts we ordered hadn't arrived so we had to leave.Table next to us didnt ever get their starters.Our server was super apologetic - they had alot of practice! Apparently the desert makers also pot wash. There isn't enough of them so the deserts get left. Very odd business model. Employ more staff, make more money.Sadly, we won't be back.
Oh dear I have been to many Tobys but this one needs an area manager to do there job and do a spot check..I had to ask one of the 3 on the front desk to come and remove a large cobweb which was hanging over the tables.She never said a word, no sorry, nothing.. She reached up and grabbed what she could and gave me a dirty look.! Quite appropriate as I saw most of the lights had cobwebs on them, and 2 large spiders. There seemed to be little work on the front desk but lots of playing on phones and talking...Maybe one of the three could have checked the ladies as this needed attention...The good part was the chefs were working flat out and the food was good.
It would be nice if they actually answered the phone. I called the place six times over the space of four hours an not once did anyone actually bother to pick up the receiver - and this situation made it impossible for me to order a table for a party of eight.The problem is made worse by the fact that they now seem to operate a bookings necessary system, wherein where you used to be able to just walk in, when you do so not without first booking, you get talked at as if you're causing them a major problem, and in my experience, that's simply not acceptable. I've worked in the food service industry, and I was always taught that the customer is always right (with some notable exceptions).I'm sure there are problem customers, but for the rest of us who just want to enjoy the food, the environment, but are told on arrival (without a booking) that we should have booked, it feels like a 'telling off' and that makes me extremely uncomfortable.One last thing, the portions are small, frighteningly so.
Very unclean, over cooked potatoes, completely flat Yorkshire puddings, extremely slow carving, bar staff nagging at each other, all veg over cooked. Sides not wiped down. Staff seemed very unhappy.Our server, Sarah was lovely however and cared about our experience. I tipped her because she was clearly very overwhelmed