Toby Carvery Braintree — Restaurant in Braintree

We have eaten Christmas dinner at The Toby Carvery Braintree for the past 5 years, and every Sunday dinner for the past 6 years up until we moved out of the area last year and since then ad hoc meals when we are in the area visiting. We have had nothing but great experiences at Braintree branch ... until yesterday Christmas day!! Thanks to you, our and many, many other families Christmas lunch/dinners was ruined. Please know right upfront NOT ONE of the waitresses was to blame for the abhorrent experience that we ALL endured at your restaurant yesterday. Firstly we had to wait in a long, long queue for 45 minutes just to book in. There was a load of people standing around waiting for their tables. The manager, who we found out was not even there ON THE BUSIEST DAY OF THE YEAR, had left the restaurant to inexperienced staff. The restaurant was also UNDER STAFFED. The poor waitresses that were there were under so much pressure and had so many customers yelling at them because of the long wait times to be seated (i.e. we spoke to a family whilst standing in the queue who were booked in for 2pm and were still waiting to be seated at 3.45pm) and because of the very long wait for their drinks and starters to come to the table. Customers were beyond angry and irritated yesterday. Quite a few large groups were told that they had a 2 HOUR wait for their tables ... they just got their money back and walked out without their Christmas dinner!! We had to CORNER a waitress 20 minutes after we were seated and ask her to please get some drinks for us, and 15 minutes later (our drinks having still not arrived) we cornered another waitress and asked when someone was going to come and sort out our starters. She said she would put through the request for our starters. We had to wait 20 minutes for our starters to get to the table followed 5 minutes later after numerous requests, our drinks. There was quite a few tables that were empty but the very few waitresses that were on duty yesterday were under so much pressure and so busy dealing with seated customers that they were unable to get around to clearing the table, which was causing further delays and chaos for the multitude of people waiting to be seated. My husband had the soup as a starter and couldn't even finish it as he said it was absolutely awful tasting. Our main meal was as always, lovely, but when we went to put gravy onto our food there was no gravy at all and we had to wait for 10 minutes to be brought out, by which time all our food was cold!! Due to the chaos and long waits for anything to come out of the kitchen we opted to not have our desserts as we had to be at family and we were already late. We were disgusted that the manager was not even there to oversee the day and to ensure that everything ran smoothly. NEVER in the past when Gary Leigh was the manager of the Braintree branch was there ever problems like this. The branch ran as smooth as silk under Gary's management, we cannot say the same thing of the restaurant under the new manager. All the waitresses were on edge and unhappy because of what was happening and a few of them were even in tears due to the ridiculous pressure because of the lack of staff and unhappy customers yelling at them for something that was not even their fault. We also believe that a "new system" has been put in place that even your staff says DOES NOT WORK!! Why "fix" something that was not broken in the first place?? Sadly we will not be returning to The Toby Carvery ever again for our Christmas dinner after yesterday's absolute...

Well to be blunt and frankly honest if this was a school report it would simply read 'this restaurant branch is capable of better but needs to put the effort in'. We ate here on New Year's eve ad a family and were very much unimpressed. Don't get me wrong not all aspects of the meal were bad however as an overall experience it was far from pleasant. To kick off we was the last table to be seated at 7.30pm and within minutes were queuing up to get our dinner. I've been led to believe if I'm the very 1st person or the very last person to grace the carvery I will be greeted with the exact same choice and quality of food. This was very sadly not the case. To start their 'famous Yorkshire puddings' were dried husks ready to crumble to dust. There was no gammon and the pork was literally the scrap end left. So this left dry turkey of fat riddled beef. Myself liked the beef that was, full of flavours and not too chewy so wad in fact in my honest opinion the best part of the meal. All the vegetables and potatoes were very much undercooked and not pleasant to say the least. The gravy posts were next to each other and not labelled so had I wished for the vegetarian option anyone's guess was as good as the next persons.

My children who of like gammon had to opt for the overcooked chipolatas which despite their love of them were left eneaten. Also they claimed they were closing at 9pm, just after we sat down they fed the staff then cleared away everything from the carvery so had we wished to get anymore items we had lucked out as it was all gone. There was more staff than customers who seemed to loom and even our waitress asked and cleared away a couple of our plates whilst the others were still eating. This made us very uncomfortable and felt hurried to finish and leave. We'd planned of having puddings all round but felt rushed to pay and leave so they could leave themselves. Some staff had left during our meal quite overtly making it clear to us they were going. There was whom I assumed was a manager on site, short guy with a shirt on who didn't even give us the time of day during on on leaving .

We usually eat at either Colchester or Runwell and to be bluntly honest is like night and day compared to here. It has the feel of a cafeteria and has no soul since the referb and changing of staff. We used to eat here regularly but after a management change the place went downhill fast. When you recieve the same delivery and staff are trained the same how on earth can you get it so very wrong.

This was stand out our most disappointing Toby Carvery for a very long time. On a side note, most staff were not wearing face masks and was clear that we were the only customers wearing them. Not a single person was challenged or asked to wear one especially the extremely rude loud chavvy table that were asked several times to pipe diem and two other parties left due to their foul mouths and nature.

Please get back to basics guys, it really is not hard to produce a nice roast meal or simular and yes, having passed my c&g back in '85 i can pass honest...

It is very easy to say this is a 2 star venue and if I paid £30 a head for a roast maybe I would give a 2 but let’s talk the all important value for money element. £24 from memory…. For two to dine midweek.

Meat was perfectly cooked. The veggies and sides were good on the whole but bear in mind they sit under heat lights for a while.

The all important Yorkie was on point. That is a contentious reflection but as man that is solidly linked to the romantic lands of the north; The Yorkshire puddings were golden, soft at the base and crispy but not burnt at the top. Pretty near perfect in my opinion.

The roast potatoes on this occasion were not as good as they have been. Less ruffled, lacking the crisp of previous visits to other venues. Salt was lower and there was nothing I can say was special about them but they were roast potatoes. Maybe what they need is a touch of gravy…

Gravy, yes, it was there, it meets your needs. I note that Toby, self gratify with the distinction of “Toby’s famous gravy” but… the gravy lacks the depth of flavour of a truly famous gravy but then I reflect once more… £24? Let’s be honest it can not be described as insipid goop, it had some flavours mashed in there but to rescue those roasties. It needed more.

Now bear in mind you can fill your plate in a manner that would be considered uncouth in any circle, you can go back to the veggie selection and top up at any time this is a serious dinner for less than serious cash! Refilling is of course only possible if you can navigate the difficult assault through the meat line back to the service station or suffer the anxieties of diving in, mid queue!

Service is what it is. The corporate monster chases guest turnover to the cost of service. The team are diligent, dedicated and frankly work far too hard but on the whole they are friendly and approachable. If you remember that, lower the expectations you (as a reader of a Toby review) were not born with and then allow for the all important value fur money and bingo.. it’s fine.

Atmosphere, toughie this one. Depends on the guest. The guest varies, the attitudes to dining out vary, sooo… The venue is first view clean, the temperature warm and music appropriate so yes. It has atmosphere but only you can decide if it is an atmosphere you demand, require or like.

So, if all that is too much info. For £24 you can’t go wrong, it’s a 2/3 star meal that gets 4 stars driven by value. It can never have 5 stars (allowing for value) because it’s just not quite the best they actually could be.

Give it a go, here or somewhere else,...