Toby Carvery Runwell — Restaurant in Chelmsford

Went in for dinner on sunday, lovely food, our waitress was amazing, had an enjoyable evening until it was time to leave. I had my jacket over the back of my chair and it brushed up against the wall and it got covered in thick green residue from the newly painted wall. It wasn't brushing off, as it was a barbour wax jacket unfortunately it had stuck to the wax. The waitress gave me a wet cloth but that didn't work so the manager came to help, really kind man, didn't catch his name but he couldn't get it off either, so he called the GM to speak to us.... well he was so rude so dismissive and so unhelpful... just kept saying he would pay for dry cleaning....unfortunately you can't dry clean a wax jacket. He just kept saying he couldn't do anything without a receipt, even though it was his establishment that was still dirty from the refurbishment.... a builders clean does not mean it is clean. I went back there yesterday with a receipt to sort out the problem, but the GM was nowhere to be seen, instead we spoke to the assistant manager chris who's first day it was, he couldn't have been more helpful... really nice chap who went above and beyond to help us resolve the situation. Another member of staff mentioned the GM was hiding out the back as he doesn't like to get his hands dirty, not very professional. It was just such a shame that it happened in the first place, but errors acure, its life, but it was the way it was handled that was wrong regarding the GM. A disappointing end to...

All staff polite and helpful but also a couple who were challenging. Quite frankly I find it very poor customer service, when i request or decline something which does not meet my standards or requests, that a waitress and a chef, serving the meat, felt the need to try to override my choices or requests. We are paying for our food, paying for the service and keeping people employed by doing this. Either I am a happy content customer who has experienced a great meal and a great service, and I pay my bill, or I do not! I would not pay for any bills whatever they might be for, if my need or requirements were not met, so I feel this should be address in the hospitality sector too. I am unsure why hospitality staff feel the need to challenge the customers choices. I feel the correct way to address this would be to provide the customer, within reason of course, what it is they have asked for. I did not want the slice of lamb provided to me, which was two thirds fat, i asked for him to remove it from the plate. To which I received a reply on butchery and fat to meat ratio. my daughter requested a fresh sauce as the bowls in the condiment section was practically empty but also, the remaining scrapings were dried up. Ours were not big demands, not rudely requested and I feel these could have easily just been provided without "well thats not our way", kind of attitude. Small things like this, make big differences to reviews and recommendations, not to mention,...

What a way to run somebody else's business. We came in at 2.30pm, we hadn't booked a table because it was past lunch time and the car park was nearly empty. We entered the restaurant and was asked 'had we booked ' we said no and the lady had to study her computer screen for a couple of minutes then instead of showing us to a table she described where we should sit. We walked up the steps into the dining area thinking we had been mistaken and the restaurant was full (because of the palaver in finding us a table and thinking she had squeezed us in) but no there were plenty of empty tables, but the one we were given was in the middle of the restaurant on our own. We then went up to get our dinner and stood waiting for someone to come and serve us for about 8 minutes then had to ask a waitress to get someone. We were told he would be a couple more minutes, eventually another waitress came and served us the meat. The potatoes were not the best definitely not the floury middles and crispy outsides that I thought Toby prided their selves on and the veg was very dry where it had been sitting under the lights for to long. It looked very unappetising and it didn't taste great it was also hard. Very disappointing, especially as we had been watching a TV whilst waiting and they were showing the food being prepared and it all look cooked to perfection. Definitely not a great experience today. I think it will be a long time before...