Toby Carvery Edinburgh — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Today (Sunday, 10/11/24) we were in the area of this Toby’s carvery when I remembered I had a gift voucher from Groupon for the 2 course meal for two. We weren’t planning on eating out at all but decided to check with the staff if they will accept the voucher, and dine in in case they did accept it. We were happy to pay for anything extra we ordered (drinks) since the whole meal was meant to be free on a Voucher. Couldn’t been more wrong.. Throughout the whole evening we were served by 3 people - first waitress seated us and asked for our drink order, but before we ordered anything I have showed her the voucher and asked her if I can use it here today. She said “Sure, just show me your voucher when paying, please”. So, after getting confirmation from the waitress we decided to stay and dine in. We ordered 2 drinks, 2 mains; we were quite full but since the voucher included a dessert - we ordered desserts, too. Third waitress comes with a bill and after I show her the voucher she proceeds to tell me that they do not accept any coupons/vouchers/anything on a Sunday. We were shocked and informed her that the colleague of hers told us we can use the voucher and that was the reason we stayed to dine in. Rather than trying to resolve the situation she proceeded to ask us what the waitress looked like, what hair colour she had, etc - as I’ve mentioned before - we were served by 3 people throughout the evening. All I remembered was how smiley and welcoming first waitress was - not her clothing or hair colour. We explained that we were not planning on paying out of pocket for anything but drinks, as those were not part of the voucher deal. Waitress No3 just told us there isn’t anything she can do and proceeded to wait till we pay. If I knew I had to pay for everything in the first place and not just drinks I would either leave, or at least I wouldn’t be getting desserts. I had to pay 48.46£ out of the pocket for something that was meant to be a free meal…this might seem like an insignificant sum for some, but I didn’t have spare 50£ laying around for dining out (hence the Groupon voucher I tried using), so had to go through embarrassment of scraping together all available money I had.

Please, can waitresses be informing people who’s coming in with the vouchers/coupons whether they will be able to use it on a day and not just assume things? If I was presented with correct information I would be able to make an informed decision which wouldn’t cost me 50£ out of...

Came in today as a family of 4. Waited at the front door at the “please wait here to be seated sign” for what felt like a very long time. Unsure if anyone would have seated us if I didn’t walk into the main area and ask if we should help ourselves to a table. A pleasant young lady then apologised for our wait and took us to a table. Anna (I think that was her name) then came and explained service style and got our drinks order and after that food order. Was told she would return a few minutes before our children’s food was ready to send one of the adults up to get the carveries that we ordered. This never happened so had to go to carvery after kids meals arrived. No mash or chips available for kids meals just roast potato’s which seemed odd but ok if that’s the menu I suppose. Soft drinks to help yourself to but seemed really flat both the Pepsi and the tango that we had. I had to wait a very long time at the carvery deck for someone to go out the kitchen. Generally the staff seemed nice but either too few to do the job or not interested in staying on top of their job. As I sat eating multiple tables came and had even longer waits than us at the front door including one lady coming round to the carvery deck to shout at the chef asking for help getting seated. Another gentleman wanted served at the bar and waited around 10minutes for anyone to notice him. The food itself was alright but no rotation on the carvery at all with fresh Yorkshire puddings dumped on top of the old ones meaning when the top ones now go the bottom ones have been there for a very long time. The full carvery deck of veg looked old and not appealing however mostly tasted ok when served and had some gravy on it. after eating no one around to pay up with so had to go to the bar to pay. New young girl by this point had started her shift and seemed very stressed and pulling her hair about how much she had to deal with as a funeral party had just arrived. Overall felt really bad for the team working but really not a great experience for us or the customers who had come in around late lunch time today. Would not recommend or bring people here in future. Elgin haugh farm house inns is night and day ahead of what we...

As usual, the restaurant building was a bit tired. Because of this, it didn't look fresh and clean. We were met by a man who appeared to be the manager. However, I didn't know that for sure. He showed us to a table and before we sat down he asked us if we would like a drink. At this point, I felt a bit rushed. However, he left menus and went away to see to the drinks. When he returned he had given us enough time to decide what we wanted and he seemed a bit less flustered. We both decided to have the carvery. We both went to the serving area. There was a young lad on the carving. He was serving a couple in front of us. We didn't wait long. I ordered just the beef although you could have more than one choice if you wish. There were 5 meats to choose from. The lad started carving. He chatted away while he did this. Now usually I feel like the meat portion can seem a little small. However not in this case. I thought he was never going to stop at one point! My wife asked him to stop before he was finished. He also asks if you would like a Yorkshire pudding then he gives you the plate. You then get to pick your potatoes and veg gravy and sauce etc. You can go back for more veg etc if you wish. I didn't fill my plate as full as normal thought I might have a desert. The food was hot and of good quality. Although I found the beef a bit fatty. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. The manager was around and chatted a bit. He seemed a bit more relaxed now. The staff all seemed friendly and approachable although I felt the manager was trying to do too much himself and maybe not delegating enough. Overall we had a good experience and you won't feel like you've been overcharged. Improving the decor would make a big difference and maybe trying to improve the quality of the beef. However, this would make the price increase ultimately. However, I would pay a bit extra for these two improvements. Oh and yes I did have a dessert. I had apple and plum crumble with custard. Which was better than I expected for a...