Brent House Carvery — Restaurant in England

Sadly not so good this time. We had a takeaway, as usual. Some of what I'm going to say here might seem a little harsh and possibly unfair, and so I would of course be happy for the venue to respond and counter any of the points I make. If they do, I might even modulate my review to take their explanation onto account. Clearly they were suffering from their popularity of the venue for Sunday carvery today. As always it was very busy, but it has to be said that running a "please wait here" system on entry requires you to be fairly quick at taking people from that point and then getting back again for the next in line. They were not fairly quick at it, by any stretch of the imagination. They didn't have any lamb, perhaps having run out earlier... which is a shame because frankly lamb is the least affordable for your own home cooked Sunday lunch, and a large joint cooked for a carvery is such a treat. They were in such a rush serving the meat that I had to ask for crackling on the pork. The Yorkshire's were undercooked and doughy and the cauliflower was a little too al dente. The serving area was a real mess. Replacement of empty veg containers was slow, which held up the already large queue. It felt as if everybody was too busy and therefore nobody was in control of the service area. Certainly no-one was ensuring it stayed clean. On the whole, if I were to guess, I would say the issues today might have been down to the lack of experience of most of the staff on duty. Young people are often excellent at what they do, when they are properly trained to do it, and have the experience (or the training) to proactively know what needs doing. That didn't seem to be the case today, sadly. All in all, the food tasted good, but on this occasion the overall service, the messy self serve area, the lack of choice and the basic cookery errors were not so good. It makes me wonder why we would ever again want to pay 30% more on a Sunday for a vastly inferior...

First time visiting, arrived at 3.20pm on a Sunday, they were able to get us in then came over to the table to tell us when to go up for Carvery to avoid queuing for ages.

Not only is the quality of the food brilliant but you get so much on your plate, they are serving you but ask how much of each thing you like etc. and you can tell them more or less. I think this is a COVID measure as there is also a screen between us. It all works like clockwork, they have plenty of staff on and it's nice to know that you don't have lots of people touching the same serving spoon just before you're about to eat food.

Did think to begin with that £15 was steep and a smaller, cheaper option is only offered to children under 11. I couldn't manage half of my food and asked for a takeaway box which was happily given to me to take my leftovers home in :)

Also the conservatory is gorgeous, love how bright it is in there thanks to the skylight and large windows surrounding you. Gorgeous views making it an ideal place for a Sunday lunch or a special occasion. However, we were seated next to the window and when the sun hit (just as I started eating) I got uncomfortably hot so next time will ask to be seated nearer the inside wall... Depending on the weather.

Cold drinks and a jug of cold water given. To my pleasure, one of few places that still have full fat drinks on tap! Can't comment on the cakes as I was too full for dessert, but as I passed the cake counter they looked glorious and I could see others getting them as a take away option and the portion sizes looked very generous.

Will definitely return. We were recommended this place by regulars and we will now be recommending...

This place gets rammed but what amazes me is how many people give 5* reviews. Today we went, the line for the counter to get the food took us over 35mins of queuing. When you get there the food can only be described as slop. The beef was full of gristle, the gammon was ok but daily tough, roast potatoes looked just about cooked and not fluffy inside or have any crisp texture from roasting, the other “roast” potatoes with onion are deep fried and just soggy as hell. The stuffing is just disgusting and no attempt made to even add any cooked texture to it apart from mixing the granules with water and then served and the bubble and squeak is the same. The one decent part of the food is the crackling! The food counter has food all over the floor and the gravy is all over the counter and not once in the 35mins of queuing followed by 7-8mins of trying to get my food did anyone come along to keep the place at least half tidy.

The bloke carving the meat is a cross contaminating from carving the meat and then using the meat fork to grab yorkies and slap on peoples plates regardless if they’re veggie customers or not. (This is just pure laziness)

The waiting staff who all look like they’re in year 7 of senior school can’t take orders right, send the wrong drinks, put kids as adults and try charging you for it and if you dare to correct them they have the cheek to ask if you’re sure you are telling them the right table!

Instead of letting everyone go up and queue for food at the same time why not do it where you send a number of tables up at once and stagger it to make it easier. And then just maybe the staff might not be as sloppy as...