Toby Carvery Lower Earley — Restaurant in England

As this is a leisure/family orientated pub/restaurant, a lot of reviewers won't experience it at around opening time, which is supposed to be 8am, when I arrived yesterday. Most customers in the 8am hour are not families or couples, they are individuals on their way to or from work and there are a lot of tradesmen in vans, because transport-type cafes that open at 6 or 7am are thin on the ground around Reading. Despite their relatively late opening time, they didn't actually open until 8:06, so I was waiting outside among the benches with dirty beer glasses and paper napkins from the previous evening. The girl opening the doors made a muffled apology, which was probably more to do with trying to get the doors to fasten back than an apology to me (coming off nights) for being late. Once inside I was shooed away from the serving area by the chef who said breakfast wasn't ready yet. Most of it was finally ready by 8:12, but the fried eggs, hardly a specialist order at breakfast, did not materialise until 8:17. I work in a customer facing job and I would be sacked if I wasn't ready to serve customers dead on start time, or I turned up 6 min late and told the customer I'd serve them after I had a wash and shave. Breakfast itself if very good if you're lucky enough to get the items when fresh. It's eat all you can so is good value for money. How good this place is depends on the staff on the day you turn up, so I've given it 3. On a good day it's close to 5. On a bad day closer to 1. Needs better management...

It was our first visit to Toby Carvery. We arrived with our 11 year old (small for his age) and 14 year old who were very excited and could not wait to go to the counter and fill their plates, so went ahead of my husband and I. When back at the table we realised they both had large plates, albeit my 11 year old had meat, carrots and a yorkshire pudding, so lost on his plate. I asked why he didn't get a small child's plate and he said because there wasn't any and the server gave him the large plate. We explained to the waitress, as didn't want to be charged the full adult price of £16.99 as the children's portion for under 12 is £7.49 for two courses. She called for the Manager Emma, who insisted we pay the full price for the adult plate, albeit child portion as part of Toby policy, also part of the policy is the small children's plates are kept out of sight behind the serving counter and need to be asked for. I commend her for sticking to company policy but there are times when you need to use initiative over policy. Sadly, we chose to leave and not stay for dessert, more drinks and coffee. I feel policy over initiative loses customers and gives opportunity in situations, like ours, who have genuine lack of Toby Carvery knowledge, for bad reviews. My reason for this review is to warn future customers with under 12 diners to Lower Earley Toby, to ask for a small plate otherwise you will be charged adult prices. Your loss...

My experience at this restaurant for breakfast today left me feeling truly disheartened. From the start, it was evident that the establishment had some serious issues. The plates provided were visibly dirty, and the one I eventually received left my hands greasy, which is far from the level of cleanliness one would expect.

To make matters worse, they ran out of eggs, and this wouldn't have been such a problem if they had warned us when we reserved a table an hour before our visit. It's basic hospitality to inform customers of such shortages in advance. What baffled me even more was that there's a supermarket, ASDA, just across the road. They could have easily walked there to buy eggs, which would have been a simple solution.

The hashbrowns were another letdown. They were hard and seemed old, most likely due to being under the warming lights for too long. Additionally, the staff's demeanor was unfriendly and not very approachable, making the overall dining experience even more disheartening.

What added to the disappointment was the restaurant's peculiar setup. Despite having a meet and greet podium, customers were required to go to the bar to order and pay upfront, which felt confusing and unnecessary.

Breakfast is something we look forward to after a long work week, and it's truly saddening to have that experience ruined by a restaurant that should understand how hospitality works. I won't be returning here...