Toby Carvery The Friary — Restaurant in England

A treat for Fathers Day started badly when we ended up queuing out of the door despite having booked a table over a week in advance. It took about 10 minutes to finally reach the bar where the 2 women serving checked us off on their computer, took our drinks order and payment. No wonder the queue seemed to take forever, with one just taking payment and one making drinks, they weren't moving on to the next in line even though payment had been made and people were just waiting for their drinks. Then the next issue, we had requested in the online booking system for a table as close to the serving space as possible as I am currently on crutches after knee surgery and unable to walk very far or stand for more than a couple of minutes. I know they can't promise these requests, but when we asked where we were sitting, we were just told to find an empty table (there were plenty of empty tables away from the food stations, just nothing close by). We were told they were only reserving tables for larger groups, we saw a couple of tables with bits of paper on so assume these were the lucky families, both of these were conveniently close to the food areas. As someone who is only temporarily struggling with my mobility, this was both a painful and upsetting experience to be completely disregarded just because of my mobility problem. Not one member of staff asked if there was anything they could do to help. The queue for food is generally expected but we timed it well with only a couple of people in the queue. However, for some reason the kitchen seemed had failed to realise how busy a Father's Day could be as the serving counter ran out of firstly sausages which were replenished within a minute, then mushrooms and finally eggs. There was no sign of a chef or even one of the waiters despite it being clear the line wasn't moving and queue growing. It must have been close to 5 minutes that a chef came out of the kitchen, putting some more food out, looked up at the man in front and said 'oh are you waiting for eggs? I'll go and see if we have any'! A couple of minutes later he reappeared with a tray with about 9 or 10 eggs on... I mean there were already 6 people standing at the counter with food on their plates getting cold waiting for eggs, never mind the poor queue of people behind us! The whole disorganised experience unfortunately isn't new at this Toby, but this breakfast experience was mind blowing and a complete example of how not to organise a restaurant on an obviously busy day, as well as showing basically that they dont appreciate the customer. A real shame as some Toby's can be really nice but whether it's lack of staff, management not wanting to employ enough staff, or lack of direction from the management team, this Swindon Toby just seems to be a disaster most...

Update: Scanned code for rewards and mentioned it twice as it said removed on the receipt. They said it was accepted but it never came through. The customer service ignores you and it was never fixed even weeks after with evidence.

We booked to celebrate a birthday. It was somewhat busy, so there was limited food left and just unlucky with receiving bad pieces of meat. There was no gravy left, so there was a queue for it as 1 customer said. We waited in line and got other sauces first.

A white male customer purposely threw mint sauce all over my arm, which I had wiped off with tissues, and he had made rude comments towards me without apologising. I was angry that he did it on purpose and did not say anything until he made comments, proving it was on purpose. This made the family angry as it was on purpose against us. They don't speak English. A white male staff member in black came over and saw it and wiped up the mess. Of course, we argued. The man says some things and walks off. This should have been the end of it.

The white male waiting staff had sat us near each other, which they should have separated us after what happened. We had to walk past him to get to our table. As I went past, he was trash talking about us, which I made clear to his partner what happened. She told him off for not apologising. A female white staff member came over, repeating that there are children around and to not argue. There was no swearing, no name calling, or physically fighting. I only stated what had happened. "He threw sauce on me on purpose and claims it was an accident, but if it was an accident, there would have been an apology."

I went to get a drink. The same white male staff came over saying that we are as bad as each other and need to stop arguing. I said that's fine, but he needs to stop lying and talking about us. He said he told the man to stop, too.

The situation could have been handled much better by staff. The staff saying we are as bad as each other and asking me to stop defending me and my family against racism and assault is ridiculous. Everyone in the restaurant heard what happened. The man who was queuing behind us also saw what had happened. If it was an accident, he would have apologised and not made rude comments. It's like the staff made judgement against us because we are not white, and my family can't speak English. They did not care to check CCTV, resolve the issue, or call police to help. All the staff did was tell us not to argue. I'm very disappointed in how they handled...

An extremely poor visit, with a crowded and over-booked restaurant. I chose to visit on Thursday and made a reservation for one in the evening. I saw a number of times were fully booked, so I opted for a 20:00 booking when there was much more availability.

I arrived at the restaurant and there is plenty of parking available, it’s free too. I went inside and had to wait a while at the front desk but eventually someone came, I was shown to a table and before I could even sit down I was asked what drinks I wanted. As I wanted water, I just asked for this, and went straight up to get food.

It was a complete disaster, there were more than 60 people in a queue at the carvery deck. I was gobsmacked, but joined the back of the queue. I stood waiting and then I was spoken to rudely by a customer for apparently being in the way of their table, despite the fact I was simply standing in the queue. I then moved, and found myself stood in the way of staff backwards and forwards.

It was hot, overcrowded and there was hardly any room to move. I saw plenty of staff, but nothing was happening. After 10 minutes of waiting in the queue, I hadn’t moved even one step. At this point it was about 20:15 and I realised they stopped serving food just before 9pm.

Evaluating the fact that the queue would take more than 45 minutes to reach the carvery deck, I decided I wouldn’t get served and the wait time was excessive. I went back to the front desk, waited again for someone to come and told them I’d like to cancel my booking/table for one due to excessive wait time. No apology or anything, just a dreadful experience.

I’ve never seen the restaurant this busy, but I have a feeling it may have been due to a £5 carvery promotion to which it was busier than usual. If this was the case, the restaurant should have limited/restricted bookings to ensure the best customer service was provided to all of those visiting in the evening. The way it was handled was very poor.

Overall an awful experience to which I didn’t even consume any food or drink or make a purchase, simply a failed reservation. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant to others and I won’t return to this location as it is obviously...