Toby Carvery Widnes — Restaurant in England

We have visited this venue this evening for my husband’s birthday meal. It turned out to be a disaster. This venue does not cater for disabilities or allergens fully. This venue is not an inclusive environment for all. The staff lack common knowledge when it comes to diversifying the service.

We have three children, all of which suffer from different severe food allergies, and all carry an EpiPen. Two of our children are on the spectrum. Our youngest child is very difficult to please when it comes to food options, his dietary requirements are based on his allergies and the texture of foods. We rarely take our family out for meals because we find venues simply do not cater for our family’s needs.

This evening, I took two of my children to get their meals at the carvery. The server wasn’t very pleasant or accommodating when I asked if he could cut a Yorkshire pudding in half, as our daughter is 6. His reasons where he couldn’t because of allergies. I explained we had a child with a severe egg allergy, so we understand that knifes cannot be cross contaminated. He commented back, “yes you should understand that” – I was shocked at his lack of effort to accommodate us, he could have simply got a clean knife or have a system in place where a knife is already there to purposely cut Yorkshire puddings in half for children’s plates, as most children only eat half anyway. Which is a simple task. Instead, he just threw it back at us. It didn’t help that they were unorganised with their meats and no gammon was ready in time for the replacement meat. It was a 10 mins wait. Again, this just shows a lack of effort and organisation in the team’s process for preparing food and catering for all food requirements. My children only eat gammon. That was the start of the nightmare. Then my husband arrives back at the venue, with a McDonalds for our son, to be told by the manager that we couldn’t eat as a family as the company’s policy is no food from elsewhere. I explained we did this all the time. He said he thinks we have been allowed in the past, as no one has noticed us. I explained our sons’ issues, he just said I’m sorry I can’t allow it and that he had kids etc. He told us to take our son and sit in the car and eat it. So displaced our family meal. No common sense, empathy, or consideration to our complex family needs. No diversity, no room for movement, just a no. I had to take our son out and we missed our family meal, while my husband ate with our two other children. I still wanted to have my meal, but of course went past my hunger due to sitting with our son in the car. When my son finished, we returned into the restaurant. I went back to the carvery point and asked for a small plate, then got challenged by the carver as to weather the plate was for a child or myself. I said it was for me, and he refused to let me eat from a smaller plate. I had to have a full adult portion. At this point I could have cried. We will never return to this venue again. The staff need some extra training in dealing with families with a diverse need. They could have made it so easy for us to enjoy a family, birthday meal but instead they fought us with every need. Making it challenging, which changed the atmosphere dramatically. Every family is different and if venues want to be inclusive, they need to ensure their policies have room for some consideration. I hope the management team get to read this and make the appropriate changes to the training they so...

for many, many years went to the waterside Toby carvery, but after the last two visits being awful from the food not up to scratch,to the staff and general manager being ignorant and rude, we decided to try Widnes. From the moment we arrived at Widnes Toby Carvery, we where treated absolutely fantastic by all staff who's names I will list individually at the end. I booked over the phone last minute and requested if possible a booth and near to the food as possible due to my husband's disability. We where greated straight away by a lovely helpful young man who recognised our booking, straight away and seated us in a booth and right by the food without question. Kirsty asked us our drink and menu choices straight away. The drinks arrived quickly, we where offered alot of assistance for my husband's getting his food from the carvery. The chef's where fantastic, extremely polite and very knowledgeable and helpful. The cleanliness and Covid measures where exceptional and we felt safe and reassured that our health and protection was a high priority from this establishment. Our food was absolutely gorgeous so fresh and tasty. Our plates where cleared in a timely manner and dessert menu offered. The presence of staff was just right, from them asking if we where happy and enjoying our food to clearing them once finished. Doing so without making us feel like they where hovering to swipe our plates, or us waiting too long. All the staffs help and assistance was very much appreciated. We have booked again for my birthday on Monday 5th October. Hopefully we will have another great meal. The staff we would like to thank and be praised/recognised are: Server-Kirsty, Manager-Nat, Chief's- Wayne and Ste. Other bar staff/servers who we spoke and interacted with also are Alicia and Sadie. Head office and Management of the Toby Carvery Widnes should be extremely proud of the staff there, I don't normally bother writing reviews or feed back but really had to on...

Extremely disappointed at the service this evening, we booked our table for 5.30 we arrived 15 minutes early and was taken straight to our table at this time there was hardly anyone dining, no one waiting to be serviced carvery. We ordered 2 children's meals (1 that was got from the carvery, the other chicken nuggets & beans. We waited a while for the nuggets to arrive and also waited for the carver to return to get our carvery meals. Then we finished our meals and by this time tables were filling up and there was literally no staff to be seen several times, eventually we asked one that was passing if we could order deserts and for our table to be cleared. Again we waited a while, we finally ordered deserts 1 of which was an ice lolly, and got our table cleared. But again still waited endlessly to get them. We had yet another long wait to find a staff member to ask for our bill and you've guessed it yet another wait to get actually get the bill and then a further wait to pay the bill. By this time it was 7.15 so 2 hours to get 2 courses. When asked if everything was ok, l just had to say no, l thought the service was very poor. I was told they were short staffed. I spoke with the manager and expressed how l felt and he too said short staffed My thoughts was l booked a table and went in when it was extremely quiet then loads of people turned up some may have just walked in others may have booked but was probably told there was a long wait because of staff shortages. At no point did l get an apology until l complained, the manager knocked off a couple of pounds off my bill which l had to ask if anything could be done...