Toby Carvery Willerby — Restaurant in England

We went for Sunday dinner around 6 pm . It was packed but we know that's normal for a Sunday . But one thing we did not expect . Was a 41 minute standing qué for the carvery. And my watch said it was 46.8 degrees in temperature in the restaurant. I was told don't worry they have 2 carvers . But we witnessed a tag team scenario. So only 1 carving at a time really . When we eventually got to pick our meats . I saw 9 flies on the meat and 5 flies on the potatoes and vegetables(read other reviews about flies ). No condiments. Apparently too busy to restock them, even though a group of 4 female staff huddled together laughing sharing something on their mobile phones. And quite rudely ,I was told. Right next to the condiment and gravy table Once back at our seats . We asked as well as other patrons asked so around 5 of us asked to open windows or a door. But was told by staff and a female manager . That we were not allowed to open because flies would come and get on the food . But I said to the manager that there were already flies attacking the food,(Also check other reviews about flies here) she replied well you could imagine what it would be like with doors open. So admitted this was normal. I want to know where she did her management training. I did mine with marks and Spencers 29 years ago. And I wouldn't have acted like she did. And fed up she was. I explained it was too hot getting up to 48.9 degrees in the restaurant. I asked if air conditioning could be put on. And was told it was broken. Even my drink was sweating all over the table and my lap. My wife thought there was a crack in the glass lol . My wife and I took breaks going outside . I became dizzy and lethargic. My clothes were soaked . My wife became ill . And wanted to be sick . And at that point we left our meal and went home both with headaches. I do think it is dangerous for a restaurant to maintain at these temperatures. Even the staff had clothes for their head sweat. Bar staff looked ill and zombie looking. Terrible attitude from managers. I witnessed 6 others complaining. And the female manager started to get irate and rude . Basically with the attitude, well you booked the table here. So it's our fault. How booking online can you tell the restaurant was breaking health conditions. If someone reads this that can do something legally about this with Toby . Please help . To stop this happening. Someone will get hurt by Toby staff and policy. I think feeling sick with really bad headaches told me that our brains were being affected by the heat. PLUS if you write a review. Toby answers with a standard pre wrote reply. Not actually from a member of staff or owner. You look at replies from owner . They're all the same. No care for their patrons just a computer...

Sadly, this was my least pleasant Toby experience to date. There was lots of young staff and they were all rushing round looking busy. However, they don't appear to have been fully trained as they were all inexperienced and didn't know what to do, apart from obvious jobs like clearing tables. We were shown to our seats, then forgotten about. Our table was still wet and sticky from previous occupants. We eventually managed to grab someone to place our drinks order. They then just said 'go up to the carvery when you are ready' and disappeared without even asking if we actually wanted carvery or something off the menu. We weren't asked about allergies either. The empty glasses for the refill drinks eventually arrived but we weren't told where the refill station was so we had to hunt for it. The carvery itself was fine and what we would expect from a Toby. Staff worked hard to clear tables once people had left, but gave the tables a cursory wipe with the same wet rag. This is so unhygienic and staff need to be shown how to clean, sanitise and dry the tables properly. Throughout our meal we were repeatedly (4+ times) asked by different staff members if we wanted any more drinks. Obviously it was just a breakdown in communication between them, but it was very annoying and felt like a sales pitch. It took ages to get the bill, then we had multiple issues in paying. The server even tried to convince me that my gift card was invalid and I would have to pay another way. This was because he was entering the details wrong and was all sorted eventually but was another layer of stress I could have done without. Basically, all the problems were because the staff had not been fully trained and had insufficient supervision. Students may be cheaper to employ but if you have them all on the same shift then it just won't work. I was so disappointed in this experience which spoilt what should have been a lovely family meal for my birthday. Hopefully these training issues will get...

Came to this branch for Sunday carvery at around 5.15pm, we were told it could be up to 50 minutes for a table of 5. We waited in the bar.

After around 40 minutes my name was called and a very unfriendly member of staff showed us to our table, which was a table of 4. The lady, I think was a manager or supervisor as she had a large bunch of keys, a beige shirt and no name badge, insisted in the most aggressive manner that I had booked the table for 4 people instead of the 5 and rushed off to get a member of staff to agree with her. (Like I’d suddenly forget how many members of our household there are). I don’t know what came over the lady as she even stomped her feet at one point, it was ridiculous. She was telling us that we would now need to wait a further 40 minutes as it was my mistake for booking the table for 4 people when I needed a table of 5. In the meantime a different member of staff came over to let her know that she had tried to seat the wrong booking and my booking was made correctly for a table of 5. She huffed and started to rush off, my partner asked for an apology and she started shouting saying I won’t give one and don’t touch me- my partner didn’t even realise he did. I’m not sure what’s going on in her personal life, but I strongly suggest she gets some support or further training as I’ve worked in hospitality for more than 20 years and this is some of the worst service I’ve seen.

A total of one hour and 25 minutes had passed before we finally got our (correct) table.

Then onto the next huge queue to wait for our food- fatty beef, no beef dripping potato’s, no cauliflower cheese, no macaroni cheese, no stuffing. I requested the items but only the stuffing was ready. Extremely disappointing. I complained at the time but was dismissed. I also asked if it was unusually busy, staff said it was a steady day compared to usual.

Sub-standard food, ridiculously long waits, no apology for trying to convince me I’m a liar. We won’t...