Toby Carvery Wolviston — Restaurant in England

Miserable. The only reason I’m giving it two stars is because the food was edible and the staff are also polite and friendly. This place is really poorly organised and managed though. Many free tables yet a long wait to be seated for NO reason. There are staff pottering about and tidying and taking payment around their designated sections and then one or two people in charge of seating AND getting drinks whilst plenty of customers wait to be seated. Surely it would be better to have the same staff who tidy and bring the bill to get the drinks orders, especially when there are free tables, so that the person who seats everyone can focus on that?? Seating customers when there are plenty of free tables should be prioritised. The queue for the food is absolutely unforgivable. Queued for half an hour and could feel the heat of the overhead lamps as we were crammed into a small queueing area. Felt unwell. There was one person carving- he was very nice but this is what was causing the delays. He needed help. The vegetables and sides section was frequently vacant without any customers there because the hold up was not that there were particularly a lot of people to be fed and moving slowly through the sides section, it was purely the meat section that was slow. I’ve seen far busier Toby Carveries- in terms of how many diners were actually in the restaurant, able to handle customers and allow them to get through quickly. By the time I made it to the sides they needed replenishing- so I queued all that time for the dried up dregs. As I would have had to queue another 30 minutes to get anything else I gave up and left. Other places have a different queuing system and a shorter queue (even though busier) and they don’t have people queue up when they are going for seconds behind the school dinner length queue. Horrid. To summarise When there are plenty of free tables and long queues to be seated- let the person who is seating people JUST do that. If you have slow queues due to only one carver and therefore the sides section is frequently vacant without customers, allow people just queuing for second helpings to join the queue at a later point (this just seems a stingy way for you to deter people from going up again which is kind of the point of your restaurant, isn’t it?) OR, if the queue is being held up ONLY because of waiting for the meat and not to do with many people moving slowly through the veg and sides- get another carver! Make sure the veg and sides are replenished and not dried out. No one wants to wait 30 minutes for second rate food. Won’t go back. Try the Darlington one-...

Not been here for a while, and we were really looking forward to it. Plenty of spaces to park, and signs everywhere to put your reg number in the machine so you don’t get a parking fine. Entered the Toby, and the seating lady was showing a lady a tour of the place. We eventually got seated in the bar area. We all decided on a carvery and went to order, there was only 1 member of staff in the section where I went to order, and although he was very polite, he was obviously either new, or under pressure. After 2 people jumped in front of me, I ordered my drinks and food. My drink was tasty but flat, others were tasteless and fizzy. Great start. So, we joined the short queue. As soon as it was out turn, the single staff member decided to top up on the serviettes, off he goes, comes out with a pack and dishes them out everywhere. Then he carved up a plate, and disappears in the kitchen. He comes back out, and decided to go and get some pork. But he’s not quite ready, and decides to clear the scraps from all the serving area. The queue was growing by the minute. So, we get served, start our meal, we are just about finished and the pigs in blankets turn up. The food standard was fine, everything was warm. The tables were clean and usually a friendly place to be. Hoping this is a one off, but we certainly won’t be coming back. We used to come once a month, but it’s a bit out the way. Sorry Toby. The amount of customers paying average £15+ a head should have more staff than what we saw. It was busy, so the tills should have been full.There was people trying to pay, and couldn’t. I’d be surprised if people...

I have visited many Toby Carverys including the branch at Wolviston and I have to say that I am appalled by the attitude and the service I received by your staff. Firstly, I had to wait several minutes waiting at the entrance waiting to be welcomed and seated. This did not happen, So, i went to the bar and even then, I had to wait several minutes to be served. Once served I decided to sit in the bar early as I was attracted by the fact that it had a TV and I could watch the news while eating. I have no complaints at all about the service which I received from the carvery staff at the counter. He was polite, chatty and very hospitable. Once served, sat down and stated to eat I noticed that the roast potatoes, gravy and the veg were all luke warm. This disappointed me and I certainly wasn't expecting it. The major issue which troubled me the most was that while I was eating I noticed that my table and hand was getting wet. The ceiling directly above my table, which i was sat and eating at had quite a noticeable hole in the ceiling and was leaking rainwater. When I alerted the staff, she didn't come over and investigate she simply said well you'll have to move tables from a far as she walked past. The ceiling continued to leak quite substantially until a bar man came over and put a bucket underneath to collect the water. There was no apologises from the staff, no reassurance nothing. The last words your female member of staff said well, you can go anywhere in the Pub but it only leaks there. That to me is NOT customer service. Shame on Wolviston Toby...