Toby Carvery / Captain Manby — Restaurant in Great Yarmouth

Carvery not even fit for a Dog Dinner! Dear Sir or Madam, As you can see from the Title this is not going to be a good review in any stretch of the Human Mind And Imagination! And I would like to unfortunately report a very very serious complaint about the standards of your Carvery and overall food service that myself, Mother & Daughter happen to unfortunately experience at 6pm on Friday 13th of September 2024! Which was absolutely awful and nothing Short of completely un edible uninviting and absolute atrocious Carvery Meal that not even my Dog would wanna eat! Me and my Mother and Daughter decided to attend one of your restaurants at Sidegate Road Gorleston Great Yarmouth NR31 7RW on the date and time written above! On arrival there were a fair few people hanging around the bar area awaiting to be seated! We waited a good 15 to 20 mins to be taken to a table even though we booked a table for 6pm! After 15-20 mins we were taken to our table! The table was not clean it was full from the previous peoples meal with plates of unfinished food and food splatted all over the table and we were told to take a seat and wait until waiter or waitress could come and clean the table and take our order! After a another 10 mins of waiting the waitress came over and cleaned the table I felt this was extremely rude and unhygienic to say the least the table should’ve absolutely have been cleaned before we were even invited to take a seat at our table! So that was the first big complaint and it still doesn’t end here! We were served our drinks then asked to go up and help ourselves to our Carvery! On arrival to the Carvery serving area we were utterly shocked to say the least when we saw the state of the Carvery Food serving area! It was nothing short of looking like we have rocked up to a nursery school or infant school during lunch hour after some Toddler or Infant Children have been left let loose to have a massive Food Party Fight! There was food everywhere all over the Carvery Food Counter it was unreal! I said to the Chef is this what you call A restaurant standards Food serving area!? She looked at me gormless and unprofessional whilst carving meat that looked overcooked and undercooked and said I’m Sorry I’m busy doing what I’ve been told to do which is to carve the meat and serve it and cook the meat! someone else is meant to be looking after the Carvery food serving counter and insuring that is kept topped up and looking fresh, presentable Clean and inviting for when people turn up to plate up their food! It was an absolute disgrace to say the least I couldn’t believe my eyes! I could’ve walked out just by the sight of what the food counter looked like but I didn’t I thought I wouldn’t be rude and give it the benefit of the doubt even though I was massively put off just like my Mother & Daughter were but we all thought we would give it the benefit of the doubt before we complain about the quality of the food as you can’t complain we thought unless we taste the food! Well the appearance said it all! The meat was utter garbage! The beef was Pink extremely rare and undercooked, The Turkey was dry bland and tasteless! All the veg was hard and I mean so hard it wasn’t even possible to cut some of it with a knife! The cauliflower was so hard and undercooked the peas were like Gun Pellets the Roast Potatoes were like golden Golf Balls greasy hard and horrible everything was cold not even hot the gravy looked like watery brown like diarrhoea it was totally disgusting and an very unpleasant experience! I should think this isn’t the first complaint you would’ve had I bet you’ve had plenty of others as people were getting up and leaving their tables with utter disgust from the quality of food and service that night! One person that sat opposite me that was already sitting down eating his meal said and warned me before we ate ours that the food is cold, disgusting and that you need a bloody chainsaw to cut through the veg! I don’t know what an earth was going on but this is no way...

BETTER OPTIONS ABOUT!! Used to go here years ago before I moved abroad, thought it would be nice to treat my brothers/sisters for a get together on 21st December, 6 if us ate here 21st. Service was fantastic so we gave our waitress a nice tip, but I can see it will be hit or miss on service!!... Food, wow, how downhill this has gone! I guess you can't blame staff for mixed items with self-service but lack of food there you can! Ordering starters, salmon not available but on the festive menu, prawn cocktail not available but on menu, cheesy mushroom were just mushrooms with a bland cheese sauce that was cold... lovely start... carvery is just that, few of us took the mushroom pie which was yet again very bland, Christmas cake with brandy sauce, brandy sauce had not brandy flavour at all, i could taste only the flour in the sauce, no brandy... CR@p!!...lots of food left which we don't usually do, so pretty much a waste of £160, and made me wish I didn't order xmas day dinner from here a month before.... Christmas day dinner, 11.30am I called as I had 4 meals booked for 12pm and asked if they would be ready for 12 as I'd had a drink and was collecting in a taxi and will keep him waiting there,told yes would be ready at 12 so arrived a few minutes before 12.00. 12.10 I asked when I will get the food and also explained I called earlier and had a taxi waiting, told soon, 12.16 asked again told this time my food is being bought out finally at 12.19 recieved food, very poor service and total LIES! Just be honest to customers, I would of got a later taxi so I didn't have to pay an extra £20 for the taxi to wait If I was told on the phone food will be a bit late!! Got food home, no parsnips, no carrots, no markings on boxes saying stuffing was vegetarian or if gravys were vegetarian even though we had 2 vegetarian options... very poor yet again, so poor we will never use the toby carvery here again!! Blundeston, waterside, caister and harvester all do better carvery than here, and if you go here after reading this then...

Visited this evening for a carvery. We are currently on holiday in Yarmouth but were unaware about the promotion they have been running the last couple of days, therefore we were unaware that it was going to be so busy. We had booked a table and when we arrived the lady on the host stand seemed very flustered and told us she was in a ' kerfuffle' which definitely took us aback but we did understand and were patient with her. We had to wait for our table, it seemed like they were rather overbooked and this was evident from the amount of people that were crowded around the host stand waiting. When at the bar to get drinks, again was very rushed and all staff seemed very stressed and not well managed at all. They were all doing a great job but just needed better managing. We did get our table promptly but waited in a hot queue for 30 minutes before we got our carvery which again, we totally understand and the chef was doing a marvellous job on his own. When served by him, he was attentive and friendly which was great. Our server George, was much the same. Very friendly, attentive and a pleasure to chat to. The food was OK, meat was lovely and so was the mash and veg, but the macaroni was tasteless and the potatoes and yorkies were rather hard- but at £20 for two king sized carveries, I can't really grumble. When going to the bar for another drink, the man behind the bar ( assuming he was some sort of manager by the way he was dressed and the authority he seemed to possess over staff?) asked how everything was and how i was, when i said things were OK and asked how he was he responded ' I'm actually really Crap and have to be back in at 7 tomorrow' which probably wasn't the best thing to say to a customer but I took it on the chin. A mediocre experience but I do feel the need to commend the staff I mentioned in a positive way because they were truly very attentive and were doing a fantastic job. I hope our next visit will be...