Toby Carvery Ipswich — Restaurant in Ipswich

This is my experience at this restaurant. I went there about 2 months ago with friends who came to visit me. Why am I posting a review now,, it's because we are still talking about the poor experience here 2 months later, so I decided today to post my experience.

My friends came from Ireland to visit me, and wanted to experience the English Roast dinner. It was hot weather, I was in no mood to cook in that heat, so I suggested Toby Carvery (big mistake).

We were all very hungry so we all went for the Carvery +King size.

Things we noticed before getting our food. - The restaurant, seats, tables, furniture was looking a little tired. The menu had stains and was looking very tired. The floor really needs a good clean. The staff looked tired, probably overworked, or poor moral, normally due to poor management. The staff did make good effort, attentive, polite, but looked exhausted. (Manager, if you are reading this, YES WE SEE things like this, and we know where it all stems from). ..

Food time.. When at the counter/carvery area I could not help but notice how good the meat looked. The joints of meat looked like prime cuts. Very impressive. Top notch..

But the positive ends there. Even though we paid extra for the KING SIZE, what we were actually given was more like Child size. Very thinly cuts of meat and a small amount. I said to the chef behind the counter I had paid extra for the king size, he said "he knows" . He said "that's why I gave you more meat". So I wondered how much meat would a person get if they paid just for a normal carvery... No meat??? I was disappointed, so so disappointed. I thought how do I explain this disappointing food to my Irish friends. It was their first time in England. I was so embarrassed. Anyway I moved along and noticed these balls of,,, well something (not seen food like this before). I asked the man behind the counter what were they, (pointing my finger at these strange looking rugby balls) , he said in a smerky way "Yorkshire puddings". I almost collapsed in laughter. I just starred at him. I was lost for words. He said I could have two Yorkshire puddings. I didn't want any lol. But I took two because I paid extra for them.

I got my veg.. I'm not going to go into detail of how bad the veg was because I'm not a veg lover anyway. I went to this restaurant for the carvery, not for veg.

Anyway when everyone was sat down I could see the disappointment on everyone's face. I apologised to everyone. I felt so bad. But 2 months later when talking to my friends, we still laugh about the Toby Carvery day.

If any member of Toby Carvery is reading this then please listen. Yorkshire pudding is the very basics of cooking. It's obvious that your mixture and your oven temperatures are wrong, very wrong. I learned how to cook Yorkshire puddings at Junior school (showing my age now). It was the most basic food to cook. So how can you possibly get it so wrong? If I was the chef working there I would feel so embarrassed. Maybe give him/her some training on how to make Angels Delight, then scrambled eggs. Then if all goes well move on to Yorkshire pudding.

Sorry to be rude, but when you have the cheek to charge me/us for that substandard, very poor food, then i can give the cheek back at you, and well deserved too.

Disgusting, disgraceful,...

Three members of staff were working the floor, they absolutely covered the whole room with a delightful and embracing manner.

The two male staff were Amazing.

My Son & I had lamb roastie. The meat was dry, chewy & tough. The Yorkshire pudding was huge crispy yet took a vast amount of the plate. Not complaining, however I feel that small puddings at the end would make more sense.

Just My opinion.

The vegetables, starting with the runner beans were so over cooked that they were slimy.

The baked vegetables which consisted of thin cut over cooked carrots and other unidentifiable stuff, which had been baked to an inch of their existence then placed under the halogen lights. This baking under the lights, drying out is true of all the vegetables.

The red cabbage was ripped into large peices then teased with the concept of hot water. It was so undercooked that it still owned its original colour.

The cauliflower cheese was almost o.k, apart from the cheese having lost it's consistency due to being glued onto the sides & bottom of the dish.

The peas looked so sad & dry that I would not even consider placing these on the plate.

There were two choices of roast potatoes one of which was presented plain & the other with beef dripping. Although each tray of roast potatoes looked well cooked originally, sadly these too were baking under the halogen lights. I must fairly state that the roast potatoes adorned in beef dripping were flavoursome, on trying each of these potatoes they were so dry, hard & rather difficult to chew.

What a shame.

The mash potato was a no for me personally. As it looked grey & dry.

The stuffing was really nice but not enough of it. I believed that in this instance the halogen lights did the stuffing a favour.

The gravy was hinting that it owned flavour, but alas not much was found. It appears that the gravy is constantly topped up in the bowl thusly creating skin that is stirred into the pot.

Unfortunately the mint sauce condiment was empty. That may have helped place this meal into the 'edible', category. However i doubt it.

As for drinks I had a pot of tea which was tea!

My son had a refillable pepsi which he stated was similar to sodastream with very little syrup.

He could not finish the original glass.

It cost £29.57.

It was the first experience that I & my Son has had of a Toby Carvery & it just so happens to be our very last.

This place has carvery in the title but sadly they seem unable to produce what their...

Where to begin, been a while since my partner and I were last here which was amazing the last time, unfortunately standards have dropped sharply!

Popped in for lunch today and had made a reservation, was quickly attended to, server was amazing and quickly came over to ask us about a drink order(he was the standout of the whole dining experience) we then looked at the menus which had food spatters all over them and were sticky, there was gravy on the salt shaker food on the floor around the table just pushed off to the side, no drink menu available as prices were wrong on the system we were told!

Carvery open we made our way over to which point I witnessed a clear breach of food hygiene laws the carver who was handing out the plates with Yorkshire puddings and sausages and asking what meat people would like, had a full beard and no snood, which is mandatory if you have facial hair when working in the food industry(I know this from personal experience from working in food places and having family that have) that made me very reluctant to eat the food in case of any contamination from his facial hair, once we got our food and did a deep check through for any hairs we found the lamb to be overcooked and the beef very tough and chewy! We even heard a customer ask for a clean glass as her drink glass was filthy

Won't be returning here after all if they are going to breach food hygiene it sends a very bad message, and it's clear standards have dropped in this place rather sharply, which is a shame as who doesnt love a good roast! The big upside is the server was brilliant, very friendly, nothing was too much trouble, he put in a lot of effort to make sure a good service was delivered, just a shame about...