Toby Carvery Shenstone — Restaurant in Lichfield

Booked for 4 persons, 2 adults and 2 children at 4pm. Seated at 4, round of drinks ordered and told we’re good to queue for the carvery.

40 minute queue only to be greeted with a run down “selection” of veg, roast spuds that were far from roasted and dregs left of other stuff, clearly needed topping up but customers left to scrape out what they could with utensils that you could fry an egg on.!!

A king size was offered and accepted with no yorkies left, so chef 1 asked chef 2 to get some more…off he went to the kitchen. Returned a few minutes later with a stack of “fresh” yorkies straight from the kitchen…. Chef 2 put 2 on my plate, where I moved them with my fingers and realised they were cold…. Told them they were cold, chef 2 replies, “that’s how they come!”….

“What? They’ve just come from the kitchen?”.

Chef 2, “yeah, that’s how they come?!”.

Not unless you’ve got them from the fridge?

Chef 1 pipes up, “give him 2 of these, they’re fresh ones”…with a dismissive tone.

Chef 2, “that’s what I just gave him”…

I handed the yorkies back with my fingers…didn’t see where they went, in the bin I presume?

Chef 1 puts another 2 “fresh” yorkies on my plate…

I picked them up, yep….both cold. I explained that they should at least be warm, not cold.

I was met with attitude and arrogance as if I was asking for freshly squeezed unicorn juice..!!!

Again I handed the chilled yorkies back to chef 1 with my fingers, informing them that I’ll go without if they can’t be bothered to serve hot food, which he duly returned to the “pile” for another customer to receive….so I can only presume that the other 2 were also returned to be recycled to the next unsuspecting customers.

I spoke to what I believe was a manager and told her the “conversation” I’d had with the chefs which she knew who they were from my description. Said how I’d been made to look like I was at fault and fobbed off in front of loads of customers in the very lengthy queue. I remained calm, polite and felt that I had a good cause to raise the issue?

“I’m sorry about that, they should be hot you’re right….I’ll have a word”… They need a slap, not a word..!! “You’re absolutely right, we won’t charge you for your meal, I’m sorry….”,’.

I thought it was a nice gesture and would’ve defused the situation, however , all they did was knock off £1.99 for the lack of yorkies….

To top it off, I was the lucky recipient of a long dark hair mixed into my mashed spuds which I pulled out of my mouth like a piece of spaghetti…yep, that’s how I felt too…

I told the waitress when paying for our food…her reply, “oh”…

Yup, won’t be eating there again and please, save yourself a disappointed journey, don’t eat there either if you’re looking for quality, good customer service and freshly cooked food.

Customer service: fail. Cooking skills: fail. Attitude: fail. Food hygiene: fail. Food prep: fail.

I’d love a response from someone higher than those I spoke to…..but I won’t...

We have visited this restaurant several times before and have never had an issue. In fact we have recommended it on several occasions. However, after our experience yesterday this will not be happening again. Myself and my wife were queueing up for our food and had just been handed our plates with our Yorkshire puddings and meat. My wife, who was in front of me, then politely asked if it was possible to move the meat and pudding onto another plate as she thought it looked dirty. The person behind the counter, who it turns out is named Joshua so he said, then guided the items onto another plate. He then proceeded to look directly at my wife and said " Is that plate clean enough for you ?" I took this very personally and said to him " That sounds very sarcastic to me ". He then muttered something over his breath and started laughing which I think was for the benefit of his colleague who was stood next to him. I then asked him for his name when he then leaned towards us, stared directly at us and said " Yes, my name is Joshua ". He then started laughing which again I think was for the benefit of his colleague but now also the small group of other customers who were now also listening. We felt very intimidated and insulted by this incredible behaviour all due to my wife requesting a new plate as her original one looked dirty. Whether or not he thought he could intimidate us being elderly ?? I am 66 years old and have never had such poor customer service in my whole life and to be insulted by someone who was probably 40 years younger, well that is disgusting behaviour and a very bad reflection on Toby Inns. We walked away and went to our table, however, the whole family event had now been ruined by this incredibly poor, rude and unnecessary behaviour. Much of our meal was left as my wife was very upset after the incident. Someone with this sort of attitude should not be working front of house with...

We were not at all happy. The plates were cold so no chance of food remaining hot, the vegetables were tepid at best and when I mentioned this I was told that food is kept at an optimal temperature under the lights! I would like to know how many people eat food that is supposed to be hot at such a cool temperature? To be fair they did microwave my food and made it an acceptable temperature. Our disappointment did not stop there however. We had our grandson with us and he wanted Yorkshire Puddings and Sausages but the chef said he didn’t know if they had any, really, 1pm on the first day of half term when parents would be taking children and they didn’t know if they had sausages? The chef did however bring some out. Then we get to the deserts and I requested whipped cream and was told there was none then the waitress brought some out. What an utter shambles!! The excuse for all of this was that they were busy and had had a busy breakfast period. If the staff cannot cope with busy periods you shouldn’t be in business. We asked for the bill and was asked if we had Kids eat for £1 voucher which I didn’t know about but I downloaded it. I it was not brought to my attention that this voided the midweek offer and I had to pay the full price for my meal and desert and my husband got the mid week deal for his meal. Had I known this I would not have had a desert? The actual amount saved was 50p, what a con. The whole experience has made us feel that we will not be visiting Toby...