Toby Carvery Lincoln — Restaurant in Lincoln

Bit of a joke, booked a table in advance for 3pm with a disabled person. Arrived at 14.50 time now 15.40 and still waiting. Not allowed to sit and wait in the bar area as there are no seats so we have to stand by the front door. If you cannot handle the volumes of bookings don't accept them. Simple I cannot reply to your dismissive response so I will edit this one. We DID pre-book a table for 3.p.m and arrived at 14;50hrs. We were not allowed to sit down as your staff claimed there weren't any seats/tables in the bar. At 15.40 we asked what was happening and the girl at the desk claimed our names had been called. When I asked by whom she pointed at the bar. I asked the girl at the bar if she had called us and she said no. I asked the receptionist again and she then said it was Fiona. Enter Fiona, she said she had called us but we hadnt heard. The receptionist then said she heard Fiona calling us. Herein lies the problem, 3 of us have stood within feet of the receptionist for 50 minutes, lets just say Fiona did call us, why didnt the receptionist who clearly knew who we were say your tables ready? How can she hear and yet 3 of us within 2 paces of her heard nothing? The place was literally empty by that time so I can't accept anybody called us. As for the food, it would have been okay if the kitchen staff had took the trouble to heat it up. As you will be aware a table near us complained about their food being cold and were given a 20% discount. I see no point in complaining for cheap food, I do so because I want standards to be improved. As for the atmosphere, I cannot comment because it was nearly empty when we finally sat down. To top things off we had been issued some form of parking violation ticket, I assume because the 50 minute delay had put us over our time. And sorry, I fail to see why I should remove reviews that arent to your liking.

Katie the manager rang today and banned us from the restaurant. She falsely claimed we had been given 20% discount, she falsely claimed we hadn't been left to stand up and despite apologising for things that went wrong, wasn't prepared to listen to anything I said. She asked me why I was sighing and was rude and sarcastic throughout. I am happy to hear what she wants to say and remove all of this if im happy. Katie also thinks she is legally trained.... It is not illegal to record someone without their permission, nor is it against the law to use the recording in the context of private law court proceedings, provided the court gives permission for a recording to be used. It would be breaching privacy law to share the recording publicly...

First things first, absolute amazing service from Roisin who greated us and pleasantly complimented my daughter which really put a smile on her face and continued during our visit till the very end.

Onto the food…

It is known that if you’re requiring dietary needs they are to be notified at the start in this instance salmon parcel ( 3rd time lucky and 3rd time not in stock… back up option is a mushroom based main to which my wife is allergic to so the next best thing is a steamed veg with camembert, which again is a very acquired taste dish. But not to my wife ) ( not in a snotty way ) so a plate of roasties, Yorkshire pud and green beans it was for her

Having been at the front of the que for roughly 15 mins waiting to be served to be met with … no turkey ( bare in mind this was pre busy peak time ) Beef was very dry, and the pork slightly undercooked.

Veg options. Carrots - incredibly dry ( been stood for quite a while - therefor past consumption period ) Mac & cheese… dry, solid & overdone plus been stood for quite a while Cauliflower cheese with paprika, again dry and stood for quite a while and with it being dairy it’s past its open sitting consumption period Green beans - it’s hard to get these wrong but here we are, dried out and past consumption. Yorkshire puds, rubbery and tasteless - I mean come on!

So to put it in a nut shell…

3rd time in a row we’ve come and been extremely disappointed.

As a chef myself I can only say to the kitchen staff they do not carry pride with there craft, to me that screams they are complacent with there standards of quality and by the time me and my family consumed of what may of been edible it wasn’t an enjoyable last visit to this restaurant.

Judging by those in front of me to pay the bill they seemed to of had the same experience, and when I came to pay myself you can tell that the lady on the till who was full heartily apologetic and judging by her reactions this has been going on for sometime and for a well known carvery this beyond embarrassing.

People come to treat their families with a brand everyone knows to be great but it seems the reputation has declined along with the below standards kitchen has to...

Myself and my son came out for a meal this evening as a last minute decision at my son’s request.

On our way there we received a phone call to let us know only two meats were available as they had a very busy lunchtime, we were booked in for 7pm so I’m not surprised but was great that they called to warn us.

Food was delicious, plenty of choice still at the hot counter at 7pm. We were stuffed!

However our highlight was the staff, my son commented a lot how friendly and helpful staff were throughout our time there. This was then confirmed by the main event of the evening…

We paid and went on our jolly way, waddling back to my car which was parked near the restaurant in St Marks. The waddling may have been due to the amount of food or the fact I’m quite heavily pregnant. I then discovered a car parked very close to mine and there was not a chance I could get into my car (due to the big baby bump, maybe also partly because of the food I munched!).

So I went back into Toby and spoke to Ollie (Oliver on the receipt) and asked if he could see if the owner of the terribly parked car was in the restaurant. He went out, got the number plate and assessed what was happening and asked around. Sadly no one’s in the restaurant. He suggested he could reverse my car out but we’d find if it was a customer’s at another business across the way. Sadly it was not.

Ollie then spoke to his colleague (I presume his supervisor or manager (lovely lady from the phone call to the end!)) and agreed Toby and Ollie would not be liable for any damage, I 100% agreed and was more than happy for Ollie to help me get my car out to get us on our way.

Ollie reversed my car out perfectly, he did state it was the biggest car he ever drove (and perhaps I needed to give instructions of the buttons of the keyless car and button handbrake before he got in it rather than when he was in it, sorry Ollie!!). His colleagues cheered him on from the restaurant, he was a hero!! Thank you to Ollie and the team working in the evening on the...