Toby Carvery Talke — Restaurant in Newcastle-under-Lyme

They have cut down on the amount of meat they give you, food counter is nearly always got food over it, staff that serve you never happy, table are never properly cleaned or floor around tables, and know they have the cheek fining you when you legitimately park in a disabled bay, because they have a new check-in screen for your vehicle, euro carparks who know watch the carparks via cameras made 15.6 million last tax year, Toby carvery you are on your way out So you ask to try it again which we did yesterday 02/11/2024, all I can say is would never go again and would not recommend anyone to go there, we arrived at 3.50pm waited at the front desk after waiting about 3 or 4 minutes for a member of staff to greet us we were shown to our seats by a very miserable young guy who did not even wait until we say down before he asked if we would like drinks, we were sat next to a till point, by the time the guy turned around to put our drinks order in he had forgotten what we had ordered, all the staff looked miserable, we were not given any information by any staff member what to door what we were eating, carvery or menu, we went to the carvery counter and my 80 mother in law went before myself and my wife where she asked a very miserable young guy for her meat and asked if she could not have it to thick, he sliced 3 small pieces which were that thin you could see through them so she asked for some more and a bit thicker, he batted his eye and cut 2 more slices without even speaking to her, he then askedy wife whateat she would like, she asked if there was more lamb as all that was on the counter was a bone and a few scraps, he replied no there is no more left, then a female cook said it's in the oven cooking and won't be ready until 5pm so you will have to have something else. Myself and my wife had only gone in for the weekend lamb so decided not to eat at all which none of the kitchen staff seemed bothered about, I went back to our table while my wife helped her mum. I asked if there was a manager available to speak to I was told yes it's Charly, She came over and had already been informed why I wanted to speak to her as straight away she told me there was no more lamb until 5pm, she said it was because the lamb had been put in the oven late, I told her this was poor management and planning she replied, " that is your opinion", we had a bit more of a conversation but the whole time she just did not seem interested. We were given my mother in laws meal was given to her free which was only just warm as all the trays were stacked high and well above the heating point. Just to add the pub was very quiet aswell and staff just standing behind the bar, my mother in law has just moved to the old peoples bungalows across the road and when talking to some of her friends this morning she was told that 3 of them left there meals because of problems with the staff and food the first week it reopened. I have never seen this pub so quite on a Saturday evening and the food as poor. The refurbishment is very nice but I think the staff and management need a lot more...

Walked in, found a table (fairly busy) and sat down… as we’ve always done for many years here. Some young guy with a lanyard abruptly told us that we “couldn’t just sit down and needed to wait to be seated at the podium at the door”.

Off we went, to the magic podium to find it was unmanned. After a few minutes wait, we went off to find this fella again. Upon advising that the podium was unmanned, he (again abruptly) replied “I’m coming over now, if that’s alright with you?”

Back we all went - he logged on to his laptop and then advised… that we could sit anywhere(!) within the bar area. We pointed at an empty table and he said “yeah, anywhere, if it’s empty”. We waited a bit longer as he was faffing on the laptop and we thought he was updating a seating plan - but he then looked up and said “you can go and sit down now”. As we headed to the table, he walked off and was overheard, by two of our party, to mutter something under his breath.

At this point, his rudeness became critical mass for us… so we left. Not a single moment of confrontation from us at any point…

So…can’t sit anywhere, but can sit anywhere (in the bar area - all open plan anyway, no reservations on tables), wait where there’s no one providing service, get arsey when we point this out, give vague instructions… and then mutter when you think you’re far enough away?

Really? Customer service standards? No wonder there’s such a high turnover of staff (yes we are regular visitors).

Must do...

Service was shocking, waited 10minutes before someone came to our table, the waitress wasn’t busy. She was sorting salt and pepper dishes on tables beside ours, I had to call her over and ask what we done regarding carvery etc. In the middle of speaking to her she walked away, then shouted over from a desk to ask what drinks we wanted. We then went to the carvery queue where no one was present, a ‘chef’ then came from the kitchen, I asked if there was any more gammon, he returned to the kitchen and brought a fresh gammon joint, he proceeded to cut the bit of gammon that had been left lying on the hot plate instead of cutting the fresh one. On returning to our seat after filling plate which was filled with cold vegetables, potatoes were brown inside, couldn’t cut through the beef. The meal was absolutely disgusting. My son wanted a kids meal and even that was terrible, they brought both starter and main at the same time, £6.95 for a tiny bowl of soup and 5 chicken nuggets on their own. I had to speak to the manager, food was terrible. We’ve used toby carvery a few times so we thought we would again while on holiday but NEVER again will we be back to a toby carvery.

Wouldn’t give this place a 1 star but couldn’t be completed without a...