Toby Carvery Kenton Bank — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Visited on 02/01/23 at approximately 16:00. We were a party of two and had not booked on this occasion. Upon arrival we waited at the front desk to be seated, while members of staff appeared to be rushing around and looking in the direction of the front desk but not acknowledging someone waiting to be seated. After approximately three minutes of waiting, a member of staff (potentially the manager due to the attire worn) approached and we were shown to our table. He asked us if we wanted any drinks and we asked for a moment to decide, within 20 seconds another member of staff asked for drinks order once again we asked if we could have a moment to decide. After being asked so quickly twice, we then waited for about 8 minutes before the member of staff finally returned to take any orders from us. When we ordered our drinks and then went to the carvery, there was no-one serving. We waited another 5 minutes for someone to come out of the kitchen. When they did appear, one chef was putting out fresh pots but did not acknowledge us, followed by another chef who had thrown his fresh yorkshire puddings into the trays which was done in an aggresive manner and then appeared to come across annoyed by the fact we were waiting to be served. There was no real friendliness in the interaction and did not hear any apology for waiting time. From the table we could see plates building up on tables not being taken away, and also there was cleaning products left on one table for some time before being removed. When we had finished eating our carvery, we considerd ordering a dessert, so looked at the menu. However despite members of staff walking past there was no acknowledgement to us as customers who were currently dining. The same manager who greeted us at one point looked at us sat with empty plates, trying to draw his attention, to which we then heard him tell the members of staff to clean tables instead of coming to ask if there was any we wanted. We waited for a considerable amount of time with no one acknowledging us or taking any plates away from our table or other tables around us. In the end we decided when we finally caught the attention of the manager to come to the table, we were not to order anything else as we did not want to wait for so long to be acknowledged. When we paid the bill we asked if they were short staffed, which the answer was no. This shocked us as judging from the lack of service and the build up of plates on tables, one would assume that staff levels were short. A sort of apology was given if the service had not been great today but overall the interactions and level of service was poor throughout. I must say however, the food was delicious and the selection was great. I would like to hope this was just a one off occasion whereby the quality of service was not the best, as previous visits had been of very high quality. I think priorities may need to be considered, such as serving customers who are in dining and not walking past, looking the opposite direction, to go and set out new tables, as it would appear was the case...

OK so this was Easter Sunday and I know things would have been quite busy, so when I took my elderly Mum here for Sunday dinner I had already accepted what I have just acknowledged.

However, that is where the good news stops; I'll just cut to the chase - IT WAS COLD AND I MEAN VERY COLD. Most of the things that had been on offer in the pots at the carvery servery were empty so I'm guessing they had been there for quite a long time but we persevered anyway. My Mum was really struggling with the cold food and lack of gravy (as the containers that were supposed to contain gravy were simply empty); eventually my Mum just gave up on her dinner.

We did raise this with the staff when we asked to pay. Of course we heard staff asking other customers if their meals had been alright but I feel they were just being polite when they said yes fine - because they just weren't. Being honest the staff were really nice and we were offered some free puddings but declined (two bad courses won't make up for one dreadful main course).

The manager Chris did adjust our bill to reflect our negative experience and being honest he seemed to listen to what we had to say - but honestly Toby Carvery - this is your business and it isn't rocket science. If your business relies on good food and hospitality, then at least make sure you have things available and at a temperature that could be described as fit for purpose. Looking back, if Environmental Health had checked those temperatures you may have had a bit of an issue.

In addition to this, the website offer stated 25% off all (QUOTE ALL) mains up to 20th May 2025. This being the case, PLEASE then don't hide and exclude Sundays in the small print - at least have the decency to be up front about your offers - I felt it was deceptive at best!

Looking back when I arrived home, I looked at the rest of the reviews for this carvery and I wish I had looked before I booked. I find it astonishing to find a LOT of other people stating their meals were cold. May be a great idea to sort this out and stop saying thank you to people for leaving honest reviews and actually do something about...

If half stars were available I’d score this 3.5, but the very fact that I expected much worse and was pleasantly surprised means 4 stars is my score!

Having not been to a Toby Carvery for a few years I found the process of ordering a tad weird.- Wait to be seated and then handed a menu but you can just go up to the carvery and grab your food… oh, and getting a drink was peculiar as the soft drinks on the menu don’t match what’s on offer via the self-serve pump!?

Anyway, getting over what I guess must be a few of the weird novelty factors of a Toby Carvery, the seating and warm atmosphere was pretty decent. The service was friendly… albeit the guy who dished out the meat seemed to throw it on the plate as if we were pigs at a trough. But hey, I’m not that picky and he was still friendly so when we actually got into the food, obviously after the compulsory awkwardness of tackling the self-serve germ fest, it was pretty decent indeed!

The standard roast beef and turkey serving was perhaps a tad scrimpy but by the time you’ve added all the trimmings you’re left with a pretty full plate. The roast beef was the highlight and I’d even go as far as saying it was up there with the best I’ve had from a carvery for many years. Perhaps we were lucky, after all it was prime time 1230 and the food was actually nice and hot.

Once I’d assembled my plate into an abomination it actually all went down rather well indeed!!! The gravy was good, the meat was tasty and not dry and everything slipped down nicely. Okay, it’s not going to win awards, but this place is worth a shot if you're hungry and fancy a quick stop off for a healthier-ish lunch, dependant on how heavy handed you are with the servings of course!

The only real negative with the food was the parsnips. Some might say that’s a blessing, but I do love a good parsnip and unfortunately that was the only part of the plate that was inedibly rock hard.

My wife and I will...