Toby Carvery Burnt Tree Island — Restaurant in Sandwell

What a shame that this lovely place has gone so down hill, this used to be our favourite Toby carvery but we haven't been for a couple of years, my husband and I visited on a Saturday evening at 6.30pm. and I'm sad to say that the Dudley Toby has really lost it lustre.

We were seater by a really friendly staff member who took our drinks order straight away, after she left the first thing I noticed was mis-matched wall paper that was torn with a big piece missing, I was sat next to a gravy splattered wooden partition.

We went to the deck for our food, the poor Turkey looked like it has been there months not hours, there was so little meat on its bones it looked like a vulture had been sat picking at it, I politely asked the chef if a new bird was due out, he said not yet there were several meals left in that one, Turkey is my choice of meat, but I'm afraid I couldn't eat of that dried up old carcass, I opted for beef, which I have to say was really nice, I moved on to the stuffing and sadly, if was just like sawdust, again I asked the chef if that was all that was on offer. He grumbled something which I couldn't understand, then swapped out the dish behind the crumbs for a new lot of stuffing (almost as dry) then promptly scraped the dry sawdust crumbs on top of the newer dish, my husband and I looked at each other stunned. By this point we were regretting out choice of going to Dudley. Then came the rocks that were the roast potatoes, I gave them a miss, then the sloppy mash I gave that a miss too, by this time, by husband and I, were laughing, how can you get it all so wrong, the parsnips looked ok.. but hurt my jaw to chew.. the peas like bullets, carrots actually quite tasty.. cabbage so dry I wasn't putting it on my plate. Now the cranberry came out of a jar and that was delicious.

I felt sorry for our server because she asked the dreaded question," how is you meal" poor girl 🤣 I had to tell her the truth. I said I'm so sorry but it's awful. It's just so dry. Everything is awful. She did go and speak to her manager and gave us £2 each off which was the price of a vegetarian meal, which made us laugh as the only really nice part of the meal was the meat.

We both ate what we could my husband did much better than me,

We then used the toilets, both of us said the floors could do with a good scrub, by husband said the mens have gone really downhill over the last few years.

We won't be going back, we'll stick to Quinton where we know the food is always good, and toilets are clean.

Our server was so unstanding, and we felt so sorry for her and wondered how many times she would get complaints about the food that night, as I went to the toilet 30 minutes after I got my food, the same veg was...

Our 2nd visit to the Toby Cavery for Sunday lunch. We were greeted by 2 pleasant staff members and shown to our pre-booked table. We immediately met Sarah who introduced herself as our waitress/host, and we ordered coffee whilst waiting for other family members. Sarah was friendly and attentive and is obviously a great communicator and people-person; she took the greatest care to ensure our expectations were throughout our time there; she's a great asset to the company for sure. However - she really was the best thing about our visit; the food wasn't the best! The roast lamb was good as was the beef; the Yorkshire puddings were a disgrace - flat and soggy - hard to cut and impossible to eat; all 5 of us in our party left them on our plates. The cauliflower in a cheese sauce was horrendous - even though the florets were obviously frozen they were not cooked through and the cheese sauce was weak and watery; on our previous visit our complaint was exactly the same re the cauliflower, so no notice had been taken of our feedback then! Roast potatoes were good - but the rest of the vegetables were rather bland and less warm than we'd have liked. Desserts were good though - especially the arctic roll with raspberries. I appreciate that cooking vast amounts of food for so many people is hard work - but surely it's not that hard to ensure that vegetables are cooked through, sauces are the right consistency, and that the serving temperature is correct. We visited the ladies toilets whilst there - they were in a pretty poor condition and had obviously been well used over the lunchtime period; toilet paper strewn on the floors of 2 cubicles, and the floors in others were wet; only one hand drier working and that was a bit spasmodic and kept cutting out after a few seconds. There was adequate car parking with plenty of spaces, and disabled parking spaces were noted, nearer the building; plenty of outside seating too which would be excellent in warmer weather. Not 100% sure we would return for another carvery meal to be honest. Our thanks as already said to SARAH who really did her job brilliantly and was so professional and friendly; had it not been for her personality and care, we'd have given less stars in our overall rating. Gilly, Andy, Lucy, Kat...

I rarely leave reviews, especially negative ones, but I visited this place yesterday and left feeling really disappointed.

After a medical appointment, I decided to grab something to eat before heading home to rest and chose Toby Carvery. Upon entering, the lady at the till asked vaguely what I wanted. I mentioned I was there to eat, and she mumbled something about paying first or eating first as she walked away. I understand she was attending to someone else, but once she was done, she didn’t acknowledge me or try to help. Thankfully, another staff member stepped in and served me with a smile—bless him.

I asked if it was a buffet, and he confirmed yes. I paid for myself and my toddler, then proceeded to the serving area. As I was about to help myself, a chef suddenly came over and snatched the plates out of my hands without saying a word. Apparently, they serve the meat while you help yourself to the rest—but this wasn’t explained at all, and the chef’s attitude was downright unpleasant.

After we sat down and started eating, someone else came over to inform me I had to move tables. Apparently, the section I was in was for people who eat first and pay later, whereas I had already paid. I had to move everything, including my toddler, to a different table all the way across the floor near the bar.

Overall, the lack of communication and the unfriendly attitude from some staff made for a frustrating experience. I’m sharing this so that anyone visiting for the first time knows what to expect—don’t go in...