Toby Carvery Trentham Village — Restaurant in Stoke-on-Trent

The atmosphere was nice, we prefer sitting in the bar area as there's less craziness. The food was spot on, my partner says the best out of three we've tried. The guy serving us was polite and generous with the meat. Unfortunately, the rest of the staff were very much wrapped up in their own affairs, this is where the other Toby Carveries have been better. We walked in, three staff members were chatting to each other, one very loudly about changing shifts. Two continued to chat right in front of us whilst a lady gave us her attention and gave us a 15 minute wait or sit in the bar area which we were absolutely fine with (we hadn't made a booking). We went to the bar and after asking for a refillable drink, the guy handed my partner Pepsi (which he didn't ask for). He didn't complain and drank it anyway, but unsure why it was prefilled for him with a random selection. Just as he finished serving us, the same guy from the entrance loudly interrupts the end of his service to tell everyone either his or someone else's shifts had changed. He had comolete disregard for his customers. I wish I'd caught his name. Also, just from observation, the staff were constantly hanging around in small huddles chatting around the bar or entrance, that can be intimidating to some customers as it makes them unapproachable. Lastly, we went to leave and not one person took the time to say 'goodbye', 'thanks for visiting', 'Happy Christmas', nothing. It was a shame.

As a side note, the new herby roast potatoes were more like mini jackets. They were crunchy at all and only little flavour. Still, it was nice seeing something new being tried on...

Shocking! The service was OK, although I was stood for 5 minutes waiting for the chef to come out. But regrettably the food was awful, it really was that bad! We have had plenty of carverys in all different establishments all over the UK and this may well have been the worst, by some way! The roast potatoes are one of my favourite parts of a good carvery. I couldn't even eat one of them on my plate. They were so hard I struggled to get my fork in. When I did manage to cut through them they were bad, black inside and totally inedible. The mash was lumpy and again full of hard black lumps also from the bad parts of the potatoes. Extremely bland also. How can chefs not even be able to do a decent mash. Whilst the choice of veg is extremely poor, really just different types of potato, carrots and two choices of greens. The carrots and beans looked like they'd been there since yesterday, so dry and unappetising, again just bland. Even the peas were hard and dry and the gravy extremely thin, my glass of water was thicker. We have had a number of Toby carverys and realise it's a budget standard carvery but this one really was awful. So bad we left a lot on our plate and got a takeaway on the way back to where we were staying. So in our case for what we ate it wasn't even value for money. It always makes me laugh when I see 'home of the roasties' and their famous gravy! Really?! Pay a little more somewhere and get a better one you'll enjoy. I really wished I'd taken some photos, but Toby really needs to look at the quality of what they put out and clearly the standard of how it is prepped and cooked....

Didn't order food; didn't get the opportunity.

Attended with my partner for the breakfast, we were both immediately yelled at by the staff member hereafter referred to as 'Pink Lips' (on account of her poorly, overly heavily applied lipstick) to the bar to order.

We weren't greeted, and were told we were ordering 2x Carvery breakfasts, before my partner and I could request the vegetarian options (health requirements).

When we eventually requested these, Pink Lip became confrontational; stepping back, crossing her arms, and rolling her eyes. She verbally challenged our reasons for desiring the vegetarian options, berating us when we declined to explain.

We insisted on looking over the menu; she rolled her eyes again and turned away from us, appearing loathe to engage.

Upon checking the menu, we approached the bar to order the vegetarian breakfast options (of which the pub offered multiple, which was appreciated). Pink Lips again rolled her eyes on seeing us approach, crossing her arms, looked us up and down, and stated 'got none,' and when I inquired further, she stated 'all gone' without checking.

She then informed us that, as a carvery, Toby Carvery is for 'meat eaters' despite the wide range of vegetarian options available on the menu.

We informed us we would look elsewhere for breakfast, to which Pink Lips didn't verbally respond, and again rolled her eyes and appeared to mouth 'whatever' before turning away.

Foul service. Good food on prior visits though! Pity couldn't advise around the food on this day, but I'm sure Pink Lips...