Toby Carvery Newton Abbot — Restaurant in Teignbridge

We got there around 4:40 pm. Place was clean, staff were cheery and nice - there was the odd person dotted around but mostly empty. We ordered carvery. After a short while we were told to go and get it. Waited for what seemed like an age for anyone to appear, but was probably no more than 5 or 10 minutes. One guy came out to replace the roast potatoes - he was also nice and cheery. The waiting time gave us a chance to take a look at the food... The meat looked dry but, to be fair, there was no-one else eating so no kind of turnover. Anyway, this guy comes out to serve the meat. I'd never been in a Toby carvery before so I wasn't quite sure what the protocol was, so I expected some sort of interaction from the server that would give me the opportunity to say something, but he just stood there looking more bored and uninterested than it seemed possible to be, without a great deal of practice. It felt a little awkward for a moment...When it became apparent that he had no interest in speaking first, I asked if it was a choice of one meat or two, or whatever, as I wasn't sure. He stood there looking at me like I was something unpleasant he'd stepped in, then mumbled "whatever".... I had pork and beef... Got half a slice of each, carved with all the skill of someone who never seen a knife in his life before... My wife got the turkey which was at least an inch thick... She also got something in her brussel sprouts that made her gag into a serviette... Some hard green lump... The turkey was not dry though, so that was a nice surprise.. With regard to the rest of the food, I confess I've never had a meal totally devoid of salt before - even the pork crackling had none, nor the Yorkshire, which smashed into pieces when I put my knife in it, as if it was made of paper-thin glass. We have salt and pepper cellars at home that are never, ever used on the table so it was a slightly strange experience watching my wife shaking salt all over her meal before passing it to me. The food was much improved I have to say. So, first and last time in a Toby I think. The lassies on the floor and behind the bar were faultless, but we went there to eat. Bland, tasteless food served up by someone who, very obviously, couldn't give the smallest fraction of the tiniest toss. Still, it was pretty cheap.. tenner each for the meal, and everything and everyone else was faultless, but the lack of salt and the lack of interest spoilt it a wee bit. After 5pm the place started to fill up so I assume the turnover meant the food would be fresher and, hopefully, those after us wouldn't be getting two slices of cardboard...

Beware the drinks menu scam! This scam is becoming quite common, especially in Mitchell's & Butlers establishments. This is how it works. They deliberately remove the drinks menu from each table, meaning that customers have no idea what the cost is of what they are ordering. Because the food is cheap, customers can be forgiven for assuming that drinks are also priced competitively. It's only when you go to pay that you find they've sold you the most expensive option (in our case wine) on their menu. So here's my tip. If your waitress claims that there's no drinks menu (the excuse is usually because they're changing over and just about to introduce a new one), tell them that under consumer law, unless they state the price of a product up front so that the customer can make an informed choice, it is then down to negotiation when the bill arrives as to how much the customer thinks it's worth paying. We visited on 9th September. I asked for a red wine, and was given the most expensive Malbec, at £6.95 a glass. My partner got clobbered with a Chardonnay for almost £8.00. So when I got the bill I asked what their cheapest glass was, and only agreed to pay that. Overall, between the four of us, we saved £10.98 by bartering each glass of wine down to the cheapest one they had available, simply because we hadn't been shown the prices. Mitchell's & Butlers probably need to be reported to Trading Standards for deliberately choosing not to set out their drinks prices. I was also astonished that a supposed large UK brewery no longer serves cask ales at most of their Toby Carvery restaurants.

You'll see below the Manager's response. Following on from that response, my question to Kirsty therefore is this. If we visited on 9th September, and you responded on around 29th September, it has been some 3 weeks that your premises has been without a drinks menu. Why did you choose to remove the old drinks menus before the new ones have arrived? I visited another Toby last week and they had drinks menus at all their tables. So why not yours? And I find it appalling that you expect customers to have to get up from their tables and walk to the bar in search of that supposed elusive and cleverly concealed price list. To help customers, I have found a drinks menu online and attached an extract from it. If you are not provided with a menu at the table, go by...

Without doubt the worst service I have ever received in a Toby .Our table was one of the last ones for service, so I would assume judging by the state of the place that they had been busy ?We were 1of 3or4tables in there so it was very quiet, quiet enough to hear the waitresses talking about not lending someone more money as they don't get it back , talking back to each other in different parts of the restaurant , someones turn to buy a dessert with tips . We went up to the carvery 'yes mate what would you like?' We sat down and after the last table served some of the waitresses were dishing up their own dinners and preceded to a table the other side of the bar out of sight but not ear shot ! We were totally left alone ! Chef was eating behind the servery as well. At this point tables that needed clearing from the moment we arrived were still untouched and remained so until halfway thru desserts.The men's toilets were shocking, all the toilet rolls in 1 were shoved down toilet so went into another, no toilet rolls or dispenser on wall , wet paper that looked dry out was hanging from ceiling. Our plates were eventually taken away after staff dinner was finished and we ordered dessert. I gave 1 star for service n atmosphere because there's not a zero option to press ! If this is how this particular Toby is normally run then I think senior management / area manager should take a look at why ? UPDATE 16 /8/23 I received a reply which was just the bog standard reply they send suggesting I reach out and ring the manager to discuss my comments. I am happy to discuss this but I shouldn't be expected to ring you spending more of my hard earned money! YOU have my email address so if YOU would like to discuss this further then by all means contact myself ,make it more personal and less corporate please . UPDATE 20/12/23 I still haven't had a reply so guess Toby aren't really interested in discussing my concerns any further . That's fine , it shows to everyone who has both read my post and suffered the same appalling level of service that this particular Toby do not give a stuff about...