Toby Carvery Carmarthen — Restaurant in Wales

Disgusted by this carvery. We come here at least once a month, have always had a good time, however, we visited on Saturday and as usual, made a reservation online. My little 8 year old sister in law is disabled and struggles eating most things; she only has a few things that she eats and they are very specific and the same brand EVERY TIME. She can’t just have chicken nuggets, it’s only one certain brand she’ll eat. We’ve been to the Carvery with her a few times and we buy her a salad from downstairs in the Harvester and go upstairs and the adults all eat carvery, it’s always been absolutely fine by them as both restaurants are owned by the same company and they’re catering to a disabled child. There were 4 of us adults this time and while I was downstairs helping my SIL to get her food, my fiancé, other SIL and MIL went to get their food. They told the staff that I would be coming up soon with my SIL as we were getting her a salad from Harvester and it had been fine every other time. The person then said they needed to ask the manager and they said no. My fiancé and MIL explained the situation and how it’s been fine every other time, but they refused. One man said they have chicken nuggets on the kids menu and my MIL told him she won’t eat them, we’ve tried several times and she refuses. She was then told that my 8 year old SIL could come up, but she had to sit at the table and watch us eat. My 8 year old, disabled sister in law. He told my MIL it’s cross contamination and against rules but claimed he’d only been there 6 weeks? My MIL left her plate at the carvery counter and they all walked out. We couldn’t eat then as Harvester was fully booked and we almost cried due to the situation. How do you expect a disabled CHILD to watch us eat and sit there hungry!? We’ve been several times and had no issues at all. The man said “we have salad”, but again, my MIL explained they can’t because of my SILs disabilities, she straight out refuses and will only eat a few specific things. Two of those being 2 things from the Harvester salad bar, but that’s it. She eats maybe 5 things at a push in her life, it’s the same stuff every time, she physically cannot have anything else. Your staff really need to be accommodating and be considerate of disabilities of any age! This sounds like my MIL was being a Karen, but she never raised her voice or got angry with the staff, she was just upset with her child being discriminated against. It’s a good job I wasn’t there because I was extremely upset and disappointed. We won’t be coming again, that’s at least 16 people, plus friends that you’ve pushed away now. We are just really disappointed and feel completely disregarded....

Normally great food and we as a family of 5 were looking forward to it all week but something was different. Guy carving gave us smaller cuts, meat seemed a bit dry and the veg less seasoned, gravy's weren't marked which was stock gravy and which was veg gravy. One of our Kids is a veggie who wanted a veggie gravy and came back to the table deflated as she didn't want to risk having a proper gravy. It was her request to come to Toby, always has done and now she doesn't care for it anymore. I'd say my wife and I felt the drop in everyone's enthusiasm including the other 2 children. Youngest one normally eats everything on her plate and wouldn't eat breakfast because she wanted to wait for the Carvery, all she had was a bit of meat and left the rest. The feeling between all of us all week and on our way there to starting to eat was night and day. Young male staff really didn't want to be there and behaved like he was being held there at ransom, All the fizzy drinks are chemical toxic no added sugar rubbish which is Aspartame laden & we don't normally let our kids consume. Almost £100 bill later, we'd all agreed to not have a Toby carvery again, it's just not worth it and have opted next time for a local fresh farm pub at almost half the price and not an hour's drive to get to. Toby Carvery is not what it used to be, maybe just badly run or managed, perhaps slipping in quality control?I think also the pork scratchings or whatever they were had been out that long they were hard enough to build houses out of nearly breaking our teeth so we left that on the plate too. What is going on there. What's happened to this place, we can only assume that the whole chain is like this now but the Sheffield site near our second house was fantastic. This has put us off ever spending anymore money at a Tobys and now somewhere we used to go for years has come to an end. With the canteen speed cattle feed feeling is not enjoyable so we'd happily give any other Carvery a chance now and find a new regular place to support local businesses. A sad lost page to history for all. Such a shame, a venue suggestion that used to make the whole family excited now brings disappointed looks and scrunched up noses at the idea. Never thought we'd see the day, thought it would always be a lifetime family...

Called here on Saturday evening 14th Jun... carvery for two (but one was vegetarian meal!!) Friendly staff made us feel welcome and were pleasant throughout the visit. When we went to the food counter my friend explained the desire for a vegetarian plate to have just vegetables. The considerate chap behind the counter immediately said that he would go and wash his hands to clear any remnants of meat product. Anyway, food was a great quality and cooked very well, full of flavour and my friend had a good explanation of any roasted veg that may have contained animal product... food was thoroughly enjoyed. Towards the end, I had a little too much meat left and decided o ask for a carry out bag which the staff went and got me two bags to be sure that juice did not leak. Well done to everyone that works at this premises and did a fabulous job of looking after the customers. The only negative issue was at the toilets.. several toilets provided for male and female and each cubicle has a handwash basin which is good.. but in the male cubicles, the basin was positioned in such a place that I had to do a contortion trick to test the seating arrangement. Definitely not a toilet set-up that could cater for a wheelchair user or a less-abled person, but, that said, there is a dedicated disable and wheelchair friendly toilet available, to complement the lift access for wheelchair users to this first floor establishment. All in all, a good experience and a congratulations to the staff for their kindness and pleasant attitude towards...