Toby Carvery Cockleshell — Restaurant in Wales

I brought my Nan here for tea on a Friday. We arrived at 4:30pm. It was very busy. It appears that there was a voucher available for a carvery for £6 that was expiring that day. We hadn't booked and so were offered a seat in the bar area which was absolutely fine for us.

We ordered at the bar and proceeded to the carvery for our meal. The queue was full so we joined the back. I would say it took around 25 minutes to get through the queue to the front. An announcement was made that they were stopping serving briefly as they had run out of gravy and didn't want to serve out more for people's food to go cold. Very sensible. There were no complaints and everyone waited.

We were lucky enough to have the first cuts of a fresh turkey and proceeded to collect our veg. The roasties had seen better days, but tasted good, so I guess that's all that matters...they looked more like mashed roasties. The stuffing was a bit problematic as it had all stuck to the tongs, but I managed to get some on my plate...again all good in the end!

We went to the sauce station and got some gravy and mint sauce. Plenty of gravy available...mint sauce was low, but there was enough. Only downside is this area looked as though there had been a sauce explosion...all different sauces dripped everywhere. I have seen it like this on previous occasions, but as they were very busy on this occasion I feel this could have been why.

We returned to our seats and enjoyed our meal.

My elderly nan who doesn't eat that much managed a good whole plate of food...I however was struggling. This is usual for me. I eat half of my meal and take the rest home to eat later...little and often as well as for medical reasons. I went to the bar (as I would in any restaurant) and asked if I may have a box to take my food home with me...since COVID this is reasonably common place I would say. I was met with um's and ah's about whether this was allowed. The member of staff said they would need to ask the manager. The manager said they would not be able to give me a box due to health and safety reasons. This mostly confused me as they actually offer a takeaway service. I was instead offered a paper bag to put my meal into. A plate of food with gravy and mint sauce and I was expected to scrape it into a small paper bag. The kind of bag a pick and mix would come in. Obviously I was not going to do this. It would have been a disaster. I tried to eat what I could of my meal but ended up leaving half a plate of food. The amount of food I saw wasted in the restaurant that day was shocking. I did not overfill my plate like some customers. A child portion would be sufficient for me, but its doubtful I would be allowed to purchase this for myself (granted I did not ask this question). I find it terrible that not just my own, but others meals will have just been put in the bin and the food wasted. Maybe not everyone asked to take it home, but surely it is better to allow people to take it home than to throw it in the bin. I realise this could cause issues in people attempting to overfill their plates intentionally to get an extra meal, but im sure this could be policed in another way.

Temperature control here also seems to be a problem. We boiled before Christmas and froze on this occasion!

Toilet doors in some cubicles were not able to be closed. No toilet paper in some cubicles. Another cubicle had marks that I didn't want to see, but it was extremely busy and I'm not sure if that was unprecedented, but maybe some extra inspections of the toilets could have been helpful or could be implemented in the future.

Anyway. The food was lovely. I wanted to eat more of it. Stupid system stopped me. Next time I'll try for a child's meal...failing that I guess I won't go again! Alternatively...perhaps I'll bring my own tupperware and hope that I...

We booked a table at 4:10pm and arrived at 15:30 supervisor Jess was lovely and seated us early to be fair, it’s important to note throughout this, the staff were fantastic despite working against ALL odds.

Unfortunately there was a Que to the bar which saw us wait 15 minutes to order food, which wouldn’t have been an issue but there were then items missing- the lovely barmaid offered to move options around for us which I was really grateful for. I don’t know this staff member but she was lovely with long dark hair. I left my partner with the 2 children to join the carvery at 15:55 for us both as the Que was huge! At 16:30 I was still waiting. IN THE CARVERY LINE?! How is this even possible.

The staff were working so hard but the restaurant was overwhelmed with take out orders, walk ins and reservations which meant they clearly could not cope. The kitchen staff couldn’t provide the turnover of food required. There were empty plates or half eaten food all over the restaurant- I’d be interested to know if some people decided not to pay as nobody would notice the staff were actually sweating, running around endlessly.

At the carvery line at 16:30 I then requested crackling and waited for 10 minutes before giving up. I moved onto the gravy station to my dismay, empty. Waiting for 5 minutes, mint sauce finally appeared - joy. Again waited a further 15 minutes before giving up on the gravy situation.

At 17:00 I took what poor effort of a carvery was left to the supervisor and asked very politely for a full refund, £57 and an hour later and no food. The food was freezing, not even a defrosted gravy could help me now. I left disappointed but what was worse was there were hordes of people still in the carvery Que from my 16:30 troop and ques outside the door.

The staff are clearly overworked and underpaid.

This is an establishment issue.

There is clearly an overwhelm with walk ins, bookings and take away.

This needs to be rectified for the sake of your staff- the atmosphere was toxic with miserable customers.

There were complaints heard throughout the restaurant.

I would never go again for fear of the same experience, we could not wait to leave.

I’m sorry to the staff but the bigger picture needs to...

Food is and always has been beautiful. However the last two times we have been there service has been atrocious. Seated near the bar. First time A party of 3 placed on a table for 2, our plates/ drinks barely fitted. There were others (party of 2 places on tables for 4). The gent serving was at the carvery using foul language and when a plate smashed he walked off in anger and left us standing there an extra 15 mins. Second and most recent 2nd of December we were again placed at the bar end on a table for two. We spent 35mins waiting at the carvery, not because it was busy but once again, same man/server went off in a huff for 20mins after openly arguing with another staff member. By the time we got back other people were placed at our table. We tried to re-seat ourselves to another table (table for 6) and we were told by the bar man we couldn't sit there as 1 man was seated there. After explaining, we were told off saying we should have pre paid for our food and told the bar man where we wanted to be seated even after the waitress had already seated us and we informed her we were having carvery. By the time they found us another table for 2 and chairs, made us go to the bar and pay for the food before we sat down to eat our food which was now stone cold and we watched the 1 man return to his table for 6. I was also made to feel very embarrassed and small as where I was seated I had a clear view of the bar and the barman was openly ranting about the stupid customers who didn't know what to do and caused them an inconvenience. Arms flailing around while explaining to the other two, very rude! I was so disappointed even my partner said he did not want to go there again as despite the food being highest quality the service and atmosphere the last 2 times were just awful and really ruined the experience/ meal. We just felt eager to eat and run On the flip side every time I have been with my mum/ aunts etc the service was excellent. It's hard not to think there is some bias/ lack of respect etc going on because we are not of a...