Toby Carvery Ormskirk — Restaurant in West Lancashire

Hi I’m Karen

Just to be clear, the food was pretty top notch actually. The waiting staff were fine. Not exactly cheery but it was New Year’s Day and franchise restaurants aren’t usually particularly good to their staff. Moral was low.

However, a simple mistake was made by our waiter. They had taken our drinks order and given one of us a double vodka and coke when they ordered a single vodka and coke. That doesn’t seem like a biggy really. And that’s exactly how we treated it as we went to pay at the till. We were splitting the bill but I just wanted to check on behalf of one of the other guests that we could have it amended on the bill. Probably the difference of a pound so I guess that makes me a stickler, but after what happened next, so be it!

After querying this with the first member of staff available replied “well he had a double so you’ll have to pay for it”. If they’d have said in any sort of polite way I would have said it was fair enough. But at this point I’d just thought it was a fault on the bill. My friend had no idea he’d drunk a double, unless he’s not told me, he’s trained chef/cocktail expert. But the way they spoke made me continue to question. In response they rolled their eyes and walked away to get another member of staff.

From what I can tell it was the staff manager who took a the reins on this crime of the century! I repeated my request to the manager and they said the same as their colleague. Apparently he seemed to think there would be a noticeable difference between a single and a double vodka and coke. I wonder. What should my friend have done if he’d have noticed it was a double? I’m not a manager so I don’t know.

But really their whole demeanour was aggressive. They stared down my friend and said “you drank the double, so you’ll be paying for the double”. My friend is a super chilled kind guy so he said yes to make peace. But I’m a Karen so I had to tell the manager he was rude. The manager disagreed and made an attempt at an apology. You’ve probably gathered by now it didn’t quite hit the spot.

This started as a tiny mistake made by your staff, why not just treat it like one. Hold the...

Our first visit. We booked a table and the member of staff spent several minutes looking for our booking on the computer before leading us to our table. To get to our table we had to squeeze past two tables where people were dining disturbing them while they were eating. We then had to do this several times and also the waiting staff and other diners. The bench were my daughter and I was sat was very uncomfortable and stuck together by tape. While booking the table a member of our party read all the information provided about allergies to save time when we got to the restaurant. The waitress asked if anyone had any food allergies, the member of our party then had to read the information again due to it being more than on the booking form and also fill in a paper form. We understand why but it was a bit of a palaver compared to other restaurants. It took along time to complete the process due to the waitress having to find a tablet with the information on, forgetting to give us a pen, the pen then she gave us didn't work and then the next pen was running out. By the time we were able to get our food the table who arrived just after us had nearly finished their meal. The food was goodish for a carvery but not worth the Sunday rate, which is more than the rest of the week. The beef was chewy, Yorkshire puddings were not up to their usual standard and the peas and carrots were slightly dried out. The serving spoons were so hot to touch, it made it uncomfortable to put the vegetables on our plates. The toilets were slightly unpleasant, there was use toilet roll on top of the toilet cistern in one cubicle and on the floor of two others. Only two cubicles had toilet roll but they were the worst of the ones with used toilet roll lying around and the hand driers didn't work. The staff were friendly and very polite but the waiting staff were rushed looking after many tables in their area due to some areas were not being used. The staff serving the carvery was very helpful and was able to answer all questions about the food they were serving. Don't think we will be returning especially on a Sunday or...

Awful Experience – Poor Service and No Basic Decency

We had a truly disappointing visit to Toby Carvery Ormskirk and won’t be returning.

Upon entering and sitting down to our table, I noticed multiple pieces of our cutlery was filthy and looked like it hadn’t even been washed. I didn’t say anything due to Leah seeming fairly new to the role and assumed it was her first day

Our waitress, Leah, seemed new, so we didn’t expect perfection, but her attitude was unacceptable. She repeatedly walked away mid-conversation while we were still placing our order, which meant I had to go up to the bar multiple times just to clarify what we actually wanted. It felt rude and dismissive, and it made the whole experience frustrating and complete unnecessary

I therefore had to approach another staff member named Riley, to try to clarify my order. who was just as clueless. At the end of our meal, our youngest child was unfortunately sick. We spent 5–10 minutes trying to clean it up ourselves, and not a single staff member came over to check if we were okay or offer help. When I eventually asked Riley if there were any cloths or if someone could assist, he laughed in my face. Absolutely disgraceful behaviour.

To top it all off, when I paid the bill and looked over the receipt, I noticed we had been charged an extra £14 for no clear reason. At that point, I’d lost all confidence in the staff. Thankfully another lady who I assume is Management refunded my overpayment, which was highly appreciated

This was one of the worst dining experiences we’ve had in a long time — not just because of the food, but because of the complete lack of care, professionalism, and basic human decency from the staff

I would appreciate a response from management regarding this experience. It’s unacceptable for families to be treated this way, and I hope steps are taken to address the staff’s customer...