Toby carvery £5 nosh-up

[Shaolin]

Apologies if this has been posted before.

Went out for lunch today with the missus (on holiday this week) and went to a Toby Inn in Bedford (can't remember the name, but it's near to Tesco and Wickes).

We had a massive carvery meal for £5 each, all you can eat and keep going back if you want to. I honestly don't think we could have cooked it at home for what we had and the price we paid. It's not gourmet, but the meat (3 roasts) and variety of veg were very well cooked and at a bargain price. Mon-Sat sit down before 7 p.m.

Highly recommended.

[Ordinary Bloke]

Shaolin said:

Apologies if this has been posted before.

Went out for lunch today with the missus (on holiday this week) and went to a Toby Inn in Bedford (can't remember the name, but it's near to Tesco and Wickes).

We had a massive carvery meal for £5 each, all you can eat and keep going back if you want to. I honestly don't think we could have cooked it at home for what we had and the price we paid. It's not gourmet, but the meat (3 roasts) and variety of veg were very well cooked and at a bargain price. Mon-Sat sit down before 7 p.m.

Highly recommended.

Sounds like they will be out of business in the new year, then...

[...Mole...]

It's £3.50 here in aberdeen, Great for a cheap lunch.

[prand]

Even at that price, I dread to think what you (or your missus's) cooking is like if you think a Toby Carvery roast is as good as one cooked at home.

Edited by prand on Tuesday 28th October 17:46

[miniman]

Keep an eye on Channel 4 / E4 / More4 for repeats of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. See if you can watch the one at The Priory in Haywards Heath. Then go out for a carvery. Bet you can't!

[507bhp]

I didn't realise you could keep re-filling! (not that I could after a plateful anyway!

[Forthright MC]

we've been to that one in Bedford a few times too, not my kind of place, but the folks like it and the portions!
luckily the pub next door serves up a good pint of Abbot Ale so i'm usually happy too!

[bazking69]

You can't go wrong with a Carvery. Forget all this gourmet guff. Full plate of roast with trimmings for £5-£8. You can't go wrong.

[OllieWinchester]

bazking69 said:

You can't go wrong with a Carvery. Forget all this gourmet guff. Full plate of roast with trimmings for £5-£8. You can't go wrong.

You can very wrong if it ends up with you sh*tting your insides out for a week.

[Wadeski]

bloody awful places!

[TJW]

Inn by the Sea in Hampshire!

£3.50 LOVELY! Just as good as the old lady's Roasts! 5 yorkie's 3 meats tons of Veg & Crispy Potato's!

[Mr POD]

prand said:

Even at that price, I dread to think what you (or your missus's) cooking is like if you think a Toby Carvery roast is as good as one cooked at home.

Edited by prand on Tuesday 28th October 17:46

I've sampled our locakl Toby's carvery, and it's fair to average. Not bad if you are in a rush or can't be arsed to cook.

But I always think £28 for a family of 4 with drinks, buys some seriously nice meat, from our local organic free range farm butcher.

Last sunday I did roast gammon for 6 and I'm telling you it was 1000 times nicer than anything I've eaten in any Carvery.

[prand]

Mr POD said:

prand said:

Even at that price, I dread to think what you (or your missus's) cooking is like if you think a Toby Carvery roast is as good as one cooked at home.

Edited by prand on Tuesday 28th October 17:46

I've sampled our locakl Toby's carvery, and it's fair to average. Not bad if you are in a rush or can't be arsed to cook.

But I always think £28 for a family of 4 with drinks, buys some seriously nice meat, from our local organic free range farm butcher.

Last sunday I did roast gammon for 6 and I'm telling you it was 1000 times nicer than anything I've eaten in any Carvery.

I'm with you. For the money I could have something better at home. I've been to a couple of Toby Carverys round here, and they just aren't my thing. Big portions don't always mean good value or quality. Judging by the queues of people and loads of families enjoying lunch there though, they don't seem to care abotu that, so Toby must be doing something right.

Edited by prand on Thursday 30th October 15:47

Edited by prand on Thursday 30th October 15:48

[Mr POD]

prand said:

Big portions don't always mean good value or quality. Judging by the queues of people and loads of families enjoying lunch there though, they don't seem to care abotu that, so Toby must be doing something right.

The food is at a high enough standard that you couldn't complain for the price. Okay you know that the brocollic will be over done, and the roast potatoes not quite crispy, but it's like having dinner at a mate's house when you know he can't really cook.
These days alot of folk have NO idea about cooking. Witness the thread last week in which it emerged the poor lady, did not know what to cook, but did not own one recipe book.
Lots of people can't imagine that they could use flour, margarine, sugar and apples, and end up with proper apple pie.
Until we had kids I was like that, and then cooking was something to do with toddlers and primary aged kids to pass the time. Lets make cookies, lets make pastry, lets make pie, lets make bread, lets make pumpkin soup, lets make a serious chicken balti with home made nan bread (15 year old boy's GCSE food tech 'meal for one' project)

[bazking69]

OllieWinchester said:

bazking69 said:

You can't go wrong with a Carvery. Forget all this gourmet guff. Full plate of roast with trimmings for £5-£8. You can't go wrong.

You can very wrong if it ends up with you sh*tting your insides out for a week.

Never had that issue myself with a carvery .

[Shaolin]

bazking69 said:

OllieWinchester said:

bazking69 said:

You can't go wrong with a Carvery. Forget all this gourmet guff. Full plate of roast with trimmings for £5-£8. You can't go wrong.

You can very wrong if it ends up with you sh*tting your insides out for a week.

Never had that issue myself with a carvery .

Indeed, the only restaurant induced prolonged bog sessions I have had have been from what were supposedly significantly more up-market establishments.

Opinion seems rather divided here to say the least! It's not difficult to produce a better quality roast dinner at home, but for £5, a good quality, varied and plentiful mid-week, lunch time feed where you turn up, eat and then leave still seems a good deal to me and much better than just about any other option in the price bracket.

[Wadeski]

there is a good reason there are not many other options in that price bracket.

[Zod]

bazking69 said:

You can't go wrong with a Carvery. Forget all this gourmet guff. Full plate of roast with trimmings for £5-£8. You can't go wrong.

[Dr G]

You'd catch me at McDonalds etc. a long way before I'd chance a cheapo carvery - I value my non-flaming ring piece more than I do a cheap dinner.

[Shaolin]

Dr G said:

You'd catch me at McDonalds etc. a long way before I'd chance a cheapo carvery - I value my non-flaming ring piece more than I do a cheap dinner.

Surely that is a joke! McDonalds burger famously made entirely out of lips and aholes with enough added sugar and salt to last you for the week and then a load of other non-identifiable gunk added to it. Did you never see "Supersize me?" McD's could put in a reappearance from either end at any time.

I think a lot of the negative comments must be pure snobbery or from people who have never been to a carvery - maybe it was when you were kids and parents insisted you had some veg?

Meat - looks like meat, no processing, simply roast, they replace them regularly as they run out regularly.
Veg - looks like veg, no processing, simply cooked, the broccoli looks exactly like broccoli that has been steamed or boiled, likewise the cauliflower and leeks or whatever seasonal veg. Roast parsnips and spuds look like that - no processing, just cleaned and roasted.

I can understand the comments about how they aren't all cooked as perfectly as you'd do them at home (but partly down to you knowing exactly how you like it), of all comparable lunchtime menus, a carvery is the one that you know more than any exactly what you are getting. Fair enough if you just don't like a roast dinner with veg, but in the quality of ingredients stakes, you know what you're getting which puts it miles ahead of the industrial gunk that passes for food in the majority of lunch-food establishments.