I'd never been to a Toby Carvey before. I've never lived close to one and it's really not the kind of place I would seek out to try.
But, when I moved to my new house, The Man and I discovered the the nearest place to get a drink was the Carvery. It's located where a place called The Balmwell used to be, and we were disppointed not to have been in the area to visit in the Balmwell days as it sounded like a nice family place to go.
One evening on a walk home, we decided to see what it looked like. It's a bit intriguing as it's set back on what appears to be part of an estate for a stately home. One of the houses on our street looks like it may have once been the gatehouse for this place.
It is GORGEOUS. The bulidng is absolutely stunning, and has big doors which open out to a manicured lawn full of picnic tables. It's the kind of place where you would want to get married... if only it wasn't a Toby Carvery.
So, with that in mind, one hungover morning when our house was full of tradesmen, we decided to give breakfast a shot. I believe they serve brekfast from 8 to 10 and it's something like £4.95 for a full breakfast, and £1.95 for an unlimited amount of tea or coffee.
When we arrived, shortly after 8, the place was empty but for two workers. The waitress was lovely and asked if we had the 2-4-1 vouchers. When we said we didn't have any, she brought us a whole handful of vouchers and explained how they worked. So, high marks on customer service.
The food, though, was really pretty sub par. The bacon and black pudding (I didn't even try the sausage, the The Man said it was only just about edible) were just not nice, and could potentially have been salvaged if I had tons of ketchup to slather on them, but that was nowhere to be seen. I focused my attention on my egg which wasn't cooked enough, the hash browns which were "meh" and the toast, which was of course just fine.
Even with a hangover, it was just too greasy and too cheap.
It was also hard not to notice the children's hand prints ALL OVER the windows. Did they just not bother cleaning that, knowing it would happen all over again? It's a bit gross.
When we left at 9am, only one other table had come in. This was a Saturday morning as well. They surely can't be making any kind of profit on the breakfast and as a result buy in very poor quality food.
Admittedly, I would return to try their dinner, but defintiely not the breakfast.
Five stars are for gorgeous location and service, one for food. read more