Toby Carvery - Willingdon Drove

Had a table booked for 6pm. Got seated fairly quickly, we come once a week but it wasn't exactly busy. It was busier when the half price meal offer was on. After 20 minutes someone finally came over and took our order. We went and got the food which was lovely the food is always great! Once finished we sat and chatted for a while. I watched 2 tables around us get the plates cleaned and dessert ordered. The server made eye contact with me so I assumed she knew we was waiting. Another 10 minutes passed and she had cleaned more tables and taken dessert orders from 4 more tables. I eventually went to the bar to order ice cream and was met with well it's been a busy night what do I expect. The server came over a few minutes later and looked like I had shouted at her dog. Looking around the restaurant was half empty. I understand service can be slow on a busy night. But intentionally avoiding a smaller table to please a big party isn't fair on the rest of the customers.

Came for a mod-week carvery. Left with jaw ache from the chewy inedible beef! It was busy and the service from the clearly overstretched waiting staff was spot on. Sadly the food did not make up for this. We queued for around half an hour as the 'chef' was fetching items from the kitchen as well as serving. At one point we joked with other customers that he was out the back plucking the turkey that had run out. Once we finally got to the front of the queue the offerings were limited, most vegetables were empty with a few hard dried up ones left, the condiments were empty. But the real kicker was the beef - it looked lovely, but was so full of gristle (not fat) that we just couldn't eat it - I chewed on one mouthful for a good couple of minutes before I had to concede. Check back was done and we did something we never do, and said it wasn't great - again the most incredible service and care from the waiter who took the time to listen to our concerns, offer us alternative meat (which we declined as we had eaten the few remaining veg that we had previously salvaged) and he returned to our table a few minutes later to say we would not be charged for the meat. After we complained two other tables also spoke up and I could see they had also left their beef (good to know we weren't being overly sensitive or critical). The two stars are for the service and our waiter, the missing three are for the 'food'. P.S. If you do go you now need to register your car for parking - there are good large signs to inform you of this on entry, but just in case you miss them!

Found this place as we were around on a Sunday so went for the carvery. The food was good, very tasty with a generous helping of meat. The only thing I need to mention was the state of the toilets. Someone needs to check them during service as the were gross. However the young guy waiting on our table was brilliant. He was rushed off his feet but still managed to spend time on everyone not rushing us at all. I would recommend this Toby for a traditional roast dinner.