Toby Carvery - Southend

I had the misfortune to visit your “restaurant” on a Monday 30th September for dinner for my children’s birthday. After being ignored completely for 25 minutes after being brought our drinks, we got up from the table assuming we had to order from the bar. When asking someone if we had to order at the bar, we were told our waiter would be over. We then placed our order, which is when I was told she had to check to make sure they had a Yorkshire pudding wrap. They did not. I changed it to a “brioche” bun. A few minutes later I was told that they had no cheese. So I was forced to choose something on the menu that I didn’t want. Also expected to be served in a “brioche” bun. What arrived on the table looked like something I would feed a dog, served in a bread roll and covered with a chopped up sprinkling of disgusting tasting garnish. I then had the pleasure of sitting by myself with my bread roll while the rest of my party queued for 25 minutes to get their food from the carvery. My children went to the ladies toilets and came out saying there were bugs flying around in there. When I went to investigate, I was horrified to find a blocked toilet - door unlocked, no “out of order” sign - filled with small flies flying around like something had died down that toilet. At this point, I just wanted to hurry up and finish our meals and leave. I did not enjoy my bread roll filled with cold meat and topped with lawn, but I ate it out of sheer hunger. When we received the bill we noticed that we had been charged for an £8.29 meal we hadn’t had. We were a party of 6 and we had 7 meals on the bill. We questioned this before paying and were told it wasn’t an error and that it was one of our children’s meals. We explained there were 6 of us and they’d added 7 meals to the bill and it was agreed they would take off the error of £8.29 added to our bill, however no sincere apologies given. So not only was it the worst dining experience I’ve ever had, but I almost paid more than I should have for it! Our visit here ruined my children’s birthday. Never been here before. Never will again. Terrible.

Lovely food and a very helpful and pleasant waitress. The perfect meeting place for our group (five old school friends who only get together once a year) and we were left to chat after the meal and didn't feel at all rushed. Carvery was plentiful with lots of choice for everyone. We did all find the handles of the long serving spoons very hot when handling them to put vegetables on our plates - take care! Otherwise a perfect meal in the perfect place, with great service!

Excellent food and very friendly staff, but the parking isn’t ideal (not enough spaces and we struggled to find a place where my grandmother could get out easily following a recent knee operation). Queue for the carvery was very long but it was a Sunday and the staff were amazing.