Carve me up! (Toby Carvery)

Member Name: lemontiger

Product:	Toby Carvery
Date:	24/03/09 (202 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, fresh, tasty

Disadvantages: None for me, although a bit restrictive for vegetarians

In my time I have been to lots of Toby Carverys, but most of my review is based on The Shrimp between Lancaster and Morecambe which we have been to around 10 times in total. Our most recent trip was 3 weeks ago.

***What are the restaurants like inside***
Our local Toby Carvery 'The Shrimp' restaurant became a Toby Carvery just over 2 years ago and is quit typical of Tobys that I have been to. The bar area is very comfortable with small tables, booth style seating and bar stools. There are a couple of quiz machines and fruit machines although the volume is turned down quietly so as not to disturb. There are toilets in this area. They my ask you to wait here while they get a table ready for you. The whole place is usually decked out with old trinkets and pictures of Blighty such as Carry-On stills and funny cartoons.

You are shown to a table by a host. They have 2 person and 4 person tables plus high chairs etc. They do have some bigger tables and I wouldn't say you needed to reserve if there were 6-8 of you. The tables are wooden with booth style seats and chairs. On the table- cutlery is normal cheap metal, placemats with old adverts printed on, paper napkins and salt/ pepper etc.

The host leaves you with menus and after giving you time to look at the menu, your server comes along. Sometimes it can take them a little while to get to you depending how busy the restaurant is, but we tend to go early in the day or evening and have never found this to be unreasonably long. Staff work areas like in most restaurants so at least your person keeps walking past your table if you want anything.

***Drinks***
Drinks are very nice and reasonably priced. They have standard beers and spirits but also do some alcohol and juice crushes for around £2 which is good. They have a couple of wines on tap starting at around £2.50 per glass. They also have fizzy drinks and J2Os although we usually have juices. Tall thin glasses and with types such as crushed apple, cranberry & orange and apple & raspberry which all taste freshly squeezed, they are only £1.25 a glass which coupled with cheap food is a bargain!

***Food***
Starters- we have actually never eaten a starter because the main courses are as large as you like really, so we have never seen the point! However, they have a good amount of choice for around £2-5 each including Heinz tomato soup, garlic bread, melon, prawn cocktail, potato skins and fishcakes. We have seen other people have these and overheard them saying good things.

***Main courses***
The most typical main course is the carvery. This is different prices as different times of the day and week but the cheapest is weekdays before 7pm at £5 and the most expensive is sundays at £8.50. The carvery meats are gammon, turkey and beef. You can choose 1,2 or a combination of all 3 of these. I look to see which look nicest- sometimes one roast might look a bit dried up. They never don't have all 3 meats out- there always seems to be a new one roasting and ready. Sometimes (sorry to be vague but at times they'll have this for a whole month on a wednesday evenng or on Valentine's day or Mother's day for example) they will have an extra roast of pork or lamb. We managed to have this once around christmas and very nice it was too. In my experience the turkey and gammon tend to be fine all of the time. However sometimes the beef is a bit gristly or chewy so I do tend to avoid it now which is a shame. The meat isn't always UK produced, especially the beef, so if this bothers you do ask. The meat is served by a carver- often more generous than less generous with meat, you just tell them which kind/s you want. This is the point where you can get a yorkshire pudding and stuffing balls too and you can have these no matter what meat you have chosen. They then pass you your plate.

At this point you help yourself to vegetables. They typically have two types of potatoes- roast and new. There are always around 6 vegetables to choose from and we have seen green cabbage, savoy cabbage, brocolli, cauliflower (in a cheese sauce), carrots, peas, buttered leeks, roast parsnips and roast red onions in gravy. Their literature says all vegetables are fresh and freshly prepared although I'd be surprised if the peas weren't frozen! I have always found the roast potatoes to be absolutely gorgeous and much nicer than frozen varieties and the veg is always really tasty and rarely soggy although with butter new potatoes, buttered leeks and cauli with cheese sauce there can seem like a lot of grease on your plate. Although you can't have more meat you can come back and help yourself to more veg and potatoes. Lastly there are a choice of gravies (usually beef, mustard and poultry) plus a choice of sauces like apple or cranberry and mustards.

This is the point to say that there are other main course options available including steak pie, turkey and gammon pie and fishes (with these you still help yourself to the potatoes and veg). There are also curries with rice, veg crumble, mushroom lasagne, chilli and salads. I've seen things like roast lamb shanks on occasion too. We have never gone for these options and I must admit have never seen anyone eating them either, I guess they are just most famous for their carvery!

***Puddings***
We've enjoyed some lovely puddings! They are £2.50 - £3.75 they have a few different sundaes including honeycomb and chocolate brownie, apple crumble and treacle sponges with bottomless custard jug (ask for more if you can finish it!) and others like belgian waffles with cherries and ice cream. We've particularly enjoyed the apple crumble and waffles although they are very large portions and after the first time we now always share and ask for two spoons even though we are big eaters.

***Children's Menu***
Pretty similar to the adults meals but smaller plates. We haven't been with children ourselves but there are always lots of children there and they seem to be enjoying themselves.

***Staff***
We have always found the staff to be friendly and polite although like some other people we have found that occasionally second drinks have been a bit slow. Getting the bill can take a little while too, but you can always go to pay at the counter and it's much quicker than your average restaurant.

***Summary***
Give it a try, great prices and fantastic food.

Summary: Yum for my tum