Well fed by the food but fed up by the waiting, MICHELLE TOMPKINS samples the excellent helpings at the Toby Carvery Friary in Swindon where staff work very, very hard

Toby Carvery Friary
Elstree Way, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN25 4YX
Tel 01793 702081

THE British love affair with the good old roast dinner never seems to wane, and at the Toby Carvery the tradition for meat, three veg and a mountain of roasties is positively thriving.

So busy was this huge restaurant on a Thursday night (admittedly not a school night – it was half term) that we struggled to get a parking spot when we arrived, and then had to wait in a long queue just to be shown to our table.

There’s good reason why so many people go there – the food is great, the helpings are huge and the prices can’t be beaten – £5.99 for the all-your-plate-can-hold roast dinner, £1.50 extra for the supersize version.

But I just can’t help thinking the restaurant is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success. The sheer volume of customers meant the little things were being overlooked – our table was sticky, we waited a lifetime for drinks and the queue for the carvery was 30-deep (yes, I counted).

With a bit more attention to detail and a bit less of the cattle herding, this place could be a knockout. Instead I left feeling well-fed but fed up... of waiting, waiting, waiting for everything.

The menu is pretty straightforward. There are some starters on offer – like pear and Oxford blue cheese tart (£3.89) and oak smoked liver pate (£3.59) – although I didn’t see many people spoiling their appetites by ordering one. Most people go straight to the main event, the carvery, and its impressive line-up of slow-cooked meats and all the sides you could possibly want or imagine, from fluffy roast potatoes to cauliflower cheese to pork crackling and towering Yorkshires.

There is no choice but to wait in line for your food, even when that line snakes halfway around the restaurant. We thought we’d sit tight and wait for the queue to go down a bit but after 20 minutes there was no sign of it getting shorter so we resigned ourselves to standing around for some time.

In fact, it wasn’t until gone 9pm that the conveyor belt of customers slowed down. The chefs and servers working behind the hot plates are the hardest working I have ever seen.

What you get on your plate, however, is (almost) worth the wait. A choice of turkey, beef, gammon and pork is on offer (a slice of all four if you can eat them) plus the biggest stack of homemade Yorkshire puddings I have ever seen.

There were carrots and peas, cauliflower cheese, red cabbage, green beans and roasted onions, plus mashed potatoes and two types of roasties – one peppered and one plain. All that can be topped off with three types of gravy and every sauce and condiment known to man.

I went for the roast beef, which was medium rare, how I like it, and had to stop the chef from heaping the meat too high. Three big roast potatoes had my name on them, along with one of those giant Yorkshire puddings and a spoonful of all six veggies. The temptation is to pile your plate to tipping point, and many people do, resulting in a very careful, sometimes messy, walk back to their seats as the gravy sloshes over the edge.

The three of us were all able to finish what was on our plates, but there was a very comical couple next door who gradually got redder and redder in the face as they valiantly battled through eight roast potatoes apiece (I kid you not).

A dish of sweet Yorkshire puddings (£4.79) is on the dessert menu but that seemed a step too far on the roast dinner theme. Two of us decided to share a mini Rolo sundae (£3.99) and it was the perfect ending to the meal, with a generous helping of chocolates scattered through ice cream and chocolate and toffee fudge sauces.

The third went for apple crumble with cinnamon (£3.89) and ordered ice cream on the side. It came with custard instead but the mistake was quickly put right and he said the crumble was “nice, but not amazing”.

Two hours after we arrived, the restaurant had finally quietened down, making it an all together nicer place to sit and finish our meal with a coffee.

As we left, I couldn’t help wondering what happens to all the leftover food each day. The mountain of Yorkshire puds was still at head height even at that late hour and there was loads of leftover meat, potatoes and veg.

I hope it goes to a charity or homeless shelter instead of in the bin – or at least to those hardworking chefs once they finally get to stop and draw breath.