Toby Carvery Bishopstoke (Southampton) - (Near , london)

4 /5 Stella Andrews: First visiting since it reopened after fire. Looked very nice. Food was good, can’t beat a good carvery. The only criticism I have is that you had to go up and down steps to get to carvery area. Just concerned if you had mobility issues, that a few steps and carrying your lunch could prove a problem. Also a bit confused at the lay out and approach to carvery area. No selection of real ales

2 /5 Pearce Shane (Cruisescape_uk): Kept hearing this place had reopened and they did a all you can eat breakfast buffet. We prebooked, got there before it got busy. Dissapointing, kitchen clearly could not keep up even though it was quite, empty trays or dregs of what was. I didnt even bother going back so was not a good deal. Most alarming was level of clean at 09:30hrs and even leftovers from Xmas decorations showing lack of proper cleaning. As we left it was loud, busy, tables not cleared and long Q at till and food line up.

5 /5 Nicola Coppin: Only just re opened, we had a special offer and went for a family carvery. We were greeted at the door, our table wasnt quite ready so we were looked after at the bar, with drinks while we waited. We were recommended to go by a friend who had been the previous week, we had been to Portsmouth just before Christmas, thought we would try the local restaurant that had just re opened.. we were not disappointed. The food was delicious, we had a good selection of meats, and a great choice of vegetables and potatos Kitchen staff were great, server was speedy, making sure everyone got their fair share of lovely meat, all the food was hot, re stocked and plenty of it available no one would go hungry in this restaurant. Would recommend and would go back.

3 /5 Rebecca Anderson: The only reason Ive given the food 3 stars is because we got the carvery on the £6 offer. If wed paid full price it would have been 2 stars. The meat was well cooked and you got a decent portion. I was unlucky and got some very fatty end pieces of beef but the flavour was nice. The range of veg wasnt great, carrots, peas, runner beans and cauliflower cheese (cauliflower was more than a little al dente so make sure grandma has her teeth in). There was also roast and mashed potatoes and macaroni cheese. For me I was disappointed there was no cabbage. The macaroni cheese was sickly and the yorkshire puds were very bland and cardboardy. We ordered a side of pigs in blankets (£3.99) and they were gross. So cheap and nasty I actually spat the one out that I tried. The drinks (£4.25 for refillable soft drinks) are also poor - the syrups to make the Pepsi etc tast like pepsi max cherry or lime etc are obviously the cheapest they can get and taste weirdly chemically and nothing like actual pepsi. The apple tango had no flavour. The staff are lovely, very warm and friendly but sadly we wont be returning as the food is just not what it could be and were all got slightly upset stomachs this morning. The Forge offers a far better carvery for less £££.

3 /5 Sophie Harris: We were so excited to be able to have dinner here after the long awaited reopening. The food was lovely and our server was fantastic and had tried her best to make our experience as good as possible. My main issue that had put a down note on our visit is the casual and inappropriate approach to food waste at this Toby ! We had a small amount of food left on our plates after only going up to get food once! Our server had came over to collect our plates as thought we were finished. We had politely asked for a single box to put our combined small amount of left overs in so we could finish at home once we had got some of our food down. Our server had advised us that it is now company policy to refuse tubs to put left overs in and the food would be thrown away! Apparently this is due to people abusing the help yourself element of the buffet and putting lots of food on their plates to take home. The server could clearly see that there was a small amount of cut up food on each plate that we could not manage whilst here and we had not been up to get more food! She had asked her manager if we could have a food box due to this, and the answer was still no and that our food had to be thrown in the bin ! What I don’t understand is why the policy is like this at this particular site when previously before the fire they would happily let you take any left overs home on the rare occasion we could not finish our food. Whilst bishopstoke has been closed, I have been using the swan, again any small amount of left over food on a rare occasion has been happily boxed up by a member of staff. I think the attitude towards food waste here is shocking ! We were really taken back by this. We had all paid for our food, so to be denied taking home one and a bit potatos and a small amount of veg was shocking ! What a good way to promote destruction of the environment and waste of natural resources by promoting such a wasteful culture ! As a company your waste disposal costs will be a lot more than letting paying guests take home left overs! If you are that concerned over stopping people from abusing the self service (when we clearly had not) why not introduce someone serving on all of the stations or bringing in a token system! That way you know if someone wants to take home left overs like we did, they had not gone up for extra food just to take home! You really need to look at your attitude towards food wastage! For this reason, as much as we enjoy visiting bishopstoke, we will not be returning in the future and will be advising all friends and family of your position on food wastage and management !