Toby Carvery Breakfast Confusion

Charliezoo

Went to the breakfast buffet for the first time in Toby Carvery and it was very nice! The waitress that seated us showed us the buffet and said "help yourself to tea and coffee" pointing out the pots of tea and coffee which were set out on a table next to the buffet. We would have liked cold drinks but she hurried off and we didn't see her again. Neither myself or my other half normally drink tea or coffee but as it seemed it was included and we hadn't been offered anything else we both had half a cup of tea each.

Ok it was a bit of a breakdown in communication between us and the waitress but we were a bit annoyed when the bill came and we'd been charged £1.95 each for 'unlimited' tea and coffee. The waitress' attitude was -"what you really expected tea and coffee to be included for that price??" which in hindsight is true but it would have been nice to have been told before we made the mistake of helping ourselves!

Rant over

HappyMJ

She should have asked you. It is the menu though at £1.95. Write to them if you want...

jojo_2012_2

I sat down for my first Toby Carvery recently, I was alone with my young son. I was sat down and not given a drinks menu at all. I asked for an orange juice, before I'd even sipped it I noticed they had a free refill drinks machine. Nobody had bothered to point this out to me, and it also took me about 30 mins to get the waitresses attention (they really have an easy job in there). I asked to change my drink to free refills but she refused so I asked to see the manager and not only got free refills but my drinks were free too.

jsmith4519

Hi, couple of thoughts regarding the above,
Firstly the staff do not have an easy life, my fiance works on average 50 hrs per week for a little more than minimum wage and comes home shattered after every shift.
As to the free drink refill, you need to buy your first drink (pepsi) etc at £2.29 and then your entilted to unlimited free refills.
Breakfast is only £5.95 which is very good value, if you went to a cafe and had a breakfast were if you so wanted you could have 20 slices of bacon and 15 sausages with a coffee it would come to a lot more than £7.90 so i think value wise it cannot be beaten.
Hope this helps

marywooyeah

Charliezoo wrote: »

Went to the breakfast buffet for the first time in Toby Carvery and it was very nice! The waitress that seated us showed us the buffet and said "help yourself to tea and coffee" pointing out the pots of tea and coffee which were set out on a table next to the buffet. We would have liked cold drinks but she hurried off and we didn't see her again. Neither myself or my other half normally drink tea or coffee but as it seemed it was included and we hadn't been offered anything else we both had half a cup of tea each.

Ok it was a bit of a breakdown in communication between us and the waitress but we were a bit annoyed when the bill came and we'd been charged £1.95 each for 'unlimited' tea and coffee.

I think you've got good grounds to complain - she said help yourself, not help yourself its only £2 each! I would have expected it to be included in the price, particularly as you had to serve it to yourself (eg you didnt order it and have it brought over to you) and it was located next to the buffet.

VT82

I was very disappointed with the Toby Carvery breakfast I had recently. I'm not a greedy person, so went in there because it was convenient, not so I could gorge myself.

I don't eat pork, so asked if they had any vegetarian sausages or bacon. The answer was no. Disappointing, but fair enough. But did they really have to mix lardons through the potato dish??? I then asked if they had any mushrooms. The answer was no. Surprising, seeing as they were actually prominent on the picture on the banner outside advertising the breakfast. So all in all, I thought £5.95 was quite a lot for a piece of toast, a bit of scrambled egg, beans and tomato.

Made me feel less guilty about the apple and the dozen Marmite sachets stashed in my pockets though

Gigervamp

VT82 wrote: »

I was very disappointed with the Toby Carvery breakfast I had recently. I'm not a greedy person, so went in there because it was convenient, not so I could gorge myself.

I don't eat pork, so asked if they had any vegetarian sausages or bacon. The answer was no. Disappointing, but fair enough. But did they really have to mix lardons through the potato dish??? I then asked if they had any mushrooms. The answer was no. Surprising, seeing as they were actually prominent on the picture on the banner outside advertising the breakfast. So all in all, I thought £5.95 was quite a lot for a piece of toast, a bit of scrambled egg, beans and tomato.

Made me feel less guilty about the apple and the dozen Marmite sachets stashed in my pockets though

I had a quick look at the menu for my local Toby, and it says there's a vegetarian breakfast for £3.95. Doesn't say exactly what that includes though.

timbstoke

jsmith4519 wrote: »

Hi, couple of thoughts regarding the above,
Firstly the staff do not have an easy life, my fiance works on average 50 hrs per week for a little more than minimum wage and comes home shattered after every shift.

Frankly, not the customer's problem. Virtually every restaurant/bar job involves long hours for minimum wage, there's nothing special about your fiance's job. Most still manage to maintain a decent standard of customer service.

shackalak

if anyone is going for a breakfast there, don't forget to print a voucher off their website before you go. Two breakfasts for £6. It doesn't include the tea and coffee but if two of you are going, both can have a breakfast with drinks for under a tenner. Cheaper than the advertised breakfast price of £5.95 (plus drinks)."

arcon5

jojo_2012 wrote: »

I sat down for my first Toby Carvery recently, I was alone with my young son. I was sat down and not given a drinks menu at all. I asked for an orange juice, before I'd even sipped it I noticed they had a free refill drinks machine. Nobody had bothered to point this out to me, and it also took me about 30 mins to get the waitresses attention (they really have an easy job in there). I asked to change my drink to free refills but she refused so I asked to see the manager and not only got free refills but my drinks were free too.

They had by this point poured it and given you the drink when you asked to change it? If so the waitress was right in refusing to exchange it. What would you expect them to do with the OJ now? As they can't serve it to somebody else.

arcon5

timbstoke wrote: »

Frankly, not the customer's problem. Virtually every restaurant/bar job involves long hours for minimum wage, there's nothing special about your fiance's job. Most still manage to maintain a decent standard of customer service.

It's obvious the post was referring to the comment that their job was easy and not defending the poor service. I agree this doesn't justify the service received, but doesn't mean people don't have a right to defend uninformed comments like the one made in the op.