Toby carvery vs Crown carveries?

martyp · 17 December 2011 at 6:53PM

Hi all,
I know these two are owned by the same parent company but seem to offer the same carvery for quite different prices. Can anyone advise how they compare if they've been to both? I've been to Toby Carvery and Harvester many times but have yet to try Crown Carveries.
The price for a carvery at Toby Carvery seems to be £5.75 at the cheapest but the Crown Carvery price is nearly £2 cheaper at £3.89. Looking at the menus for the carvery they seem pretty much the same, both with unlimited vegetables it seems.
Is it simply better value for money at Crown than at Toby?
I also noticed this for £1.50 extra at Crown carvery:
"ULTIMATE KINGSIZE
More meat, a generous pork sausage, a massive Yorkshire pudding and an even larger plate for all you can eat veg for just £1.50 extra."

puddings_2 · 31 December 2011 at 5:38PM

The main differences between toby and crown are that:
Toby has a better joint of beef
Toby has more veg to choose from
Crown is usually £3.89 compared to £5.75 (but first two weeks in Jan, Crown is £2.99 with a voucher from their facebook page)
- recently Crown improved their carvery menu and now they are far more similar to Toby than before for example - there's now mashed potato (instead of boiled) and also theres now bottomless custard with the puddings - so considering the difference in price there really isn't a lot of difference in the food.

They also do a £2.99 breakfast - and like the main carvery its done on a help yourself* basis (*excluding bacon/sausage) - but it doesnt include the toast or coffeewhich cost extra - when you add those on, youre talking about a fiver. Personally I'd rather pay an extra couple of quid and go out for premier inn breakfast - thats done on a total help yourself basis incuding drinks, bacon, sausage, croissants, ceral, the worls... The quality of the food is better there too (and the coffee is significantly nicer)

For a main meal I'd recommend crown carvery and if you are particularly hungry the king size plates are huge. For breakfast though I'd avoid going to crown.

McKneff · 31 December 2011 at 5:43PM

Go to their websites too, there are often vouchers for money off.

My OH went to Toby Carvery outside York a couple of weeks ago and It was absolutely excellent value for money.
4 choices of meat, loads of variety in veg and lovely yorkshire puds, separate table with loads of different condiments on.

itsmeagain · 31 December 2011 at 8:03PM

Crown pubs are generally more 'pubby' and down market compared with Toby but there are always good Crowns and bad Toby's.
The veg is not so good at Crown. I've never seen Broccoli or parsnips there, the stuffing is often like golf balls (hard), the cauliflower cheese has flour but no cheese. They often 'top up' the peas so they have 2 different colours. They run out of things more often and seem to have less caring staff but they're probably paid £5 per hr!
The free ice cream is nice but often the machine can't cope with the demand (sloppy)!

Myser · 31 December 2011 at 11:31PM

Crown Carveries aren't very good for veggies. I have seen them using the same probe thermometer to check the temperature of meat in vegetables too. Contacted the Food Standards Agency about this as it constitutes contamination.

They also make you pay more for the vegetarian option at Christmas with a group meal booking.

What happened to equality?

They don't respond to E-mails when you write to them numerous times either.

I think they reuse left-over food day-to-day too. It doesn't taste very good.

I don't know about Toby Carveries.

Derivative · 1 January 2012 at 12:35AM

A friend of mine is vegetarian and we always used to take the mick out of him if he suggested a trip to the carvery.

Somehow I can't help but think worrying about contamination at a meatery is rather daft. The roast potatoes are probably (hopefully!) cooked in dripping. The clue's in the name.

Why wouldn't you just go somewhere else?

Myser · 1 January 2012 at 12:43PM

Why wouldn't you just go somewhere else?

That was where the whole department chose to go for the Christmas meal as it was cheap! Now they are aware that I won't go there again, they will reconsider in future where to go. Somewhere a bit more upmarket

If a restaurant advertises a Vegetarian option, with a group booking it should be just that (Vegetarian). Also, it was disappointing to have to find out that we had to pay more for the Vegetarian option and you get less food!

orangemad · 4 January 2012 at 5:30PM

The meat is different quality between the brands, e.g Crown has silverside beef and Toby has Beef Joint

Froggitt · 4 January 2012 at 5:38PM

Toby only give you a tiny sliver of meat......not enough to feed a kitten really.

Big_Graeme · 4 January 2012 at 7:46PM

The Yorkshire puddings are another difference, Crown use frozen flat looking ones, Toby make them in house and are huge and fluffy. There is a better gravy and sauce choice too and a lot more fresh veggies against Crown's frozen ones.

To be honest though a carvery meal for around the same price and a McD's is a decent deal any7 day of the week.

Nikadi · 5 January 2012 at 11:42PM

EdgEy wrote: »

Why wouldn't you just go somewhere else?

For what it's worth, both my sister and I are vegetarian yet both go have a Toby every couple of months or so, we both love them and on the rare occasion the veggie option chosen wasn't very good they've either offered to replace it or given us our meals free. On a couple of occasions we've had waitresses telling us at the start that if we didn't like the veg options we could have a free for all with the vegetables which suits us just fine!

I believe that if restaurants cook something and advertise it as veggie friendly they have to state somewhere that it is cooked in a non-veggie manner if it is (such as with meat fats)? Don't quote me on that though!

Roast dinners are my favourite meals

Toby carvery vs Crown carveries?

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