Toby Carvery - Southend

I had the misfortune to visit your “restaurant” on a Monday 30th September for dinner for my children’s birthday. After being ignored completely for 25 minutes after being brought our drinks, we got up from the table assuming we had to order from the bar. When asking someone if we had to order at the bar, we were told our waiter would be over. We then placed our order, which is when I was told she had to check to make sure they had a Yorkshire pudding wrap. They did not. I changed it to a “brioche” bun. A few minutes later I was told that they had no cheese. So I was forced to choose something on the menu that I didn’t want. Also expected to be served in a “brioche” bun. What arrived on the table looked like something I would feed a dog, served in a bread roll and covered with a chopped up sprinkling of disgusting tasting garnish. I then had the pleasure of sitting by myself with my bread roll while the rest of my party queued for 25 minutes to get their food from the carvery. My children went to the ladies toilets and came out saying there were bugs flying around in there. When I went to investigate, I was horrified to find a blocked toilet - door unlocked, no “out of order” sign - filled with small flies flying around like something had died down that toilet. At this point, I just wanted to hurry up and finish our meals and leave. I did not enjoy my bread roll filled with cold meat and topped with lawn, but I ate it out of sheer hunger. When we received the bill we noticed that we had been charged for an £8.29 meal we hadn’t had. We were a party of 6 and we had 7 meals on the bill. We questioned this before paying and were told it wasn’t an error and that it was one of our children’s meals. We explained there were 6 of us and they’d added 7 meals to the bill and it was agreed they would take off the error of £8.29 added to our bill, however no sincere apologies given. So not only was it the worst dining experience I’ve ever had, but I almost paid more than I should have for it! Our visit here ruined my children’s birthday. Never been here before. Never will again. Terrible.

Truly awful service. Over an hour and estimate of another hour for it to be delivered. It was only two children's carverys as well and a dessert. And I can't cancel at the restaurant or just eat as did it as a guest and the restaurant didn't seem bothered about looking into my order either. Update at 19.31 (we ordered at 17:51); Spoke to a different lady who was much more helpful and polite and truly sounded like she wanted to help. I think she may have said Cassie? Whoever she was gets 5/5 stars for being polite, and looking into where the order was. So thank you for taking that little extra time with me whoever you were, I appreciated it.

Went for dinner on Friday night - arrived just before a larger rush. The staff are gold - I let them know of a cows milk allergy and was given a detailed and thorough understanding of the menu, I knew exactly what to avoid and what I could have. The food is consistently of a high standard; I was genuinely impressed that they had vegan desserts on the menu (both a la carte and the Christmas specials, including vegan custard!) I didn't catch the name of our server but she was an absolute delight 😊 All in all an easy night out! My only gripe is that there were a few flies hovering around us - not sure if it was a specific to the section we were in?