Toby Carvery The Friary in Swindon

Negatives: A very long queue for food, one person slicing the meat is not enough when busy. The pork crackling was rock hard and inedible. Positives: Friendly staff and tasty food. I wish you had a savoy cabbage/green cabbage, not sweetcorn!

Always a good fill your face place! Love the gammon! I would have given 5* for the atmosphere but the child behind me kept flicking food at me and I’m sure it’s frowned upon to throw a spud back haha This is my favourite Toby’s! They are always so so polite and friendly ! Always good with allergies and are quick to show I the allergy booklet :)

Sat in the restaurant now (Sunday 1554 hrs) watching my husband creep forward in a very long queue, one he’s been in for 44 minutes and still nowhere near getting his food. I’ve given up queuing due to a knee injury meaning I just can’t stand in one position for that long. The staff are pleasant, I’m sure the food will be acceptable, and it’s clean enough (however see picture of mould around window) but a £5 surcharge for eating on a Sunday should mean swifter service. I challenge Toby Carvery execs (not the branch manager) to answer as to why they can’t make changes to ensure quicker - note not quick - service can’t be achieved for the extra charge. This is our first time in any Toby since before Covid. The food and the eventual time it arrives will decide whether we visit again.

A fantastic middle of the week treat! The staff were friendly, professional and helpful, and the food was quite simply divine and bountiful too!

Went on mothers day in memory of mum. It was her favourite place. Couldn't stop crying. The staff were amazing as always as they couldn't do enough for us. They also remembered her too. Wasn't the same without her. It was very hard to go back and even harder to try and stay composed. Thank you Toby staff. You really made it special xx

Was a busy Sunday but the staff were friendly and the food was hot and tasty.

A fantastic mid week treat. The staff were friendly, professional and helpful, and the food was quite simply delicious, divine, and plentiful too!

Toby Carvery was its usual reliable self — the food was good and the service from most of the team was fine. However, I’m here to talk about the manager (I believe her name was Kasey?) who was extremely rude and unprofessional throughout our visit. From the moment we arrived, she spoke to us in a dismissive and disrespectful manner, as if we were an inconvenience rather than paying customers. Her tone and attitude were completely uncalled for and left everyone at the table feeling uncomfortable. It’s honestly one of the worst experiences I’ve had with a manager anywhere. Someone in that position should be setting a positive example, not making guests feel unwelcome.

Rude manager, has a go at my partner and I for not waiting to be seated yet there were no visible waiting staff for 15 minutes, said the table was reserved but no reserved card as there were in other tables. The area that was for lunch not breakfast was barricaded off so poor service and unprofessional. Food was good despite this

Some of the potatoes were burnt, very cold food, not a lot of meat, burnt potatoes, awful Yorkshire puddings, very disappointing.

Fabulous meal, will definitely be back 😋

Great food , huge veg selection. Loved it

vegetables was cold meat and Yorkshire pudding was good

Lots of people all enjoying great food and drink

We had a lovely Mothers day dinner here, my son choose the place and I have to say I was pleased with is choice. Our server was Maddie (Ticket number 268) and she was great, she took our order quickly and was very polite, explained what we had to do and that our drinks would be on the table when we arrived back from getting our food. The food was lovely and what a great choice of meat, The roast potatoes were crispy and tasted great. We ordered drinks again half way through the meal and again Maddie was great and brought them straight away, We did order pudding and that was lovely, I had sticky toffee pudding and my son had Cheese cake. Food was great and the service was Awesome, thanks to every one who made my day special

We were pretty much booted out after an hour ...4 members of staff asked us to hurry up as they needed the table

Booked a short notice lunch for 6 people the Saturday before mother's day. Restaurant was very busy and we did queue for about 10 minutes. Food was perfect. Choice of 5 roast meats, a variety of potatoes and trimmings. And lashings of lovely gravy. Followed by a decadent sundae. All in all a delightful impromptu mother's day lunch. Definitely would recommend. Also joined the carvery club and got 25% off the food bill!

Great food at the buffet servery and the top up soft drinks.

Beef missing from carvery order… not good at all

Amazing food, and amazing prices, Love the roast, Should be allowed 2 Yorkshire puddings with a normal plate 🙏 and not go large

Fantastic, can’t remember the last time we ate that well. Everything was delicious…. Even the dog managed to sneak off with one of the cartons and had himself a little feast on the custard :-)

Food is acceptable and the atmosphere is good, however if you arrive halfway through the serving everything starts to arrive slowly.

Cam in .feel ignored by staff for quite a long time. Also , first time ever i had Yorkshire pudding that flat.Looks like pancake .I am not sure why the chef served this one when it was full plate of good one available. Good on the end, the person responsible for the area smooth all. Just because she was nice..

Actually 42 minutes late.Three small cold shrivelled roast potatoes.Beef gristly.Yorkshire pudding completely cold.Gravy lukewarm.Stuffing was missing.

Visited for Sunday roast not late at 5pm. Well over capacity, que round whole restaurant wait 1hr to get food. Then cold. Avoid.

the food was not of good quality. did not get mutch meat.was not much veg also. plus did not get any custard.

Meat rubbish what their was off it

Enjoyed another meal at the Toby Carvery

I have always used the Toby carvery and have never had any complaints . I paid £43 for two meals . And what was delivered was one meal . No roast pots/ mash or Yorkshire puddings . I asked for a refund for one meal and have since not received it

My beef was all stringy could not eat it beef dripping rosts pots could not taste any dripping on them

Food was lovely, could have hotter plates to keep the food warm

Went in with my family on the 10th of march around 3:15pm, qued up for our food and the nice lady serving us behind the food counter was lovely, very polite and just happy in general. Lovely to see.

Order the beef and it wasn’t too bad. It was all hot when delivered. Unfortunately the roasties were like bullets and inedible and one piece of the cauliflower cheese was hardly cooked. Plenty of peas and carrots and the gravy was good. Pigs in blankets were ok. It was an enjoyable meal. Oh and the Yorkshire pudding was very brittle

The last time I visited and baring in mind I'm travelling from hungerford as I find the newbury toby is not great very hit and miss and always short staff I do love this place but on my last visit I was very very disappointed with the amount of meat plated by the chef!! Also the young girl who was taking care of our table looked like she really did not want to be there and was not at all helpful!! Also as I'm a terminal cancer sufferer I have to be careful making sure my food is hot and on this occasion it was not!! I do love this place but this particular day was very disappointing. I'm unsure of a return and I'm always asked where I would take friends family I meet up with regular .

Decent carvery, good Sunday lunch options, very busy so book in advance on Sundays, tables are close together to get max number of people in so not the place if you like peace and quiet and not to be overheard

Good value for money, not bad not very special

Absolutely amazing portion was massive and still hot when it arrived, I’d happily order from there again.

Love . Sunday lunch Carvery. Great team of staff Book in advance it gets busy - early evening isn't as busy.

Went on the £4.99 breakfast deal, as we'd never done the breakfast before and it was so lovely. I think all of the openreach team was in there, but still plenty of food left

We are weekly customers for the last few years .Always discuss going elsewhere, but we know we will get friendly service ,lovely food and value for money .Even when I'm on one of my diets ,I still can have the meat ,and veg and skip pudding 🍮 although they are always tempting .Server Emma .Ticket number 159.

Really nice food, good temperature. Just 4 stars as our stuffing was missing

Too much people but what you expect on Sunday lunch time? Food very good, well presented and tasty

The food is lovely but the Yorkshire puddings can be either amazing or just too much. The service is excellent and the staff are very friendly and knowledgeable about their food. The tables are very close together so it can be a bit crammed at times. Overall great place and would highly recommend. The puddings are lush.

I'm food wasn't cooked proberly it was stone cold and all I received was peas carrots stuffing 2 roast potatoes I was missing the extras I had paid for and I didn't even receive any mash potatoes when I asked for it

Great service and a lovely dinner. Good atmosphere and staff all really friendly and helpful. Server Emma ticket number 403

First visit to a Toby Carvery. Great service even though it was busy. Tasty food and lots of choice. Thank you Emma! Raffle ticket number 3

As always the food and services was excellent, Jenny 402

Our server was Jenny brilliant service cleared away when finished asked if we required any more drinks.our raffle ticket number is 397 .

Maddie waiter very helpful. Dinner was delicious

Very good food. Good variety.Very polite and helpful staff Good parking Very reasonably priced. Would come again and recommend to friends in

Lovely food nice atmosphere good service

Very polite staff and carvery was cooked lovely will be back

I really enjoyed the breakfast.

Friendly staff good roasts dinner, fill your belly 🍗😋

We go to Toby about 2 or 3 times a month. Two people in our family are vegetarians and only eat the mashed potatoes. The rest of us also like mash. You have changed the ingredients and now the mash is inedible. We will not be booking again until we know that the recipe has been reinstated.

Food was cold and meal sizes have reduced massively

Great service by emma and the rest of the team, enjoyed our vist, food was hot and fresh. (2).

We really enjoyed our Lovely evening with a Gorgeous 2 course meal and drinks. Very Tasty all of it. We were served by our Lovely waitress Emma

Toby carvery at its best. Affordable prices. Decent food. Ample parking and an attentive staff. Be mindful that this place is popular. On weekends book ahead and arrive before your booking time as sometimes you will need to wait to be seated. This is especially true if you are in a smaller group 2's or 4's as for larger bookings they will prep the tables ahead of their assigned timeslot. Small groups are seated as tables are available.

Brilliant!!! As always, goodly portion and value for money

Brilliant place highly recommend

Very popular and busy family meal venue. Great choice of meats and plenty of veg.

Food is always reasonable. Not the best caravan around, often meat cut so thin if you hold it up to light it will resemble plankton, but breakfasts are always worth it..

Saturday late lunch with my Daughter, waiting staff lovely. But only one slice of pork.... Cut in half! Really!! Omg. Sadly lacking meat on my plate. Vegetables OK, roast potatoes looked lovely but still frozen and cold in the middle. Spent £43.00 for two. Could have done so much better. 😢

Didn't get the right order delivered

the roast potatoes are very hard couldn't eat them

The food was cold and the meat was stringy , very poor , can’t see my self going back there

Really busy on arrival (6pm on a Wednesday), so delayed our ordering a little (but couldn't decide anyway!) and drinks serving, but that didn't matter as we weren't in a rush. No queue at the carvery. Vegetarian choice was ready in good time. Nice, friendly waitress. As time went on we were the only ones left in our area, so able to chat and relax. Appreciated that the background music was quiet in our section too.

We were served by Emma raffle ticket number 410. We were a family group of six people. The service was excellent in this busy restaurant. We got s friendly reception at the entrance. Drinks were served promptly soon after arrival. Carvery food was excellent, sweets excellent and value for money excellent.

Lovely place, staff were great, the meat's were great but the veg was shockingly bad.We had a discount for signing up to Toby carvery but the restaurant wouldn't accept it.

Consistently great quality and exceptional good value. I love the self service soft drinks. I loved the service given by my waitress. I love that I can ask for the cripsy bits of the roast, as that's my favourite bit. I would like to see sprouts and braised red cabbage offered more often as seasonal vegetables in winter

Wonderful carvery, and managed dessert too. The food was great and our server was lovely.

I went to this place with the intention of coming to England and trying traditional food. It's a Bury chain store. The restaurant is good if there are a lot of elderly people. This is the place then. You can choose from beef, pork, or turkey. If you ask for it all, they will cut it into different types. The portion is limited and you have to ask for the sausage separately. Even though the amount of meat may seem small, you will be full if you eat the bread, potatoes, and roasted vegetables on the side. You can choose one of 4 types of gravy and sprinkle it on top, and if you like mint, you can even sprinkle mint sauce on the side. Baguette bread and tomato soup are provided as standard. After we finished eating, they gave us apple crumble, which was delicious. Sweet and refreshing.

Dion is an amazing waitress and would recommend large bookings and if you get Dion your in for a treat 405

Food was good but we did not receive the meat that we ordered.

Very late delivery. No mashed potatoe, roast potatoes soggy, not enough meat, rock hard cauliflower.

everything was lovely good food and service x

Great place Nice meals n Great vaule

Disappointed no mash potato two roast potatoes. And pigs blankets I did not order

Beef was frist class,not over cooked and moist

The Breakfast was less than I usually see at Toby , very limited ,eggs fried up , bacon and sausages were so dried up due to the lights . No other egg options such as scrambled eggs. Horrible boiled eggs/ steamed mushrooms like rubber balls . Only thing good was the toast and tea It was an expensive mess Definately will not be going again

It was really busy when we arrived which was to be expected for a Sunday, the wait staff seemed to be rushed off their feet as they seemed slightly understaffed! I would of loved a pudding but due to having to wait i was kind of put off having one, this is no way any of staffs fault they were all doing the best that they could! The roast from what I had was lovely apart from the beef was stringy and chewy which doesn't usually happen if it's slow cooked! I also think my note about coming to celebrate a birthday got overlooked which was kind of disappointing. Overall though it was an okay experience but I've had better experiences at toby!

roast potatoes were like rocks.no mash, cauliflower broken my fork(say no more)

Update: Scanned code for rewards and mentioned it twice as it said removed on the receipt. They said it was accepted but it never came through. The customer service ignores you and it was never fixed even weeks after with evidence. We booked to celebrate a birthday. It was somewhat busy, so there was limited food left and just unlucky with receiving bad pieces of meat. There was no gravy left, so there was a queue for it as 1 customer said. We waited in line and got other sauces first. A white male customer purposely threw mint sauce all over my arm, which I had wiped off with tissues, and he had made rude comments towards me without apologising. I was angry that he did it on purpose and did not say anything until he made comments, proving it was on purpose. This made the family angry as it was on purpose against us. They don't speak English. A white male staff member in black came over and saw it and wiped up the mess. Of course, we argued. The man says some things and walks off. This should have been the end of it. The white male waiting staff had sat us near each other, which they should have separated us after what happened. We had to walk past him to get to our table. As I went past, he was trash talking about us, which I made clear to his partner what happened. She told him off for not apologising. A female white staff member came over, repeating that there are children around and to not argue. There was no swearing, no name calling, or physically fighting. I only stated what had happened. "He threw sauce on me on purpose and claims it was an accident, but if it was an accident, there would have been an apology." I went to get a drink. The same white male staff came over saying that we are as bad as each other and need to stop arguing. I said that's fine, but he needs to stop lying and talking about us. He said he told the man to stop, too. The situation could have been handled much better by staff. The staff saying we are as bad as each other and asking me to stop defending me and my family against racism and assault is ridiculous. Everyone in the restaurant heard what happened. The man who was queuing behind us also saw what had happened. If it was an accident, he would have apologised and not made rude comments. It's like the staff made judgement against us because we are not white, and my family can't speak English. They did not care to check CCTV, resolve the issue, or call police to help. All the staff did was tell us not to argue. I'm very disappointed in how they handled the situation.

No roasties , no carrots loads of stuffing filling the container😔

Visited this place yesterday (Sunday), and the food was decent. We’ve been to various Toby Carvery branches before, and I’d say the experience was pretty much the same. All just fine! Forgot to take photos, though. 😄

Great food as always. This is always the best place to go for a carvery. Very helpful , friendly staff too. Thank you

Cold but fine after a quick ping in the microwave. Peas inedible

Friendly staff. Always love a carvery. Amazing Mac and cheese and massive yourshiers

Great staff,great service great food highly recommend jenny and racheal were fantastic made our day,in fact I tipped it has to be good service for us to tip 👍

Very approachable good price for what you receive I would recommend.

There are many Toby franchises, but this one seems to be a bit more luxurious and has a nice atmosphere.

Once delivered after being later than original time- Food was cold, missing Yorkshire puddings and stuffing and only 4 small roast potatoes between 3 portions was far from enough, only vegetables were carrots and peas. nothing like the dine in experience. disappointed tonight

Went there with friends foe xmas meal lovely food, service etc

Beautiful food hot and very tasty

Delivery was good. Carvery great and hot. Mac n cheese was inedible.

Writing this review as I didn’t hear from anyone as promised by the manager on duty, who took my phone number and my email address. And this review will be shared on my social media pages too. We booked a Christmas dinner for the 27th December as my children were flying over from Canada this year and they spent Xmas & Boxing Day with my daughter in laws parents and then came to us. There were 10 of us and we booked for 7pm, and upon arrival we ordered drinks and sat and chatted for a while. The waitress who was miserable from the get-go told us that over the Christmas period they stopped serving food at 8pm. No one told us this when we booked the table. We were rushed to get our food - which was literally remnants of meat - and as we loaded our plates we had to wait whilst one of the kitchen staff filled take away containers with the vegetables and sides for their takeaway deliveries. There was no meat gravy and we had to make do with the vegetarian gravy. They also use plastic serving spoons and tongs which over heat under the heating lamps making it impossible to use them. So it became a disappointing evening as we had to rush our meal and the waitress just kept hovering all the while we were eating. We paid the bill and as we were walking out I noticed the carvery now had fresh meats and veggies and people were still eating on the other side of the restaurant. I asked to speak to the manager and he came out and spoke with me. His attitude was no better than the waitress’s - and when I asked what time they stop serving food he said 9pm. I explained what had happened with us - and he just shook his head and said ‘no, that’s not true. I’ll speak to her’. No apology no nothing. Your team ruined what would have been a lovely evening for my family and made sure that this family doesn’t come to your restaurant again.

Absolutely beautiful food and plenty of it

The food was good. Could've been more variety of vegetables. What i was not impressed about was buying a child's carvery for our 3 year old (6 of us in total all had a carvery meal plus drinks) and being told if I wanted to take his home because he didn't eat much, I would have to pay a further £1.99 for a takeaway container when the meal was paid for. We had travelled from Somerset and he had felt sick in the car so hadn't wanted to eat much. I have never anywhere else, carvery or otherwise, been asked to pay extra to take food away I've already paid for. I would not return for this reason alone.

Poor breakfast hard eggs just food looked un inviting wont go back typical buffet breakfast poor quality