I tried the roast at a Bristol Toby Carvery and it was the worst meal of the year

Friday night is clearly the time for a Sunday roast if you live near the Toby Carvery on Bristol Road.

In fact, by all accounts, the traditional Sunday lunch is enjoyed at this Whitchurch pub/restaurant all day, seven days a week.

Once the Black Lion, and then the Maes Knoll, this large Toby Carvery is certainly the meeting place for many locals.

With a large car park, plenty of outdoor seating and designated restaurant and bar (where you can also eat), it caters for the masses. And the masses were certainly there on the evening we visited.

At 6.30pm on Friday, the place was fully booked with no available tables in the restaurant, only in the unbookable, ‘first come, first served’ bar area which was also packed.

The only table we could find was one next to the toilets and the open door leading to the garden where a hapless dog kept wandering in. It had obviously heard about the famous Toby Carvery doggy bags.

As we weren’t eating in the restaurant where there’s table service, we had to order and pay for our food at the bar. On one of the hottest days of the year, the hardworking, efficient staff were still remaining impressively cool and focussed despite the heat and the queues.

The midweek set menu is available Monday to Friday and costs £11.29 for two courses or £13.29 for three courses.

On paper, these are bargain prices considering the amount of food you get but with a pint of Peroni at £5.40 and a 330ml bottle of Coca Cola at £3.35, they obviously make their money on the drinks.

The carvery is one of the main course options in the mid-week set menu but there are other options if you don’t fancy a roast, mostly the vegetarian and vegan dishes.

As we were there at peak time for families with kids, there was a lengthy wait at the carvery, which was a good opportunity to scan the many cheery slogans on the walls.

The copywriters for Toby Carvery must love their job. From ‘carving up the nation’s favourite roast’ and ‘why wait till Sunday?’ to ‘succulent meats and ruffled roasties’, it makes for mouthwatering reading.

Sadly the reality is quite different, as I soon discovered when it was my turn to step up to the hotplate.

On a warm heatwave evening, the chef was sweating more than the huge joints of meat under the hot lamps. Poor chap.

From a choice of beef, pork, roast gammon and glazed roast turkey (the last two seemed to be the most popular with the teenagers), I went for the beef.

The chef carved off two slices of pink meat with ribbons of clotted cream-coloured fat. The slices were a little uneven and scraggy - these were not the meticulous knife skills of a surgeon.

A few pieces of sliced string also ended up on the plate but he removed those and slung them to the side before handing over the plate for me to dish up my own vegetables.

‘He’s not as good as the previous carvers,’ whispered the old boy next to me, chuckling to himself as waited for the other chef to bring a new tray of cabbage as they’d run out.

In front of the trays of roast potatoes, carrots, Mac and cheese, cauliflower cheese and peas was a carpet of old food dropped by previously diners. It looked like the floor after a toddlers’ tea party.

The gravy and sauce station was just as messy, with sticky utensils and globules of thick gravy all over the place. It’s a shame there isn’t a member of staff cleaning the counters in the same way they do in buffet restaurants like Cosmo.

Returning to my table, through the packed restaurant of diners tucking into teetering mounds of food, you could tell it was the end of the summer. These weren’t portions for anybody fine-tuning a beach body.

As for the food itself, well it was edible but that’s about it. It was easily the worst roast I’ve had this year.

The meat was on the chewy side and not as tender as its pink hue promised, and the roast potatoes were hard, dry and lukewarm. The carrots and cabbage were overcooked and watery but the Yorkshire pudding was decent.

I followed it with the ‘seasonal’ crumble - apple and plum - with a separate bowl of thick custard. OK, the fruity filling under the buttery crumble was really sugary and more like a compote, but the custard wasn’t overly sweet.

As with anything, you get what you pay for and at £11.29 for two generous courses of food, it’s hard to complain about it and easy to see why this well-supported Toby Carvery is so popular with families but I won’t be rushing back anytime soon.

Toby Carvery Maes Knoll, 42 Bristol Road, Whitchurch, Bristol BS14 0PF.