MUMMY TO THE MAX

Half term is always a busy week for us. As a family we never seem to stop. In February half term, we were invited to our local Toby Carvery in Bishopstoke Hampshire to try their menu. Unfortunately on the day that we were due to go, Maxwell was ill. This left us rebooking our table and going for a meal together on Maxwell's first day back at school.

We arrived at Toby Carvery and as soon as we arrived, we were greeted by a beautiful view. There are not many restaurants I go to and comment on the beautiful location they are in but Toby Carvery in Bishopstoke is set in a beautiful, tranquil location. Next to Toby Carvery a beautiful river runs around it. We were lucky to get there as the sun set meaning the view was even more beautiful, especially as swans were on the river.


We made our way into Toby Carvery and we were instantly greeted by a staff member who found our booking and showed us to our seats. We were given menus and we were then given time to order from the menu. We ordered drinks - 2 refills of fizzy drink for Ben and I and a soft juice for Maxwell. It was fantastic to see that Maxwell was able to pick something other than fruit shoot on his menu. There was a lot of choice.

We decided that we would all start with starters. As a family this is something which we do not usually do however in the future we will be doing this - especially when we visit Toby Carvery. We found that the starter menu was packed with choices. Maxwell decided on the crunchy veg with cheesy BBQ sauce which I felt was fantastic value for money at just £1 and Ben and I opted for 3 dishes to share. The sharing dishes were on a menu which hosted special offers. Toby Carvery charged us just £5 for 3 starter dishes. We decided on cheese bits, pigs in blankets and meatballs in gravy.



Our starters took around 15 mins to come out from the kitchen, they were fresh, presented nicely and more importantly the starters were hot. The food tasted great and Maxwell who can often be fussy even enjoyed his starter. We were excited to go onto the main course.

For our main courses, Ben and I decided on a traditional carvery and Maxwell decided on sausages and a yorkshire pudding. There was no wait for these meals and we were told to go up to the carvery and fill our plates. Once we arrived at the carvery station, Maxwell was given his yorkshire pudding and sausages and we were given our meat. There was a choice of 4 meats on the day we went - gammon, turkey, beef and pork. Ben decided to opt for gammon and beef whilst I decided just on beef. It was then time to fill our plates with veggies, potatoes and a dash of gravy.



Once our plates were full, we went back to the table to enjoy our meals. All our meals were hot and the quality of the food was fantastic. We had plenty of veg and 2 forms of potato on our plates. The only small niggle I had was the beef was quite fatty however Ben said that the turkey which he had was not like this so this may have been down to the cut of the meat. Maxwell ate all his food which was fantastic and commented on how much he enjoyed his sausages and his yorkshire pudding.

After our main course, we were fill to the brim however we were offered puddings. We asked if we would be able to take our puddings home and I was stunned to be told this was not a problem at all and they would box our puddings up. Less than 5 minutes later, our puddings arrived, carefully boxed up, ready for us to take home.


Once we had our puddings, we asked to pay our bill and we were shocked to find out that the bill only came to £41. I felt this was fantastic value for money due to the 3 courses we had as well as a round of drinks. Once we had paid our bill, we were greeted goodbye by an arrange of staff who were all very attentive. Overall we had a fantastic meal out and Toby Carvery at Bishopstoke is somewhere where we shall be returning.