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Yesterday Mark had a quick five minute job to do in Dudley so I decided to tag along and we'd grab some lunch while we were out. We've eaten at the Burnt Tree Island Toby before and have always had a nice meal, yesterday was no exception and actually ranks as one of the nicest carveries I've ever had!
We were seated as soon as we went inside, a baby chair was brought over for David without me even asking and a dining chair was removed so he could sit at the table with us instead of being shoved on the end in the way! This is important to me as I'm always very wary of people carrying hot, heavy plates over babies heads when they're blocking the aisle in their highchair and I always prefer tucking them into the table properly. The lady who showed us to our table quietly advised us to go up as quickly as possible for our carveries as there were a lot of old people arriving - we stupidly ignored the advice and ended up eating an hour later after all the old dears had dithered and chatted their way along the carvery deck...
When we finally spotted a gap we left David in the very capable hands of the four silver haired ladies on the next table and darted up for our food - he was always in view by the way, we didn't just disappear and leave the baby with strangers! The carvery hadn't long opened and everything looked fresh and hot - the usual routine applies here as is in operation in Toby Carveries throughout the country. The server was generous with the meat, I don't like too much beef and had to tell him to stop cutting when I noticed how much he'd put on my plate - although Mark was very impressed with the huge pile of meat he walked away with after requesting some of each. The turkey was absolutely delicious, moist and tender with a buttery flavour and texture. I even enjoyed the beef, not being big on red meat, as it was thinly sliced and mouthwateringly tender. Mark mentioned that the gammon was very salty, which to him is a compliment to the meat but made me glad I hadn't had any!
There is the obligatory HUGE Yorkshire Pudding, I love these from the Toby but wish they could get the same taste and texture into a smaller sized one! The hugeness is really off-putting, but soaked in gravy the pudding slops into manageable bites - I learned once not to try and eat Toby yorkies dry, they need gravy as otherwise you'll choke as they're soooo dry. One thing had changed since we last visited this Toby; the stuffing is no longer served in balls with the Yorkshire pudding, great news for someone like me who likes *lots* of stuffing as now you help yourself to a tray of yummy crunchy-soft stuffing. Lovely!
There was an excellent choice of vegetables and potatoes - red cabbage, roasted onions, peas, carrots, swede mash, cauliflower cheese, mashed potato and roasters. I had a bit of of most of them (except the carrots and swede) and everything was absolutely delicious - the cauliflower cheese was creamy and soft, the cabbage had a crunch that assured me it was as fresh as it possibly could be and both types of potato were so good I could have licked the plate afterwards! The mash in particular was yummy; buttery and creamy, totally smooth and lovely drowned in the thick beefy gravy - I put a huge pile on my plate as I knew David would love it (at thirteen months he shares with me) and I was right, he ended up eating more of it than I did! There were adequate supplies of everything, the staff behind the carvery deck were kept busy refilling the various pots of vegetables and my entire meal was piping hot with an obvious freshness that convinced me nothing had been cooked 'in advance'.
After filling my plate (see piccie!) I headed over to the hot plate which houses the urns of gravy. There were three to choose from today, the standard (and oh-so yummy) beef gravy, a vegetarian option and also an unlabelled lighter looking option which I assume was poultry gravy. I went for lashings of beef gravy as I love it from this Toby, and it smothered and complimented my meal so well that I actually went back up for seconds after finding some dry stuffing hiding under my turkey! There were a wide range of sauces including wholegrain and smooth mustard, horseradish sauce, cranberry sauce, mint sauce plus a warm parsley sauce for the gammon which looked and smelled delicious. I had the cranberry and thought it was lovely, large cranberries made it taste homemade and the sauce had a yummy tartness that went so well with the turkey.
I didn't notice any vegetarian options at this Toby, although having eaten here with a veggie friend before I know they are catered for. Presumably you need to ask at this branch, rather than having the vegetarian dish on display at the end of the carvery deck - mind you, we ate quite early yesterday so it's possible that the veggie food just wasn't ready at that time as I had also noticed that the usual pie option (instead of the meat) was missing too which is unusual. Actually, the fact that there was the vegetarian gravy available tells me that you're not going to be ignored as a non-meat eater - although to be honest this gravy looked very wishy washy and not as appetising as in other Toby restaurants so hopefully this wasn't a sign of a poor vegetarian meal to come!
The Burnt Tree Island Toby is a very large building, all on one level so access is fine for wheelchair users and families with babies in pushchairs. There's adequate room between tables that you're not bumping into other diners when moving around the pub, and there's a wide variety of table sizes and seating arrangements. As we needed a highchair we had a table that would seat four with the one chair removed to accommodate David, but we have sat at a table for two in here before and found it roomy enough that we weren't constantly worried about knocking each others dinner off the table - on the other end of the scale we had a round table which seated eight recently after deciding to take the whole family for a meal and I thought this was a really comfortable and lovely way to sit. I'm always highly impressed at how clean this place is, Dudley itself not being known for it's spotless nature! The carpets are always spotless, the air in the pub is clean and fresh and the toilets are so clean you could take your dinner in there! Staff are constantly buzzing around clearing tables, wiping surfaces down and delivering drinks to diners but always remain polite and friendly - paying at the end of our meal was a bit slow (to the point of irritation) and even though they were busy I thought it was bad planning to leave someone who has already finished their meal waiting an age to pay, as it meant Mark and I were taking up a whole table that could have been given to someone else!
I really do like this branch of Toby Carvery, we've never had a bad meal here and yesterday was absolutely no exception. Everything was perfect; from the food to the atmosphere, which was quiet and conductive to a relaxing meal and a chat - in fact it was our David who spoilt the peace after deciding to have one of his ridiculously distraught sounding tantrums after I refused to let him play with my knife. I'm not the sort of mum who let's my kids spoil the enjoyment of other diners so took him outside for a good talking to (well, and a bottle) and a few minutes later it was safe to take him back in. Noisy crisis avoided. At that point David was the only child in the restaurant, although there were at least ten highchairs stacked up in the corner so I'd guess from this that at other times it's a popular place for parents with babies and toddlers. There's a children's menu available which is reasonably priced, if a little uninspired. I've never ordered off this menu as our kids all like a carvery, but the chicken nuggets and sausage type dishes look like they'd definitely appeal to most children as sometimes carvery meals can be a bit filling for little tummies. Big tummies too actually!