Whilst I love cooking for the family at home, nothing beats heading out for a family meal. The idea of not having to slave away at the oven, deal with picky eaters and do the washing up at the end, is just a slither of pure bliss in a normally hectic week.
We were recently invited to one of our local Toby Carvery in Hinton, Christchurch that had just had a makeover to enjoy some fuss free family dinner and give us an opportunity to relax, reconnect and have fun with our food.
We are HUGE roast dinner fans. If Max had his way he would eat nothing but roast dinners five out of seven nights of the week. And whilst I'm more than happy to cook one, we all tend to have our own vegetable and meat preferences and I can never fully satisfy everyone at once. So Toby Carvery is a fantastic place for us to visit as it allows all of us to pick exactly what we want.
With four different meats to choose from and a host of veggies to tick every box, it's hard not to love the convenience of eating at a Toby Carvery. Everything is cooked to perfection and they are proud to call themselves the home of the roast, which we have to agree with!
Upon entering the Hinton restaurant, we were taken back by how light and fresh it felt. No longer was it dark and slightly dated in decor, with light walls and tonnes of light flooding in, it was a place that we soon didn't want to leave. The new look meant that we felt like we were stepping into a brand new restaurant and we were seriously impressed.
We were quickly seated by our fantastic server Tara, who spent ages going through the slight updates to the menu and checking we were all happy with our choices. No roast is complete without pigs in blankets, so as soon as she mentioned they were on the Toby Tasters menu we quickly decided to get some. With a fantastic offer of three mini starters for £5, it's a great way to add little favourites like chicken wings and creamy mushrooms to your dinner. Of course as soon as they came to the table, Max grabbed them and wolfed them down quicker than he could take a breath! I assume they were nice, the big grin on his face told me that they probably were.
As with all Toby Carvery restaurants, you can head up when you are ready to the carvery station. With a choice of meats and veg, you can fill your plate however big or small you want. Max was a tad hesitant at first with his choices, but once he had a taste of the veg and they had his thumbs up, he went back to load his place with peas and roasties. Which he declared were better than mine! The cheek!
I'm currently on Slimming World so I was really glad to be able to pile my plate with heathy greens and food I knew would be good for me. Knowing everything is cooked fresh and routinely rotated and replaced meant that you have the reassurance you will always have the freshest food to devour. And devour we did. With not much time to even take a breath, we demolished nearly all of our plates (eye's are always bigger than bellies!) and sat back with a sigh of satisfaction.
Eating a meal out can either be a breeze as a family, or one that will leave you vowing to never leave the house again. Toby Carvery definitely fell into the first category. A mix of help yourself food, fantastic service and a beautiful new restaurant has left us planning our next visit and dreaming about roast dinners and full bellies!
*Note: We were kindly given a free meal in return for an honest review, all opinions are our own.
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