Toby Carvery has confirmed a shake-up to its roast dinners, slashing prices to just £7 for a limited time, following a social media backlash over staff being filmed weighing meat portions. The chain, which operates branches in Birmingham, moved to reassure customers after a video posted on Facebook showed a team member using scales to plate up a meal at a Dorset restaurant.
The video, shared by a customer named Tee Gee, was captioned: "Tiny Yorkshire puddings and they’re weighing the meat now. Good job I went king size. Next they’ll be counting the peas." In the clip, a chef can be heard saying portions had been weighed for three weeks, though they were unsure whether other branches did the same. The post attracted hundreds of comments, with some users threatening to boycott the chain.
Company responds to criticism
Ellie Leacroft of Toby Carvery hit back at the mounting criticism, stating: "Toby Carvery has always been well known for our generosity and we will never skimp on our portion sizes. In fact, we deliberately over-cater to ensure we never run short for our guests and then work hard to make sure surplus food can benefit others through our partnership with Too Good To Go."
A Toby Carvery spokesperson added: "Don’t worry, Toby fans, nothing has changed with our portion sizes. Our chefs are highly trained and generally carve portions using their experience. Sometimes, we use scales to help to train new team members, or to reassure existing chefs that their portion servings are on point, ensuring accuracy and quality for our guests."
The spokesperson continued: "Far from being a cost-cutting measure, scales are occasionally brought out as part of a long-standing training and quality assurance process within its award-winning apprenticeship programme, which helps train hundreds of new kitchen team members every year. This vital quality check is designed to double check that the amount of meat chef's carve ‘by sight’ is consistent across Toby Carvery's restaurants, ensuring guests receive the same great roast experience wherever they dine."
£7 roast offer and charity gesture
Leacroft unveiled the discount roast promotion "to reassure guests that generosity sits at the heart of what we do." She said: "To reassure guests that generosity sits at the heart of what we do, in response to hitting the headlines last week we can announce two extra special gestures to really show we put the most in roast. Firstly, as our Poole restaurant was at the centre of this story, we wanted to show our generosity by inviting local charity Poole Communities Trust to join us for dinner on us. They are a good cause that support the community and particularly create opportunities for young people, something that is close to our heart here at Toby."
She added: "We're also inviting Tee Gee back to our restaurant for a behind-the-scenes look at what we do, to meet the team and learn more about how our kitchens operate. And because generosity should be something everyone can enjoy, we're also rolling out an incredibly generous offer this week, giving guests the chance to enjoy one of our legendary roasts for just £7."
The £7 roast deal is available across participating branches for a limited period, with the company aiming to demonstrate that portion sizes remain unchanged despite the use of scales in some kitchens. The charity dinner for Poole Communities Trust is scheduled to take place at the Poole restaurant, which was the location featured in the original video.
