Toby Carvery has cut the price of its meals to £7 after a social media video sparked claims that the chain was weighing meat in every restaurant as a cost-saving measure to reduce portion sizes.
The claims emerged after content creator Tee Gee shared footage from a Toby Carvery serving deck showing team members using scales while preparing meat portions. In a Facebook video, a staff member was shown using weighing scales to plate up a meal in Dorset, with the caption: "Tiny Yorkshire puddings and they’re weighing the meat now. Good job I went king size. Next they’ll be counting the peas."
Chef's comments and backlash
A chef in the video said they had been weighing portions for three weeks but was unsure about other branches. Hundreds commented on the post, with some threatening to boycott the restaurant chain.
A Toby Carvery spokesperson said: "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."
Training and quality assurance
The spokesperson added: "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."
After meat is added by a chef, guests are encouraged to take as much or as little as they want with unlimited seasonal vegetables, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and all the trimmings.
Generosity gestures and £7 offer
Ellie Leacroft from Toby Carvery said: "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.
"However, 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.
"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 limited-time promotion is available through the Toby app and runs until Friday, October 16. Toby Carvery has a network of around 150 restaurants across the UK. Known as the "Home of the Roast", Toby Carvery has been serving traditional British roasts since 1985. A standard Toby Carvery roast typically starts from £10.99.
