The secrets of Toby Carvery revealed: It's a British staple and now HARRY WALLOP spends 24 hours at the restaurant to uncover all its mysteries... from the strict formula for meat to the Yorkshire puddings that start as powder

Published: 01:00, 18 July 2026 | Updated: 01:29, 18 July 2026 If there is a national dish in Britain, it is probably a roast with Yorkshire pudding and lashings of gravy. Despite the rise of international cuisine, vegetarianism, weight-loss jabs and a cost of living crisis, there is one place you can get this meal any day of the week: a Toby Carvery. This chain of 158 restaurants sells 21 million Yorkshire puddings a year and enough gravy to fill three Olympic-sized swimming pools. How does it survive? And how has a once deeply unfashionable restaurant brand started to attract young customers, some of whom post about it on social media channels, while wearing ‘Tobywear’ – a range of branded clothing? Why do celebrities including Danny Dyer and Bob Mortimer boast about having a Toby Gold Card, entitling them to free food? To find out, I spent all day at the Toby Carvery Hilsea in Portsmouth – from opening time at 8am to closing at 10pm – on one of the hottest days of the year. Surely, no one would want turkey with all the trimmings in a heatwave... would they? 5am: Toby Carvery boasts that its kitchens have a ‘5am wake-up call’. This isn’t strictly true, says Iain Clegg, 44, the cheery manager of this outlet. ‘Er, no. It’s 6am here,’ he laughs. He is wearing a tie decorated with roast turkeys and has a permanent smile on his face. ‘But I have a man who does nothing but prep veg for 10 hours.’ On a busy day, this branch can get through 64kg of carrots and an astonishing 650kg of potatoes. They are cleaned in a ‘rumbler’ machine before being chopped and cooked in a high-pressure steamer. 8am: The first customers through the door are seven retirees, who met at a Tai Chi class in the nearby Pompey fitness club, though Brian Bradshaw, 75, a retired IT consultant, admits he slept through his alarm and missed the class. He’s here with his partner, Mei Lan Kan, 71, and is having sausage, eggs and tomatoes. ‘For me, it’s a community meeting spot. It’s very convenient for us and it’s always got good parking.’ Breakfast at Toby is increasingly popular, mostly because it is, mid-week, astonishingly good value: £6.99 for all you can eat. There’s nothing to stop you returning to the buffet and grabbing eight eggs or a dozen sausages. Later, I meet Jason Sean, 57, a former sixth form teacher, who has six pieces of toast he’s using to make multiple bacon sarnies. Despite the rise of international cuisine, vegetarianism, weight-loss jabs and a cost of living crisis, the restaurant chain Toby Carvery has survived Toby Carvery has 158 restaurants and sells 21 million Yorkshire puddings a year and enough gravy to fill three Olympic-sized swimming pools Kate Hodgson and Danielle Forbes often come to Toby Carvery on a Friday, enjoying their Blue Light Card discount which gives them 20 per cent off 9am: There are quite a few mothers heading in after school drop-off, including Kate Hodgson, 40, and Danielle Forbes, 38, who often come on a Friday ‘to have a chat’. Kate works in the NHS, doing admin, and Danielle works in a school, so both enjoy a 20 per cent discount thanks to their Blue Light Card, available to public sector workers. Kate is tucking into sausage, beans, egg, hash brown, bacon, mushrooms... and Yorkshire pudding. Is this an odd choice for breakfast? ‘It’s a bit weird at first but actually it’s really nice. You can make a Yorkshire pudding wrap with the bacon. And at breakfast they cook the puddings with onions and bacon – it’s lovely.’ 9.30: Time to sample a Breakfast Yorkie for myself. I also have eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, cheese and onion hash, and mushrooms but eschew the ‘HP Sauce breakfast gravy’. My plate contains 1,056 calories. It’s very cheap but is it tasty? I have had much worse but I am doubtful what the enormous and slightly dry yorkshire pudding adds to the party. 10am: How long can Toby Carvery – and its all-you-can eat philosophy – flourish in this era when at least 6 per cent of the population are estimated to be using GLP-1 drugs? ‘My sister is on weight-loss jabs,’ says Billy Harris, 56, a fencer, ‘and when we come to places like this, she can eat next to nothing. So it’s a waste of time for her. She used to come every week to Toby Carvery but she’s stopped.’ She’s lost 7st on Manjaro since November, he tells me. Billy has piled on his plate three bits of bacon, three sausages, two eggs, fried potatoes, ‘and that might not be all we eat’, he laughs, but adds this will be the only food he’ll have until – after hours of physical labour – he’ll scoff something at the end of the day. Paul Thomas, operations manager for Toby Carvery in the south, admits weight-loss jabs are a problem. ‘Clearly the whole industry is going to be shaken up by that’, but insists the self-service aspect of the carvery means, ‘our guests can go up and choose and actually not feel obliged to eat more than they actually want.’ 11.30am: The breakfast buffet is cleared at 11am and the kitchen staff have 30 mins before the carvery starts at 11.30am. The meats are: beef, turkey, pork and gammon. The most popular by far is turkey, with Toby Carvery selling 2,510 tons of it a year compared with 1,400 tons of beef. Indeed, it boasts that it is the UK’s biggest buyer of turkey. All the meat is cooked to a strict formula: four hours at 120C in a steam oven, then at least two hours at 75C. It then is laid out under the heat lamps of what staff call ‘the deck’ – the buffet counter. The meat has to stay at 65C or higher (for safety reasons). Clegg says: ‘The secret to a decent carvery is consistency and volume.’ The more customers they have, the fresher the food is. ‘If you haven’t got the volumes there, then it starts drying out.’ 11.40am: A trio of friends in their 70s arrive on their walkers and sticks. ‘I have difficulty walking, we all do – it’s easiest to get here early and get a table,’ says Jenny Cooper, 79. They are regulars. Trish Mitchell, 77, says: ‘I love the food. I know it sounds daft with a carvery but it’s not the same every time you come here. It’s always different vegetables.’ Today there are 13 side dishes. Is turkey odd to have in a heatwave in July, rather than on Christmas Day? ‘You can have turkey any time of the year,’ she says with a twinkle. 1pm: The scorching summer weather is causing a dip in customers. ‘As soon as it gets to 25C, we usually see a 30 per cent drop in sales,’ says Clegg. But many customers are enjoying the efficient air-con. Victoria Lovrey, 34, a lettings agent, is lunching with friend Leoni Silva. Victoria says she’d usually eat out at Gunwharf Quays, the upmarket shopping centre in Portsmouth, but the Toby Carvery is ‘cheap and cheerful’. Leoni is disappointed by her meal: ‘The crackling was so salty I could barely eat it’ is her verdict. ‘And they don’t have any salads; I’d much prefer a salad in summer than cooked veg.’ Harry Wallop tucks into his lunchtime roast – a meal that tops 1,800 calories with beef dripping potatoes that, he says. ‘lack crunch but are flavourful’ Ian Clegg, the manager of the Hilsea branch, says that the ‘secret to a decent carvery is consistency and volume’ Victoria Lovrey (right), who visited Toby Carvery for lunch with her friend Leoni Silva (left), says the restaurant is ‘cheap and cheerful’ 1.40pm: Time to try the famous carvery myself. For an extra £1.99 (bringing the total to £13.48 on a weekday) you can upgrade to a King Size roast – a bigger plate (13.75in in diameter v 10.75in for a normal size). You get two chipolata sausages, an extra Yorkie and more meat. To be precise, 216g of meat rather than the usual 160g. The chefs are taught how to measure slices accurately without the need for scales. The secret is knives that are sent to be sharpened (and replaced) at least twice a week. Thomas says, when it comes to accurate slices, ‘the guys are really good’. They calculate the margin of error at the end of the day: it is just 5 per cent on average. This is the way it ensures, despite soaring meat price inflation, profits are protected: veg and sides are unlimited but the meat is rationed. My lunch tops 1,800 calories and is huge. The turkey is a bit dry and, yes, the crackling is salty. But the sides are decent, especially the most popular one, macaroni cheese. The beef dripping potatoes lack crunch but are flavourful. 3.40pm: Lunchtime trade was slow but it is buzzing at 3.30pm. Adam Warburton, 19, who works in Home Bargains, has just finished an early morning shift and is eating with two student friends. ‘My entire pay cheque goes on Toby Carvery,’ he says, laughing. ‘We’re here every Friday.’ He adds: ‘When I come here, it’s my only meal of the day. You can really stuff yourself.’ He also owns a Toby-branded beanie hat and a T-shirt. ‘I bought it as a laugh, but if you like going to a place, why wouldn’t you wear their merch?’ Following in the footsteps of Greggs and Lidl – both of which have branded ‘merch’ – the company has brought out The Tobywear Collection, including a £23.99 T-shirt with the slogan: Eat, Sleep, Roast, Repeat and £13.99 bucket hat covered with pictures of Yorkshire puddings. 4.15pm: It’s the middle of the afternoon but the carvery is busy. It gets some customers from the neighbouring Travelodge and the fact it’s near the M27 – most are sited near major roads. The Wood family from Leicester – Paul, 48, Clare, 46, Ivy, 12, and Elsie, ten – are en route to catch the ferry for a fortnight’s holiday in France in their VW camper van. It has become a tradition for them to stop off at a Toby Carvery at the start of their holiday. ‘We could have a meal on the boat,’ says Paul. ‘But it’s over-priced.’ Elsie, who has piled her Yorkshire pudding with cranberry sauce, says she loves them ‘because they taste like pancakes’. 6pm: Is Toby Carvery a pub or a restaurant? This is being debated by Nathan and his father Pete Pitty, who are on a pub crawl of all estimated 160 ale houses in Portsmouth. This is number 67. But is it a pub? It has beer on tap (Guinness costs £5.50, John Smiths £4.65) and genuine Tudor oak beams – the handsome venue is in a rebuilt 16th century barn. But Pete jokes it needs a dartboard to qualify as a pub. 7.30pm: It may not be a classic pub and it may be owned by the vast hospitality group Mitchells & Butlers (who also own All Bar One), but it has regulars. Kerry, 54, and Daniel Moore, 53, both work at the local hospital. They have been coming twice a week since it opened in 1993, sometimes more often, especially during a heatwave. Conservatively, this means they have been here 3,500 times. ‘It’s been so hot, I’ve come home from work and said, let’s not cook, let’s just go and get a drink.’ They are drinking Peroni and eating salted peanuts in the shade outside. ‘We always sit here,’ says Daniel. ‘It’s lovely.’ Kerry points out that despite being very loyal, they don’t get to enjoy the discounts available to the two million Toby Carvery App users – you only collect reward points when eating food, not drinking. 8.30pm: Friday night is quiz night. The long-standing quiz master Ross has moved on, upsetting some regulars, who feel his replacement, Harvo, lacks his pizzazz and that his questions are too easy – including: how many sides does an octagon have? (eight), which wedding anniversary would you celebrate after 25 years? (silver). There are at least a dozen teams playing, many just drinking or having Toby’s bar snacks rather than a roast. Kerry and Daniel Moore, who both work at the local hospital, have been coming to Hilsea's Toby Carvery twice a week since it opened in 1993 Caitlin Smith, enjoying a meal with her friend Adam Warburton, says the carvery roast ‘feels like a home-cooked meal’ 8.40pm: For my supper, I have another carvery. Or course. This time I opt for beef and gammon with gravy. I’d prefer my beef rare, rather than slow-cooked for six hours and kept under a heat lamp but it’s really not bad. The gravy is deeply savoury, which is impressive considering the main ingredients are wheat flour, maize starch, monosodium glutamate, palm oil, salt, onion powder and caramel colouring. Along with the Yorkshire pudding – which arrives in powder form and is mixed in the kitchen – it is the only major item not cooked from scratch. 9.30pm: The restaurant area is quietening down but there are still a few tables filled, including some couples on a date. Soldier Charlie Davis, 19, is on his third date with Millie Underwood, also 19, who works in a school. They met in a pub. She’s sipping a Sex On The Beach cocktail, he has a Madri beer; both have huge roasts. Will they have a fourth date? Charlie answers firmly: ‘Yes.’ Millie adds: ‘We were discussing that we should make this a weekly thing.’ Romance has blossomed across a vast plate of roast meat and Yorkshire puddings. 10pm: The ‘deck’ of meat has been cleared and the leftovers sold via the Too Good To Go app – for £3.49 customers get a box of meat and veg, which they pick up from the restaurant. It’s a method Toby uses to reduce not just food waste but its bin collection bill. After 14 hours in Toby, I have eaten more than 4,000 calories, consumed three vast meals, four Yorkies, multiple mugs of coffee, a glass of wine and a pint of beer and spent £46.15 in total. Is it gourmet fare? No, but Caitlin Smith, 19, a student, sums up the view of many: ‘It feels like a home-cooked meal.’ In a cost of living crisis, being able to load up your plate with nourishing food that is (mostly) not out of a packet, is a hugely appealing offer.