Toby Carvery, Loughborough

You’ve heard that phrase about the “last straw” or the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. Tonight, it happened. A vow to not return, for a few months at least. A previous visit produced this post, where I wasn’t exactly gushing with praise. Things have gone downhill.

Today, there were no ales on. Three pumps. No ales. This was an emergency situation. It had to be Guinness. It was poor. But it was available. How can any pub have three hand pumps but no ale coming through any of them? And why does it take forever to get served in the bar, despite there always being members of staff milling about in the restaurant area?

And if that wasn’t bad enough, the beef was back to its old worst. Sinewy, fatty and just pretty poor. To add insult to injury, it’s still served on a fake plastic chopping board, instead of a plate. The Yorkshire pudding was nice and the horseradish was reasonable, but the beef is just poor. There are great local suppliers of beef around these parts (including my friend Ben), so it baffles me how such poor produce can be served up.

So that’s it Toby. We’re not coming back until next year, when you might have sorted a few things out.