Toby Carvery Aldenham, Aldenham, Watford

Large Toby Carvery on the A41 Hartspring Roundabout still very much as described below. Yes, it has a large car park, which is a good thing as if us very difficult to walk here. You enter onto a manned booking desk and are either then directed to the bar area to the right or the larger restaurant section to the left. The bar area is primarily an area either side of a large central fireplace with a flat screen tv showing the BBC news and a couple of fruit machines, one in each section. And then there is a separate roomed section off the main lounge section with a large projection screen and additional seating which I guess is used for overspill from the lounge and major sporting events. This is a comfortable area for a pint but no surprise that most people come here to use it as a restaurant and therefore turn left at the front desk. I however, turned right to find that the bar has three hand pumps, of which for my visit two had Doombar clips and the third had a London Pride clip and the Pride was adequate. This particular part of outer Watford is a bit of a pub desert, with the nearby Three Compasses being the only other option so I am guessing this one gets a fair bit of trade, especially lunchtime, from the nearby industries on Otterspool Way.

A large corner pub on the busy A41, previously The Olde Red Lion. There is plenty of parking at the front, along with seating for people to watch the traffic queues build up. The noise means it's almost exclusively used by smokers. There is a large bar area in the middle, a dining room at one end and the carvery restaurant at the other. The bar contains fruit machines, a slot machine for children and tv screens showing BBC news. The staff were sarcastic, over-familiar and unhelpful. The clientele seemed mostly to be a mixture of indecisive foreigners and obese people who made multiple trips to the servery to top up there lard levels. Two ales on, London Pride and Brakspear Bitter, neither well kept and lacking in enjoyment. I doubt I shall rush back.

Official site of Toby Carvery Aldenham - www.tobycarvery.co.uk

Official site of Toby Carvery Aldenham - www.tobycarvery.co.uk