Toby Carvery Worcester Park (The Hogsmill Tavern), Worcester Park

Official site of Toby Carvery Worcester Park - www.tobycarvery.co.uk

Official site of Toby Carvery Worcester Park - www.tobycarvery.co.uk

Another Toby Carvery of which there is quite a selection of same or similar around here. It does what it does perfectly well and perhaps one feature which might trigger a visit it the large outdoor sitting area which is quite pleasant on a sunny afternoon. Pride and Young's Ordinary reasonably priced for Surrey at around £2.70.

This is a Toby Carvery, thus it is essentially a restaurant rather than a pub, although it does have a few tables and chairs available for those not dining. But I guess these tables are used by those waiting to get a table, as I wouldn’t think anyone would bother making the effort to get to this out of the way pub just for a drink. But as a carvery it’s not bad – get there and get seated before 7.00 PM Monday to Saturday and the one-course carvery meal is good value at £5.25, with the option of adding a bowl of soup or some ice cream for £1. As you would expect, it’s a rambling barn of a pub, very much in the same style of the Harvester chain. There were a couple of real ales on offer – Young’s Bitter and London Pride at £1.99 and £2.35 a pint respectively. But beware – for some reason they use sparklers here. My pint of Pride was OK, and I got a full pint once I realised that they were using sparklers and convinced the barman to remove it before finishing pulling my pint. I’ll certainly return sometime for a good quality, good value lunch, but not for a quiet pint. I’ll give it a six for the decent carvery, not for the ale, ambience, or pub character.