Toby Carvery Killay Swansea, Killay, Swansea

Official site of Toby Carvery Killay Swansea - www.tobycarvery.co.uk

Official site of Toby Carvery Killay Swansea - www.tobycarvery.co.uk

This is a detached Toby Carvery, with a patio area. It is housed in the former Olchfa House, which was built in the opening years of the 20th century; now in a garish yellow, with red paintwork. The interior has been opened out and is foody orientated - no shock there. The walls are a mix of green, red, mustard et al and there is a patterned carpet. You go here for the food, and ours was fine to be fair. Eclectic stuff is all over the walls, as is typical with Toby places; music (Beatles) and funny, i noticed the saucy postcard collection too. The TV i saw wasn't on and the background music was general and soft. The service was fine and the clientele mixed, but all dining - and the fact that it is aimed at families was shown by the increasing popular kid's grabbing machine located by the door. Beer; usual tap stuff with Rev James and Brains' Bitter on - the bitter was somewhat flat and uninspiring. I don't mind Toby places, and this only suffered due to the disappointing beer - but i would go back.

This Toby Carvery is located in the rather fine Olchfa House – an attractive building somewhat ruined by large Toby Carvery signage and colour scheme and an unfortunate single story front extension. The pub is located opposite the entrance to the student village and is obviously popular with students and their visiting parents and as such, it has developed more of a pubby feel than your average Toby venture. The interior is obviously set up in such a way to accommodate diners, with various carpeted seating areas in the front section and a dedicated carvery space down the right hand side. The bar runs along the back wall and to the left there is a raised seating area with lounge style seating and a partitioning wall with fake snob screens, which was an unexpected feature. There is also a nice little fireplace and a TV screen showing rolling news coverage, as well as one of those ‘grabber’ arcade machines, which seemed a bit out of place. A trip to the gents turned up some great saucy cartoons of the sort you’d expect to find on seaside postcards. Despite the pub’s pleasant location up a tree lined driveway, there’s no proper rear garden, just some benches on a patio out the front. Three Brains beers were available on the bar – SA, Bitter and Rev James – the same three beers that were on in the nearby Black Boy, but a decent result for a Toby Carvery nonetheless. I had a chat with the friendly landlord who expressed concerns about the planned closure of the student village and the impact it will have on his business. I had some memorable nights in this place when I lived over the road and although the Toby branding has increased significantly since then, I maintain that it is still worth a visit in the evening when the lunchtime crowds have vanished.