Carvery food

chopper6 · 20-02-2014 02:16PM

"Thick cut carrots".

Translation: "Carrots cut by a thick"

Farmer Pudsey · 20-02-2014 02:36PM

Reason for cavery's being so populor is cost. In general a family (2A&2K) can go out on Sunday and have dinner for less than 40 euro. In most country's you have a similar type of low cost meals. In a good carvery you will have a selection of Fish, chicken and vegitarian dishes as well. People cannot afford to go to a resturant every week and a family cannot afford to fork out 100 euro every week.

Mind you I generally eat at home on Sunday. However a few time latly I have noticed taht the standard of some carvery's has droped. The trick is to be there early 1pm or before. Going in at 2pm means that it is full and you are in a queue and cannot find a table. In general in places that have big crowds tend to have better food due to the turnover.

I think that the carvery set up in Ireland is better than similar type affirdable eating out elsewhere in the world. My biggest crib about Ireland is that between about 3 and 7pm in Ireland it is impossible to get anything in the line of a sustancial meal in Ireland. Usually the choice is Chicken Kiev or Lasangne

blinkey 101 · 20-02-2014 02:41PM

you'll like this so

http://www.grabone.ie/dublin/browns-barn-8

Farmer Pudsey · 20-02-2014 02:45PM

blinkey 101 wrote: »

you'll like this so

http://www.grabone.ie/dublin/browns-barn-8

it would cost more than the saving in diesel.

Sadderday · 20-02-2014 02:48PM

i haven't had a nice carvery in a long time but my mother loves it because she can see the food before she orders rather than getting pub grub handed to ya.....

if the beef look dry and well done she will pick something else, i suppose she has a point ?

blinkey 101 · 20-02-2014 02:49PM

Not if your in Dublin

Sir Arthur Daley · 20-02-2014 02:50PM

Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud is only €90 for an Appetiser + Fish or Meat, makes carvery sound very expensive really.

131spanner · 20-02-2014 02:51PM

I had a ham and turkey dinner from the Red Cow Inn during the summer. Mashed spuds, stuffing, gravy, veg, one of the nicest dinners I've had. Love a good carvery

Burky126 · 20-02-2014 02:53PM

I would have killed for an Irish carvery while I was choking on that insipid Wetherspoon 'food' living in the UK.

storker · 20-02-2014 03:00PM

I wouldn't be mad about the traditional carvery dinner, but that doesn't mean they can't serve up nice stuff. Stories from both ends of the quality scale...

I was in The Eden in Rathfarnham with the wife and kids not long ago trying to decide what to have when we saw them preparing a roast-beef and coleslaw sandwich for another customer. Not a combination I'd see before or would ever have thought of, we decided to try it - it was gorgeous...truly memorable. They were very generous with the filling, too. Anything we've ever had there has been of excellent quality.

On the other hand, we were at another establishment not that far away from the Eden on a subsequent occasion and we ordered the vegetable soup for our two daughters, whose favourite meal out is vegetable soup with garlic bread. They announced that they didn't like it, so we tasted it...and didn't like it either. It seemed to have absolutely no taste at all. We sent it back, and the chef (is the guy who runs a carvery called a chef?) came down and gave us the old "Well lots of other people had it and didn't complain" line, looking askance at the girls. I knew what he was thinking: "fussy kids who won't eat soup", but everywhere else they get it they just hoover it up and want more. In the end, it was swapped for jelly and ice-cream but believe it or not, they really wanted soup. What the adults got was better, but still mediocre, and not worth the price. We've never been back. No wonder we'd been able to get a table when everywhere else was full...

Voodoomelon · 20-02-2014 03:04PM

Four Seasons in Carlingford, what a great carvery I had about 2 years ago. It was around the €13 mark, but included a soup too. And the great thing was, once you were in the seating area past the till, you had access to rolls, brown bread, jams, cordials, tea, coffee, as much as you could stuff down your trousers.

They didn't see us coming.

chopper6 · 20-02-2014 03:37PM

Burky126 wrote: »

I would have killed for an Irish carvery while I was choking on that insipid Wetherspoon 'food' living in the UK.

Agreed.

Was in a pub in Essex last year..traditional Olde Worlde England sort of place.
There was a one hour wait for a table in the eating area and a further half an hour wait on the food to actually arrive.

It was supposedly "carvery" fare but the roast beef was a processed affair such as we get at a deli counter,the potatoes were obviously bought frozen and the gravy was little more than coloured water with some bisto thrown in.

In a different pub another time i had very fatty roast lamb that was completely devoid of flavour and what appeared to be dried "smash" potatoes with watery gravy and this stuff was considered top class pub grub over there.

I must say,whatever you may think of carvery as a concept,Irish beef,ham and lamb is the best anywhere and for freshness and flavour a good carvery in this country is hard to beat.

awec · 20-02-2014 03:55PM

131spanner wrote: »

I had a ham and turkey dinner from the Red Cow Inn during the summer. Mashed spuds, stuffing, gravy, veg, one of the nicest dinners I've had. Love a good carvery

A big turkey dinner would not appeal to me at all during the summer. Maybe I'm alone but when it's warm I eat a lot of salads and other "cooler" foods and leave the roast dinners / stews for the colder times of year!

Tiddlypeeps · 20-02-2014 04:22PM

I love a good carvery. The key there being good, most are awful.

Haven't really been able to find a good one since moving to Dublin. When I was working by the grand canal theatre I used to go to the Maldron the odd time on lunch and that was quite good, but it's way too far out of the way now days. O'Neils seems to have a good name here so I might give that a go next time I'm in the city at the weekend.

The Din Ri in Carlow used to be my go to spot if I was after that sort of thing, delicious

It's not fine dining by any standard but it's tasty and cheap.

Wolf Club · 20-02-2014 04:26PM

Tiddlypeeps wrote: »

I love a good carvery. The key there being good, most are awful.

Haven't really been able to find a good one since moving to Dublin. When I was working by the grand canal theatre I used to go to the Maldron the odd time on lunch and that was quite good, but it's way too far out of the way now days. O'Neils seems to have a good name here so I might give that a go next time I'm in the city at the weekend.

The Din Ri in Carlow used to be my go to spot if I was after that sort of thing, delicious

It's not fine dining by any standard but it's tasty and cheap.

It's a bit outside of town but the Autobahn in Glasnevin do a fairly decent carvery. In general, I'd say it can be good but in most cases not!

Ilyana 2.0 · 20-02-2014 04:28PM

Where I work, they essentially do carvery food with table service. You order from the waiter but the roast dinners are bain marie affairs. The beef is invariably tough, the potato is laced with butter and salt (as is the soup), the veg tastes of nothing and the chicken isn't up to much either. The gravy goes cold and gelatinous in a nanosecond.

We do a sandwich menu too, which is made to order. But the roast dinners fly out the door at €12.45 a pop. I just don't get it!

And we're packed out 9 Sundays out of 10.

Alun · 20-02-2014 04:43PM

Simpsons in the Strand in London is the place for traditional Roast Beef (or Pork). They have huge ribs of beef that they wheel round from table to table in big silver domed trolleys and carve it individually for you, even asking you how you'd like your beef and carve from different parts of the joint that are more or less cooked. The gravy is to die for as well.

http://www.simpsonsinthestrand.co.uk/index.php

storker · 20-02-2014 05:07PM

Alun wrote: »

Simpsons in the Strand in London is the place for traditional Roast Beef (or Pork). They have huge ribs of beef that they wheel round from table to table in big silver domed trolleys and carve it individually for you, even asking you how you'd like your beef and carve from different parts of the joint that are more or less cooked. The gravy is to die for as well.

http://www.simpsonsinthestrand.co.uk/index.php

"Bill of fare? Take it away and bring me a bloody menu"

RoboRat · 20-02-2014 05:07PM

I think the crux of the problem is that a lot of Irish people have bland tastes and wouldn't know fine dining if it slapped them in the face with a frozen mackerel. These are the meat and 2 veg kind that faint at the sight of pink meat and demand that meat is cremated like it was carrying some flesh eating zombie disease.

Where I live there is one reasonable restaurant and people rave about another place like it was the Fat Duck - this place is absolutely horrendous - its bland, badly prepared, over cooked with zero imagination. I ordered a Caesar Salad and I had to fish the wilted leaves out of the sauce... how hard is a Caesar salad?

jimgoose · 20-02-2014 05:11PM

storker wrote: »

"Bill of fare? Take it away and bring me a bloody menu"

Sod the menu - bring me something t'ate!!

RoboRat wrote: »

I think the crux of the problem is that a lot of Irish people have bland tastes and wouldn't know fine dining if it slapped them in the face with a frozen mackerel...

What I like about Western European countries, and much of North America for that matter, is that there are various and assorted eating establishments catering to different budgets, tastes, times of the day/week/month, the amount of time one may have available, how hungry you are, etc. etc.

Arthur Beesley · 20-02-2014 05:12PM

Wolf Club wrote: »

It's a bit outside of town but the Autobahn in Glasnevin do a fairly decent carvery. In general, I'd say it can be good but in most cases not!

Sounds too German for my liking.

whomitconcerns · 20-02-2014 05:15PM

not mad about carvery...but the best one I have ever had.....and yes this is going to be debated...is in....

Copper face Jacks

No joke. Go there at lunchtime and queue...its the best ever seriously. Place is packed...then it empties out at 3pm till 10pm for the disco...

RoboRat · 20-02-2014 05:17PM

Spend half the day doing the eejit in the kitchen, looking for ingredients, swearing because some of them are missing, pre-heating the oven, boiling pots, and finally, exhausted and on the point of starvation, sit down to a plate of stuff after more than two hours messing.

Seriously, cooking a roast is not hard, 30 mins prep maximum for 5 people. Getting the meat right is actually quite easy, weigh it and there are a multitude of sites that will tell you how long to cook to get it to your liking. Veg? peel and steam or boil, whatever is your preference. Cost would be around €15 - €20 for a chicken/ cut of meat & veg to feed 4-6 people. Carvery would cost around €60 for 5 people.

jimgoose · 20-02-2014 05:18PM

RoboRat wrote: »

Seriously, cooking a roast is not hard, 30 mins prep maximum for 5 people. Getting the meat right is actually quite easy, weigh it and there are a multitude of sites that will tell you how long to cook to get it to your liking. Veg? peel and steam or boil, whatever is your preference. Cost would be around €15 - €20 for a chicken/ cut of meat & veg to feed 4-6 people. Carvery would cost around €60 for 5 people.

Cooking a roast is extremely quick and efficient for five or six people, to be sure. Not so much for two hungry, lazy people on a sunny Sunday!

RoboRat · 20-02-2014 05:20PM

Not so much for two hungry, lazy people on a sunny Sunday!

Can't. Quite. Compute......

chopper6 · 20-02-2014 05:25PM

The Coachman's on the airport road do an amazing carvery...beef rib carved off the bone..it's incredible.

Extra points to them when a woman asked what the vegetarian option was...the chef said "leave through that door or that door"!

Thats the talk!

jimgoose · 20-02-2014 05:26PM

chopper6 wrote: »

The Coachman's on the airport road do an amazing carvery...beef rib carved off the bone..it's incredible.

Extra points to them when a woman asked what the vegetarian option was...the chef said "leave through that door or that door"!

Thats the talk!

:pac::pac::pac::pac::pac::pac:

SEPT 23 1989 · 20-02-2014 05:33PM

Tiddlypeeps wrote: »

I love a good carvery. The key there being good, most are awful.

Haven't really been able to find a good one since moving to Dublin. When I was working by the grand canal theatre I used to go to the Maldron the odd time on lunch and that was quite good, but it's way too far out of the way now days. O'Neils seems to have a good name here so I might give that a go next time I'm in the city at the weekend.

The Din Ri in Carlow used to be my go to spot if I was after that sort of thing, delicious

It's not fine dining by any standard but it's tasty and cheap.

Take yourself out to the Spa Hotel in Lucan of a Sunday

standard is excellent

Tiddlypeeps · 20-02-2014 05:35PM

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Take yourself out to the Spa Hotel in Lucan of a Sunday

standard is excellent

That's pretty close to home so might give that a go next time. Cheers

awec · 20-02-2014 05:46PM

This thread also highlights why restaurant reviews by people here are not to be trusted in a lot of cases.

People will score a restaurant higher depending on how big the bowl of chips is that comes with it, so bland restaurants where you get big portions get rated higher than they deserve.

Carvery food

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