Carvery food

I love the carvery at The Halfway House. Id eat three dinners.:D

big munchy head on me

pockets3d

Gotta love when the Americans come into them and think their an all you can eat buffet!

az2wp0sye65487

Kiwi in IE wrote: »

Why why why why why is it so popular here?

On a Sunday afternoon when you feel like going out for lunch, all that can be found are restaurants that have perfectly normal, acceptable menus at other times, serving carvery! And they are always full!

The stuff is awful without exception. Why would anyone want to pay a restaurant for a few slices of meat, mashed potato, and some unidentifiable, overcooked vegetables that the average person could cook better themselves?

What 'restaurants' do this?!?!

az2wp0sye65487

D1stant wrote: »

Wedding food is Carvery's cousin to be sure. The only discernible difference I have seen is that the slices of meat are thicker.

The business model for wedding food is spectacular though €40 per head for crap they could buy in the hotel pub for €20.

It gets on my tits. If we are going to the trouble of attending your wedding, supplying a gift/cash whatever. Then at least show us a bit of respect by serving good fresh food

Couldn't agree more.... which is one of the reasons we booked a restaurant for our wedding meal instead of going for the standard hotel package

Sir Arthur Daley

Gracelynn Delightful Radiance wrote: »

Couldn't agree more.... which is one of the reasons we booked a restaurant for our wedding meal instead of going for the standard hotel package

How many are sitting down for the meal?

az2wp0sye65487

WikiHow wrote: »

How many are sitting down for the meal?

Everyone! None left standing....

N'ah - 40 in total

why??

Luap

The carvery in O' Gradys in Gort used to be out of this world haven't been in a few years prob gone downhill.

Anyone with any info? Still good?

Sir Arthur Daley

Gracelynn Delightful Radiance wrote: »

Everyone! None left standing....

N'ah - 40 in total

why??

A restaurant is a brilliant idea for a small sitting like that but your average 250-300 sit down wedding its hotel package option only.

biko

I love a good carvery me. It's like a fast food place but with actual food instead of kept-warm hamburgers.
Frends on Tuam Road make a great carvery.

awec

Carvery is terrible. Dull and rubbish. I'm sure any chef who's stuck serving up carvery on a Sunday afternoon must be wondering where it all went wrong for themselves.

It's boring food for people who stick to the traditional meat, veg and potato meal even when they are eating out. The same people who enjoy their beef overcooked - if it's a bit pink then it's clearly raw. Get excited cause there's a bit of burnt honey smeared on the outside of their slice of overdone lamb that's as dry as a boot cause it's been sitting under a hot light.

RollieFingers

You food hipsters are gas, so much hate on this thread over a bit of carvery, unreal!

dd972

Yacht in Clontarf has a beast of a Carvery, I've always found the O'Neill's in Suffolk St over rated. too much of a queue and average grub in comparison.

Eutow

RollieFingers wrote: »

You food hipsters are gas, so much hate on this thread over a bit of carvery, unreal!

Hipster, now that expression hasn't been used in a while.

dd972

Butterface wrote: »

It's worse in England. There are chains of carvery restaurants that are all decorated the same way, produce the same food and serve the same selection of beverages - all at the same set prices.

I'd prefer to go for a carvery meal in Ireland tbh. The standard of pub grub in England can be shockingly bad.

Ever heard of the joke that in Heaven the Chefs are French and the Policemen are English and in Hell it's the reverse ! :pac:

Dynamo Roller

I wish i had the money to spare to be complaining about carvery food ya prick.

shakin

Woodstock Cafe Phibsboro, best carvery ever, top quality spuds, good veg and good selection of meats, never once had it too dry there. Well worth a visit!

Oranage2

How much are caverys these days?

I think I paid about 12 quid for one the last time. I would very rarely eat them as sitting in a packed pub on a Sunday afternoon wouldn't really be my thing.

But last time I got corned beef, a mountain of mash and roast potatoes, some veg, all in a pool of gravy. By no means fine dining but I thought it was very nice. A little reminder of a typical grandmothers Sunday roast.

Sir Arthur Daley

Oranage2 wrote: »

How much are caverys these days?

I think I paid about 12 quid for one the last time.

€12 would be the average price still.

suicide_circus

a lot of carvery's are bollix but on occasion it has hit the spot in the way nothing else could. when I lived alone, there was no practical way of cooking a big mammy style dinner for one so the carvery down in Fagans did the job.

Going back to the OP, I have never seen a restaurant abandoning their usually menu on a sunday in favour of carvery only...is this down the shticks?

in summary 99 times out of 100 I dont want to go near a carvery but they have their moments, particularly after a rake of scoops.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Karl Stein

Kiwi in IE wrote: »

In NZ carveries ... are usually the sorts of places that single old men, usually alcoholics who have burnt all their bridges with family, so have no one to cook for them and can't do much more in the kitchen than make toast, go to get their dinner. That would be about the entirety of the clientele in the sort of places that serve carvery I'm afraid.

If you're a real Kiwi shouldn't you be eating pig, killed in a forest, that was cooked in a sand pit full of hot rocks, covered in leaves?

You must think our gleaming stainless steel clad, carvery serving, eateries are like space age restaurants?

sligoface

I find it extremely unappealing also, hopefully it will die out since it is mostly the older generations who seem to go for it, they were long ago indoctrinated into going to mass and then lining up for crappy carvery meals. Can't blame them though, you'd eat anything after all you had for breakfast was a stale cracker that you had to confession beforehand just to avail of. Thankfully we are now starting to question things like the Catholic church and carvery lunches. I'm not sure which is more vile...

Akrasia

On the very rare occasion that we decide to go out for a meal on a sunday afternoon, I have been known to traipse across the entire town 2 or 3 times looking for a single restaurant that was open and not serving a fecking carvery.

I don't get to go out often, I want to order from a menu and have the food freshly made.

Carveries are designed to be bland and boring.

jimgoose

I think a lot of people use it as a useful, meat-and-two-veg lunch during the week. There is a couple of really good carverys around hereabouts, in fairness. With regard to their mediocrity yet popularity, there are a couple of generations around yet - my own included - who remember when it was quite possible to starve to death in a strange town when all you had was a motorcar and a wallet full of money!

Lyaiera

Have none of ye heard of "comfort food?"

jimgoose

Coleman Slawski wrote: »

The day after a night out drinking stout its hard to beat heading to somewhere like O'Neills on Suffolk Street, getting a whopper turkey and ham dinner, having a massive dump after it and then getting stuck into more pints.

/perfect Sunday

Strong are you with the Force! :pac::pac::pac:

jimgoose

eireannBEAR wrote: »

Oh you animal,I detest that you would eat that filth,Is what some here might say....

Absolute heaven,I wish i knew of a pub that did that!!!

Some of the older pubs here in Caaark Like used to make with the plates of crúibíns ovva Sunday! Puuuure daycint, biy. :cool:

Professey Chin

I love a good carvery, especially if im hungover. Best sunday lunch possible.
Does vary from place to place though. Gotten some delicious ones and some horrible ones

Says I To Bridey

super_furry wrote: »

It's ****E! Those 'roast' potatoes? Not roast potatoes, they're frozen spuds thrown into a chip pan. Then they're served with shoe-leather dried out meat, stuffing that may just as well say Brennan's on it, such is the bread quantity and soggy, limp and flavourless veg. All drowned in manky brown instant gravy thick enough to repair a wall with.

I'd literally rather eat McDonalds, it's that bad.

I worked in probably one of the poorest run hotels in the country where most of the food was from Aldi because the owner couldn't run a pissup in a brewery, but in fairness the roast potatoes were always made from real potatoes.

Optimalprimerib

Tbh I prefer the carvery than the standard pub menu in most pubs and that is saying very little about the standard of food in irish pubs and restaurants.

jimgoose

I remember moving to Dublin in 1994 or so, from the wilds of East Limerick. My gast was thoroughly flabbered when I discovered that some quite up-market restaurants were serving Bacon-and-Cabbage. I felt a bit like a tribesman from Papua New Guinea or somewhere discovering curried fruitbat on the menu at the Waldorf! I used to be hip-to-the-groove back then, of course. Nowadays I think I have grooves worn into my hips...

Duckjob

Jaysus lads, If you don't like carvery food, don't have it. Nobody's forcing it down your neck! A lot of people do like it, does that offend you so much?

Carvery is handy if you want a "dinner", but you're short of time, eg. office workers on lunch break don't have the time to sit waiting in a restaurant for a dish to be prepared.

Hit and miss for me, some can be a bit rank. Local pub to us does a very tasty carvery. Whenever I bring my mother out to lunch she won't countenance going anywhere else.

HooohRaaah

I find in Dublin it's generally the working class folk who love an aul carvery. They have it followed by a load of pints with their kids running around the pub shouting.
The see it as being somewhat posh.
Stereotypical "country people" seem to love them too.. "I love a bitta roast beef so i do"

Ghost Buster

Wacker The Attacker wrote: »

I would have sex with a nice slice of roast beef.

I thought that was horse radish sauce!

jimgoose

HooohRaaah wrote: »

I find in Dublin it's generally the working class folk who love an aul carvery. They have it followed by a load of pints with their kids running around the pub shouting.
The see it as being somewhat posh.
Stereotypical "country people" seem to love them too.. "I love a bitta roast beef so i do"

Textbook "Sophisticated Dublin Folk vs. Uncouth Boggers With Baling-Twine-Around-The-Britches, i.e. Everyone Else" in five...four...

e_e

Can't stand Carvery either. I hate both mash potato and gravy so inevitably I have to go for the other option: Knorr curry sauce poured over some dry chicken, 12 euro please. :pac:

whitewave

Finally! I thought I was the only one who hated carvery, I get murderous stares like I've killed their first born from people when I say I hate it.

Lyaiera

jimgoose wrote: »

Sophisticated Dublin Folk

HA!

(Is that helping it get going?)

TheJackAttack

Has anyone had the carvery in Cumiskeys on Blackhorse ave dublin?

Incredible.

Mint Sauce

Dont mind a carvery the odd time. Best one I had was a pretty much all you could eat one, hung over from my 30th the night before. Went away from the counter with a big one inch deep plate, packed with roast pork, beef, turkey and ham, roast, mashed, and garlic potato, potato croquettes, roast root vegetabless, crackling, with a little boat of pepper sauce on side.

Even the American visitors we had with us were impressed.

On the other hand, there are down right misreble ones, which only offer you a couple slices of one meat, and a couple little scoops of mash, and boiled to death carrots and sprouts, were you are rushed from the moment you sit down, till you leave.

davo2001

cletus van damme wrote: »

I adore carvery but I'll accept since the end of the celtic tiger when the price of a carvery dipped from 12-15 e to the tenner and below mark the quality of them have fallen.

If anyone EVER paid €12 - €15 euro for a carvery then they need to have their head examined!

anncoates

People's snobbishness about standard pub food is misplaced. It's like going into a nice restaurant and bitching about the pints of Guinness or stopping off at a chipper after the pub and co0mplainign about the quality.

In most suburban boozers, the food is entirely secondary to drinking and it's just provided to stop people going home to line their stomachs especially on a Sunday when families are more likely to be in pub during the day.

suicide_circus

I would kill you all for a carvery right now

davo2001

davo2001 wrote: »

If anyone EVER paid €12 - €15 euro for a carvery then they need to have their head examined!

12 euro is pretty standard price for a carvery on Sunday in Ireland and once its piled high on the plate its not bad value.

Sunday is all about roast beef though either at home or in a carvery, I love the stuff. especially with lots of roast potatoes, gravy and plenty of mustard.

Tin Foil Hat

suicide_circus wrote: »

I would kill you all for a carvery right now

It's a good way to go about it, in fairness. It's exactly what you'll be eating in prison.

cletus van damme

davo2001 wrote: »

If anyone EVER paid €12 - €15 euro for a carvery then they need to have their head examined!

examine me now baby!!!

in fairness it was the standard price for a decent sunday lunch a few years back.

anncoates

Tin Foil Hat wrote: »

It's a good way to go about it, in fairness. It's exactly what you'll be eating in prison.

Amongst other things.

iDave

I've nothing to add other than I fcuking love carvery

jimgoose

davo2001 wrote: »

If anyone EVER paid €12 - €15 euro for a carvery then they need to have their head examined!

Put de bob in me fisht, Sergeant!

Santa Cruz

Kiwi in IE wrote: »

Why why why why why is it so popular here?

On a Sunday afternoon when you feel like going out for lunch, all that can be found are restaurants that have perfectly normal, acceptable menus at other times, serving carvery! And they are always full!

The stuff is awful without exception. Why would anyone want to pay a restaurant for a few slices of meat, mashed potato, and some unidentifiable, overcooked vegetables that the average person could cook better themselves? They are like a boring week night dinner. I just don't get why people want that sort of food when they go out for a meal. Perhaps it's just me, but if I'm going out to dinner I don't want to pay for something I could cook better myself. I want food that is different that I wouldn't think to cook at home very often. The most useless cook could make a roast dinner taste better than carvery!

Also there is the lining up to get the awful food! Carverys remind me of hospital/school/workplace canteens, and the food certainly tastes no better! I would actually rather get McDonalds and I'm not a fan of that either.

That is my carvery rant over. Maybe someone could enlighten me on their popularity!

Obviously you visit the type of places that don't know how to cook.