Toby Carvery - lovely food, great prices........... shame about the service.

This is  a review for Toby Carvery, The Martello Inn (Clacton).  

Eating: 2 x adults, 2 x children (4yrs old and 2yrs old).

Upon entering the Martello we stood looking at the bar before working out that the 'please wait here' sign was past it.  We were, however, welcomed promptly by the server and shown to our seat where he got us a high chair.

We were instantly swooped upon by a member of staff wanting to know what drinks we wanted so (with childrens menu in hand) we asked for 2 adults fizzy drinks and 2 waters for the children (meaning the fruit shoot H2O's on the menu).

Perhaps we were unclear but the waitress eventually returned with 2 glasses full of tap water.  we questioned why they were glasses of tap water and not the bottles on the menu and was told quite abruptly that "you asked for water", we accepted this and asked for a couple of straws, to receive the very rude reply "did you not bring a bottle for the baby?".   I replied I did, but he would be fine with a straw (so she went and got a couple).

I cannot fault the meal, 4 different meats (pork, beef, turkey and gammon) all well cooked.  Yes we had to wait a long time to be served  as he had run out of turkey and yorkies and as no-one else was serving we had to wait while he re-stocked (why they only ever put one person there is beyond me).
vegetables were cooked to perfection and ohhhhhhhh the ice cream was amazing.

They were also more then happy to let my 2 children share a childs portion which was appreciated.

When we asked for our free refills we were informed the servers machine was broken and we would have to take our glasses to the bar for the refills ourselves as they only had diet pepsi.  We replied that was what we wanted for her to take the glasses and reply "but we've no ice".......... is it REALLY that difficult for the server to go to the bar??????

Apart from the total on the receipt paying was pain free :)  next time I'll remember to check the website first as I've just spotted a 2-course for £12.50 voucher on there.