Call In The Carvery!

The Tavistock, 117 Tavistock Street, Bedford, Beds, MK40 2SB 01234 219595

 

Ah, Sunday’s. Potential hangovers, long lay in’s, big old fried breakfast and home cooked Sunday lunch, bloody marvellous.

Back to reality: Oh Sunday, no lay in, changing a shitty nappy (I am well aware that food reviews don’t normally start with descriptions of someone elbow deep in little packets full of shit and piss as ...these things can tend to put some off of their food but in the cold light of life it happens), watching Cbeebies at 7:30am, no hangover, no breakfast, no home cooked Sunday roast…. But, there is hope.

TAVISTOCK CARVERY!

We knew it was going to happen of course, the table had been booked some days before. Do you hear that Toby? THE TABLE HAD BEEN BOOKED!!!!!!! We were guaranteed a table without the hassle of struggling to find somewhere to park only to get inside and find that there won’t be a table ready for at least two hours:

“Can we reserve one?”
“No you can’t”
“Then good day to you, I shall spend my money elsewhere… besides your roast is crap anyway so nah!”

Tavistock Street isn’t the prettiest road in the word and has got a pretty seedy reputation (well sex shops and brothels tend to do that for an area) and I’d been across the road in the Tasty Tuck looking over at it but not giving it a 2nd thought due to its location. I thought it was just another alcoholic’s hideaway, I couldn’t have been more wrong.

When you enter the pub you’ll see just how great it looks, very modern all round. It’s not too tightly packed either, yes it was busy but when you sat down you didn’t feel as though you had “guests” at your table.

We were seated reasonably quickly although there did seem to be a bit of a pile up as more and more people came in after us, we weren’t seen to our table immediately although several members of staff did look over to see the mountain of bodies now climbing on top of one another.

Once we were at our table though everything was just perfect. We got Baby Belly in to here high chair and although there were quite few folks in the pub the queue for the carvery wasn’t very long at all. There are other options on et menu but we knew why we were there, our eyes could see the meat glistening under the hot lamp, the roast spuds teasing us from afar, the Yorkshire pudding large and fluffy drawing us in… I gotta go, I gotta get up there!

ZOOM!

We’re in line! There were a few meats on offer, Turkey, Pork, Chicken & Gammon. You can either choose just one or have a little of each, I went for Beef and Gammon. The beef wasn’t daintily sliced either, there were some good bloody chunks being sliced of that bad boy. You’re given a Yorkshire and stuff and then left to your own devices when it comes to spuds & veg etc.

I grabbed myself some roast spuds, mash, red cabbage and carrots. I would like to make special mention of the red cabbage, it was pretty amazing stuff. I’m not sure if they’d done it with balsamic vinegar but it tasted as though it had been. Everything else was really goo too, spuds were crispy out & fluffy in, meat was perfectly cooked and you couldn’t fault the mash or other veg. I’m not a massive fan of gravy but I was informed that it was good also very good.

 If I had to compare this to Toby then Tavistock Carvery wins hands down, in fact I will even go as far to say that compared to the Tavistock Carvery eating a Toby is like sucking shit out of an old boot (I really mean that… although I have never actually sucked shit out of an old boot but you get my point).

We needed some hot water to warm a bottle for Baby Belly, it came almost instantly. Apart from the hiccup at the door the service here was fast and friendly. I don’t think anything was particularly overpriced either, everything seemed pretty reasonable.

I’ll definitely be going back there again and I think I need to take a few friends with me next time and introduce them to it. Seriously, if you’re in Bedford and you want a really good roast then you’re not going to go wrong with The Tavistock Carvery. If possible book ahead first but it is well worth a visit.