A carvery is a pub or a

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

where cooked

meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...

is freshly sliced to order for customers, sometimes offering unlimited servings in a

buffet A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve themselves. A form of '' service à la française'', buffets are offered at various places including hotels, restaurants, and many social eve ...

style for a fixed price. The term is most commonly used in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Description

Carveries are often found in

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

s and hotels, particularly on weekends, when they offer

Sunday roast A Sunday roast or roast dinner is a British dish traditionally eaten on Sunday. It consists of roast meat, roast or mash potatoes, and accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, gravy, and may include condiments such as apple sauce, ...

s to a large number of people. The meat is usually accompanied by potatoes, vegetables, stuffing,

gravy Gravy is a sauce made from the juices of meats and vegetables that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with thickeners for added texture. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt (a mix of salt and caramel food ...

and

sauce In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi- solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavour, texture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...

Examples

Carveries existed as early as 1956 in London, in two

Lyons Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

Corner Houses. One of the restaurants, in each of the

Strand Strand or The Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * ...

and the

Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road tu ...

Lyons, was a carvery. They provided a three-course meal with beverage, but all but the carvery items were served by a Nippy (waitress). Even the carvery table had an employee to help those having difficulty in the actual carving. The price at this time was five shillings. In the 1970s and later, many more carveries appeared in London. One well-known carvery was situated in the Regent Palace Hotel. The restaurant there was on the ground floor, the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

ceiling of which has been reassembled in the new Air W1 building. Later they were operated by

pub chain A pub chain is a group of pubs or bars operating under a unified brand image. Pubs within a chain are tied houses and can, generally, only sell products which the chain owner sanctions. Pubs in a chain normally display their chain branding pr ...

s such as Harvester, Brewer's Fayre and Beefeater. The

Toby Carvery Toby Carvery is a British carvery chain brand owned and operated by Mitchells & Butlers, which consists of 158 restaurants. History The first Toby Carvery was in Brentwood, at The Artichoke Pub around 1978 or 1979. By 1982, multiple sites h ...

brand took over many former Beefeater sites.

Fuzzy's Grub Fuzzy's Grub was a restaurant chain located in London, England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and Lis ...

was a noted but short-lived carvery chain in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, founded in 2002 and voted "Best Traditional British Restaurant, but all but the carv in London" in Harden's 2007 guide before going out of business in 2008. Carvery food is now very popular and is now found in the whole of the UK.

United States

Some restaurants in the US use the term or concept, and it is a staple at some

References

{{reflist Restaurants by type Serving and dining Buffet restaurants

Description

Examples

United States

See also

References