Carvery
Encyclopedia
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
where cooked meat
Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
is freshly sliced to order for customers, sometimes offering unlimited servings for a fixed price. The term is most commonly used in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, but is also found in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Description
Carveries are often found in pubs and hotels, and are particularly commonly held at weekends, when they offer traditional Sunday RoastSunday roast
The Sunday roast is a traditional British main meal served on Sundays , consisting of roasted meat, roast potato or mashed potato, with accompaniments such as Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, vegetables and gravy....
s to a potentially large number of people. The meat is usually accompanied by a choice of potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es (generally at least boiled, mashed
Mashed potato
Mashed potato is made by mashing freshly boiled potatoes with a ricer, fork, potato masher, food mill, or whipping them with a hand beater. Dehydrated and frozen mashed potatoes are available in many places...
and roasted) and other vegetables (commonly including carrot
Carrot
The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh...
s, parsnips, peas
PEAS
P.E.A.S. is an acronym in artificial intelligence that stands for Performance, Environment, Actuators, Sensors.-Performance:Performance is a function that measures the quality of the actions the agent did....
and other traditional British vegetables), with gravy
Gravy
Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces and gravy is often thicker than in Britain...
and a sauce
Sauce
In cooking, a sauce is liquid, creaming or semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. Sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish. Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsus, meaning salted...
considered a traditional accompaniment to the various meats (for example, mint sauce
Mint Sauce
Mint sauce is a sauce traditionally made from finely chopped spearmint leaves, soaked in vinegar, and a small amount of sugar. Occasionally, the juice from a squeezed lime is added. The sauce should have the consistency of double cream...
to accompany roast lamb
Lamb (food)
Lamb, mutton, and hogget are the meat of domestic sheep. The meat of a sheep in its first year is lamb; that of a juvenile sheep older than 1 year is hogget; and the meat of an adult sheep is mutton....
, apple sauce to accompany roast pork
Pork
Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig , which is eaten in many countries. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC....
and so on).
Examples
They were first operated by pub chainPub chain
A pub chain is a group of pubs or bars with a brand image. The brand may be owned outright by one company, or there may be multiple financiers; the chain may be a division within a larger company, or may be a single operation. Examples include Chef & Brewer, Wetherspoons, Walkabout, Taylor Walker...
s such as Harvester
Harvester (restaurant)
Harvester Restaurants is a popular family farmhouse-style licensed restaurant chain with more than 170 outlets in the United Kingdom.-History:-Courage:...
s, Brewer's Fayre and Beefeater
Beefeater (restaurant)
Beefeater is a chain of pub restaurants in the United Kingdom, owned by Whitbread. There are currently 131 Beefeater restaurants in the UK.- History :...
, while the Toby Carvery
Toby Carvery
Toby Carvery is a British carvery chain brand owned and operated by Mitchells and Butlers. The brand has been in operation for over 30 years. The chain is one of the most popular in the UK, serving 21 Million meals last year....
brand (owned by Mitchells & Butlers
Mitchells & Butlers
Mitchells & Butlers plc runs around 2,000 managed pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the United Kingdom. The Company's headquarters is in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom...
) has recently emerged as a market leader, taking over many former Beefeater sites.
The chain of Fuzzy's Grub
Fuzzy's Grub
Fuzzy's Grub is a restaurant chain located in London, England.It offers traditional British food, being essentially a take-away carvery, specializing in roast meat meals and roast meat sandwiches, as in a Sunday roast...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
is a noted carvery, being voted "Best Traditional British Restaurant in London" in Harden's
Harden's
Harden's is a UK restaurant guide, publishing guides to both London and UK restaurants. Like Zagat Survey, they incorporate a reader survey, and are also based on the personal visits of brothers Richard and Peter Harden....
2007 guide.
Carveries are also commonly offered by many local pubs.
United States
Some restaurants in the US use the term or concept, and it is a staple at some buffetBuffet
A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
s. Examples include:
- Lawry'sLawry'sLawry's The Prime Rib is a high-end, gourmet restaurant chain. The original location on Restaurant Row on La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California, was founded by Lawrence L. Frank and Walter Van de Kamp and opened in 1938...
may be described as a carvery (serving almost exclusively roast beef), and uses the term for one branch: Lawry's Carvery - The Sign of the Beefcarver, a carvery chain in Michigan