Carvery facts for kids

A typical carvery meal, from a pub in South Africa

A carvery is a special kind of restaurant or pub where you can get freshly sliced, cooked meat. Imagine a chef carving delicious roasts right in front of you! Often, you can eat as much as you like for one set price, like a buffet. This idea is very popular in places like the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus, Canada, and Australia. You can also find carveries in the United States.

What is a Carvery?

You often find carveries in pubs and hotels. They are especially popular on weekends, offering traditional Sunday roasts to many people. The main part of a carvery is the meat, which is usually roasted.

You get to choose from different kinds of potatoes, like boiled, mashed, or roasted ones. There's also stuffing and lots of vegetables. Common veggies include carrots, parsnips, and peas. To make your meal even tastier, carveries always have gravy and special sauces that go well with the different meats. For example, you might find mint sauce for lamb or apple sauce for pork.

History and Examples

Carveries have been around for a long time! They started as early as 1956 in London, England. Back then, some restaurants called Lyons Corner Houses had carveries. They offered a three-course meal, and an employee was even there to help people carve the meat if they needed it.

In the 1970s, more carveries opened in London. One famous one was at the Regent Palace Hotel. Later, big pub chains like Harvester and Beefeater started having carveries. Today, Toby Carvery is a very well-known carvery chain.

Carvery food is now super popular all over the UK.

Carveries in the United States

Some restaurants in the US also use the term "carvery" or offer a similar style of food. It's often a main part of some buffets. Here are a couple of examples:

• The House of Prime Rib in San Francisco, California, is famous for its prime rib carvery.
• The Sign of the Beefcarver is a carvery chain found in Michigan.

Images for kids

• 

  Sign of the Beefcarver restaurant in Dearborn, Michigan

See also

In Spanish: Carvery para niños