Mystery duo nears the end of their quest to visit all 175 Toby Carveries in the UK
Little is known about 'Punctured Lung', the mysterious Don Quixote of the roast, or his sidekick 'Roger'
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Your support makes all the difference.Some day soon a man will walk into the Toby Carvery in Solstice Retail Park, just off the A303 in Amesbury, Wiltshire. He will take his £6.29 pick of gammon, beef, turkey and pork with seasonal veg and perhaps top it off with his favourite, a honeycomb dream sundae.
And then his quest will be complete. After three years, thousands of miles and countless roast potatoes, he will have eaten at all 175 Toby Carveries in the UK.
Little is known about this mysterious Don Quixote of the roast dinner. No one knows his name (although intensive googling suggests it might be Adrian) as he goes only by the Twitter handle Punctured Lung. One thing, though, is certain: Mr “Lung” is not in it for the fame.
He politely declines interviews, so his motives remain as mysterious as his identity. His Twitter page merely says: “For no reason, I try and eat at every Toby Carvery in the UK”; it shows that after Tuesday’s roast and lemon frost sundae at carvery number 174, Sycamore Road, Rotherham, there is just Amesbury left to visit.
How they rated
Carvery 9, Prince Avenue, Southend “I thought I’d struggle with Toby Carvery roast but I even had seconds.”
Carvery 166, Aintree “The staff gave us a warm welcome, especially the manger. ”
Carvery 153, Marlbrook “Excellent cheesy potatoes.”
Carvery 156, Shiremoor “The cleanest serving area I’ve seen so far.”
Carvery 152, Stonebridge Island, Coventry “Roasts look as if they were blowtorched. Just how I like them.”
Carvery 151, Binley, Coventry “Hot turkey stuffing sandwich. Went for baguette, not sure about lettuce but taste lovely.”
Carvery 56, Hopgrove, York “Caramelised red onion tart, cheesy garlic bread and a cuppa tea for lunch. As always, waitresses polite.”
Carvery 57, Washington, Sunderland “Can’t fault waitress Donna. Never had bad waitress/waiter service so far.”
Carvery 23, Maes Knoll, Bristol “Tallest chef so far”
Carvery 128, The Northbourne, Bournemouth “The food was piping hot. Waitress Maggie really top notch and cheerful.”
“If people accuse me of being mad or sad,” says Mr Lung on his Toby Quest website, “I’m not bothered.”
And in case you are wondering, a Toby Carvery spokeswoman insists: “No, he is not a cunning PR plant. We think he must be one of our very loyal fans whose love of the roast took him on this journey.”
His quest appears to have begun in late 2012. “The initial idea came from visiting a Toby Carvery before a gig,” reveals Mr Lung on his website. “We thought it would be a good idea to visit a Toby Carvery every time we watched a band. [Then] I decided to embark solely on visiting the restaurants independent of the gigs.”
He took with him his own Sancho Panza, aka Roger. Roger took photographs to prove the visits had happened. Because he is registered blind, not all them were perfectly focused, but they appear to show that Mr Lung is a grey-haired, middle-aged man.
The quest has been demanding: “Cramming three Toby Carveries in four hours is hard work but achievable” (Kent); “Having roast straight after Toby Carvery sandwich was hard going but achievable” (Staffordshire). It has also been perilous: “Situated at a crossroads which was a bit hazardous for Roger” (Ainsworth); “No brakes on car ’cos leaking brake fluid” (Braehead). (Fear not: they made it safely to carvery number 139 at Norton Canes, Cannock.)
By May 2013 they thought it was all over, celebrating at carvery number 154 (Quinton, Birmingham) with second helpings of roast and a honeycomb dream sundae. But then Mr Lung tweeted: “If by chance I have missed a Toby Carvery let me know.”
Let him know they did. And so the quest continued, even though Mr Lung had by then gained 10lbs and an overdraft. Now they really are near the end. (Unless they want to wait till February, when a carvery opens in Romford, Essex.)
Mr Lung, if you are reading this, we salute you. The staff at carvery 175 (Amesbury) await you with a warm welcome, a roast, and a honeycomb dream sundae – on the house.
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