If there's one meal most of us Brits enjoy it's a traditional roast dinner. As the weather gets colder there's nothing quite like tucking into some meat and gravy with all the trimmings, or a veggie equivalent of course.
It's always a treat when someone else makes it of course, escaping the veg peeling and pot washing while someone else does the work instead.
But if you're going to splash the cash on eating out, you want it to be worth it don't you? Especially when most families are already trying to cut back.
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That's why we decided to compare two of the most popular places for a traditional carvery - Toby Carvery and Farmhouse Inns.
Both have a number of restaurants across Greater Manchester, and it seemed apt for our comparison to try out the two that are sited opposite each other, on either side of the A6 near Over Hulton, Bolton.
Pine Tree Farm is one of the more recent additions to Farmhouse Inns, having opened in 2017, and there's still a relatively new feel to the place, whereas the Watergate Toll Toby has been there as long as I can remember.
Our visit to Pine Tree was midweek, and although not quite as busy as our Sunday visit to Toby, where the Just Eat chaos made headlines of its own last week, it was a lot busier than you'd expect for a Tuesday evening - perhaps it was the weekly quiz pulling in extra punters.
It didn't take too long to order at the bar though and we were soon heading up to the help yourself carvery, which had no queue at all when we got there.
There was a choice of three meats - turkey, gammon or beef - and it was all nicely presented, the casserole dishes all well topped up with a wide choice of vegetables.
You get one Yorkshire pudding, a big fluffy one in this case, but it seemed the only way to get a sausage thrown in was to upgrade your carvery, paying an extra £1.25 for two pigs in blankets.
We'd missed this bit on the menu so had to go without. Now this would ordinarily have been the cause of much upset - we all like our sausages - but as the bowl of them looked a bit too burnt and crispy, we weren't too fussed. Money saved.
The rest of it was OK, but the broccoli was a bit undercooked, the mash too gloopy and I think I could have stuck a post in the ground with the cement-like stuffing.
The tastiest bits were undoubtedly the meat - my youngest was raving about his tasty gammon - as well as the roasted carrots and those fluffy Yorkshires.
Over at Toby Carvery, on a separate day of course, once we were eventually seated, our order for carvery was taken at the table and we had to join the lengthy queue.
Meat wise there was a fourth choice compared with Pine Tree, as it had the addition of pork too. Again it seemed an upgrade was necessary for a sausage - at least we weren't offered one anyway - and the menu says if you opt for king size, for an extra £1.99, you get extra meat, an extra Yorkie and two sausages.
Who knew it would be so difficult to get your hands on a sausage?
You can see from the photo that presentation left a lot to be desired here and, as we mentioned in our earlier piece, this seemed to be because of the sheer number of customers - both in the restaurant itself and ordering online from home.
While there was wider choice of meat, there was a smaller selection of veg on offer. Again the mash was thick and gloopy and it seemed a bit strange to see a bowl full of macaroni and cheese on the hot plate, at least it's not something I've seen served up with a roast dinner before.
Again the meat was fine, as were the carrots and roast potatoes, but we were all disappointed with our piddly little Yorkshire puds.
Dessert wise, Farmhouse Inns is known for its enormous cakes and wide variety of ice cream flavours.
But while they might look and sound amazing, the gigantic cakes displayed in a glass cabinet for all to see, in reality we found the Marz Attack a little underwhelming. Perhaps it's just the sheer size of the slice - you can't complain about the portion - but it was just a bit dry, and with just one little lonely chunk of Mars on top, not quite worthy of its name.
My son had no complaints where the ice cream was concerned, although I think even he regretted his decision to mix bubble gum with salted caramel. Who even does that?
Toby on the other hand fared much better with its desserts. The Billionaires Bar - chocolate ganache and caramel on a biscuit case, served with Belgian chocolate, salted caramel sauce and whipped cream - was quite something and the cookie dough and honeycomb ice cream sundaes also went down a treat.
After a pretty disastrous visit, it was the sweet pick-me-up we we all needed. For carvery alone I'd say Farmhouse was definitely the better of the two and the one we'd most likely go again, but overall, we weren't exactly blown away by either.
Price wise, there's not much in it. At Farmhouse it's £7.79 for a standard carvery midweek, or £10.79 on weekends and bank holidays.
At Toby it's £7.49 midweek, £8.29 on Saturdays and £11.49 on Sundays and bank holidays. Neither are too expensive. But when you spend money on something that's not quite up to scratch - especially in today's climate - you can't help but be left with a bitter taste.
Have you visited a carvery that you'd recommend for families? Or a restaurant you regularly eat at for Sunday dinner? Let us know in the comments here, or email emma.gill@reachplc.com.
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