North Wales 'best value Sunday carvery' where you won't go home hungry

North Wales Live

2 days ago

When people ask where is the best Sunday carvery in North Wales the Sandy Cove Club in Kinmel Bay, near Rhyl, always seems to get mentioned.
I had never heard of the place before, but the family-owned pub and carvery seemed a very popular choice, with people citing good value and a friendly family atmosphere.
The Sunday carvery can sometimes, unfairly, have a catering reputation of being a 'Jack of all trades' due to its multiple meats and veg for a fixed price. However, judging by the long shuffling queues of hungry customers on a weekend, we all seem to love them.
We booked a table online and due to its popularity, you are required to leave a deposit of £6 each. We received a warm welcome from a member of staff from behind the bar, who checked our booking and informed us of our table number.
The venue was alive with lively conversations and is obviously a popular meeting place for friends and family. It's very close to a few caravan parks, so is a convenient place for families to get their regular Sunday roast fix together.
Sandy Cove appeared to be split into three large rooms with a private members area on one side of the building. There was a television on one wall showing football and customers were taking advantage of a well-stocked bar.
We were informed that we should buy a carvery ticket at the bar and that we needed to choose our size of plate for the food (the plates sizes were displayed on the club wall).
The carvery Sunday lunch was priced at £13.95 for a big plate, £11.95 for a medium plate or £8.95 for a children's plate.
We decided to take the medium size plate and handed our tickets to the friendly chef behind the carvery counter.
The great thing about a carvery is that you do not have to wait for your food. You can just rock up to the counter and choose from a choice of four slow roasted seasoned joints, including beef, gammon, turkey and lamb or a nut roast.
The chatty chef could see that we were both having trouble making our minds up over what meat to pick. She informed us, that we could take up to two meats each.
I went for beef and a slightly left field choice of gammon, according to my wife, whilst, in my opinion, she went for the more controversial choice of beef and turkey.
Whatever your preference of meat, they were all served, marinated in delicious aromatic herbs.
We were served the meat, pigs and blankets, stuffing ball and Yorkshire pudding by the chef, and then helped ourselves to the rest, including roast potatoes, new potatoes, creamy mash, Hasselback potatoes, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower cheese, honey roasted parsnips, cheesy leeks, green cabbage, garden peas and roasted sweet potatoes.
There was a choice of three gravy options including beef, lamb and turkey and there was the all-important condiments selection with horseradish, mustard, cranberry and mint sauce.
I put a bit of everything onto my medium sized plate, as I tried not to look too greedy, whilst being greedy. I made the fatal mistake of filling my plate with too many roast potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes and parsnips, so that I didn't have enough room for all the veg.
My wife managed the art of filling the plate much better than myself but we both watched in awe as other customers struggled back to their tables, hidden behind a mountain of food, higher than their head.
If my plate of food looks messy on the picture, blame me, the serving man, not the chef.
The beef was nice and lean with a lovely rich flavour, whilst the turkey was succulent, considering it can often be described as a dry meat. The gammon slices were deliciously thick and salty.
The vegetables all tasted good. We liked the fact that the broccoli still had a bit of crunch, along with a lovely brown tinged cheesy cauliflower.
The new potatoes were served with an herby butter; the stuffing had a sage and onion tang and the Hasselback potatoes had a wonderful crispy skin. The cheesy leeks were an unusual addition but tasted fantastic.
The choice and variety of vegetables was very generous considering the price.
Their signature crispy roast potatoes were cubed and absolutely delicious, although we only received a small Yorkshire pudding on our medium size plate with the bigger Yorkies being reserved for the larger plates.
I must admit I was full to bursting after the medium sized plate, so have no idea how people managed to defeat the bigger sized one.
We sat at our table and let the food go down as we sipped our lime and sodas, but sadly there was no way we could contemplate pudding. It seemed a shame but I only had myself to blame.
The desserts were all priced at a bargain £3.95 each and included all the big hitters such as warm apple pie, lemon meringue, sticky toffee pudding, warm chocolate brownie, chocolate fudge cake, and a variety of different cheesecakes. There was also a children's soft serve ice cream with a variety of different flavours for £2.50 each.
The venue was now packed to the rafters, but you could see why the humble carvery continues to pull in the punters every weekend. It's an affordable way to meet and eat with the whole family.
Yes, it can remind some people of school dinners, as you shuffle in a line by the food counter, but I doubt that anyone goes home hungry or is too disappointed at the price offered for your beef, turkey, gammon or lamb dinner.
The Sandy Cove club also offers a 'get two fish and chips meals for the price of one' deal between 12noon and 3.30pm on 'Chippy Fridays' (online bookings only) and a carvery style 'Buffet Breakfast' fry up on a Saturday morning.
Sandy Cove Club - The Facts
We ordered:
Sunday Cavery: £11.95 x 2
Lime and Soda: £1.10 x 2
Total: £26.10
Opening times:
Monday - Thursday 12pm – 11pm
Friday 12pm – Midnight
(Chippy Tea Fish Friday 12pm to 3.30pm)
Saturday 12pm – 1am
(Buffet breakfast 8.30am to 1pm)
Sunday 12pm – 11pm
(Sunday Carvery 12pm – 4pm)
Atmosphere: Family friendly
Car parking: Small car park behind the pub but not easy to manoeuvre out of it.
Disabled access: Limited access but possible
Service: You only have yourself to blame on a carvery
Overall: The venue people often cite as 'the best value Sunday Carvery in North Wales'.