A Stevenage woman has said her family Christmas was “ruined” due a series of issues at the Toby Carvery restaurant.

Lucy Waller and 14 family members visited the town's branch of the carvery on Christmas Day for a meal, but was left disappointed by what the restaurant has described as "a miscommunication during the booking process".

Lucy said: "Booking was atrocious, 15 phones calls and two emails later, they still couldn't get our booking right.

"Our deposit wasn't recorded, and the majority of our pre-orders were incorrect.

"When arriving at 2.30pm, they had booked a smaller incorrect number of people, leaving all 15 members of our party and two buggies waiting in the bar for an hour."

After being seated, one guest was served food containing gluten - after previously discussing her dietary requirements with the restaurant over the phone, and again in person.

Lucy continued: "Just before eating her pre-ordered food - that a member of staff had stated contained no gluten - she doubled checked with our waitress, who was luckily on a gluten-free diet herself. She confirmed that what she was about to eat did contain gluten. If she had not checked she would have been seriously ill.

"She also can't eat meat. As fussy as this diet seems it was all previously discussed when booking our table. However no food had been provided, the vegetarian option contained gluten and even some of the vegetables contained meat.

"She ended up with a dinner of roast potatoes and carrots."

A Toby Carvery Old Forge spokesman told the Comet: "We pride ourselves on providing great quality food and excellent service to our guests each and every time they visit us.

"Unfortunately, due to a miscommuncation during the booking process, three members of the party hadn't been accounted for.

"As we didn't want to turn anyone away on Christmas Day, we needed to reconfigure the restaurant to accommodate the extra guests in the party - this resulted in them experiencing a delay to their service.

"We apologised on the day for the delays, partly refunded their meal and provided an extra round of drinks on the house - which they accepted.

"We're sorry the party were disappointed with their experience, we appreciate all feedback and will be taking their comments on board."