IT’S never nice – let alone acceptable – to come away from a restaurant still feeling hungry, especially if you’ve spent a lot of money there.

Happily, there are places where you always leave full. And when the bill doesn’t make you yelp, it’s a bonus.

One such place is the Toby Carvery. As its name obviously implies, its mainstay is its roasts. But with summer here, it has launched its ‘Light Nights’ menu, at the same price as a carvery (£7.50).

Those with a hearty appetite needn’t worry. The ‘light’ refers to longer evenings rather than lighter meals.

Every night of the week (bar Sundays) after 7pm, various dishes are added to the carvery. So on Wednesdays and Thursdays you get a choice of three curries. Tuesday is oriental night and Monday is BBQ chicken night. Lamb lovers should visit on a Saturday where roast leg and Moroccan varieties are served. Or if you’re partial to beef, peppered beef and beef stroga is the order of the day on Fridays – as well as beef stroganoff.

Every day there are also vegetarian and fish specials (priced £7 and £8 respectively) as well as a choice of three generous salads priced £7 each.

Of course, one of the reasons people like carveries is the fact they can help themselves to as much as they like from the numerous vegetable accompaniments. And, even if you don’t opt for the traditional carvery fare of roast beef, the honey and mustard glazed gammon or the turkey, you can still take advantage of the veggies – or even mix and match! It’s exactly what I and three friends did on a recent Oriental night at the Cooper Dean carvery. But firstly I’ll warn you about the starters. They are very generous… We had Thai king prawns with sweet chilli dip (two skewers crammed with juicy prawns) and a classic prawn cocktail with lashings of bread and butter. The bacon and cheese potato skins were more like jacket potatoes, and the whole baked Camembert with red onion chutney, celery sticks and crusty bread was easily a starter for four!

I chose baked cod with a parmesan and herb crust for my main course, which was delicious, while one of the party also chose a fish special – a very enjoyable salmon in a Champagne and watercress sauce.

Another friend went for the vegetarian option – a tasty mushroom lasagne – while the third thought ‘when in Rome’ and had the oriental special. This comprised tender chicken pieces with a lemon glaze, and sweet & sour pork. Naturally, she wanted to try both, and could also help herself to rice & peas as well as noodles AND the carvery veg.

Little wonder we hardly had room for dessert, and ended up ordering one portion of Madagascan vanilla cheesecake with four spoons.

Our meal for four, without drinks, came to £50.45.