A family birthday was “ruined” after a mother found a dead maggot in her roast dinner.

Linzee Wright, of Welham Green, was celebrating her daughter Dannica-Jade’s birthday at the Toby Carvery Oaklands in Borehamwood last Sunday, when found an unpleasant surprise in her food.

The 39-year-old was also with her nine-year-old son and Dannica-Jade’s boyfriend.

They had just been served their £10.99 Sunday lunches when after one mouthful, Ms Wright saw something not quite right with her meal.

Lying between her cauliflower cheese and mashed potato was a cooked dead maggot. At first thought she thought it was a bit of pork crackling but when she looked closer she realised it was in fact a maggot.

She turned straight to her daughter, who was celebrating her 20th birthday, and they all stopped eating following the discovery.

Ms Wright said: “It completely ruined the day. My stomach just turned really. We grabbed a waitress and then a manager came and to be fair they were apologetic and said they would deep clean the kitchen.

“We were offered to go to another Toby Carvery but we said no. But we did go to another restaurant but neither me or my daughter were in the mood for eating.”

The following morning, Ms Wright decided to return to the Toby Carvery to see if the environmental health team had visited and claims that she was “disappointed” to see that no action had been taken.

“They had the full breakfast out and it was all normal service so I thought I’d contact the environmental team myself. I care about public safety.”

She left a one-star rating on Trip Advisor.

Ms Wright added the incident should serve as a “warning” that supplies are checked thoroughly.

She added: “I understand things can happen and go wrong but not really in this day and age. Stock should be tested properly.”

Hertsmere Borough Council confirmed its environmental health team received a complaint about the Toby Carvery restaurant in Studio Way and said following a full investigation, there was “no evidence of any pest ingress” and the investigation has been concluded.

A spokesman for Toby Carvery Oaklands said: “We apologised to the guest at the time of visiting and waived the cost of her meal. All of our vegetables are washed thoroughly before cooking as we take food safety standards very seriously.

“The environmental have since visited the restaurant and, following a thorough investigation, they are happy with our safety standards and processes.”