The Left Bank Brasserie

I ate at the left bank with family a few weeks ago. It was a really busy evening in the restaurant but the service was excellent.
The food here was lovely and very reasonable priced. I would recommend the steak. It was perfectly cooked and excellent quality. There was no fat on the meat at all.
5 people with lots of wine, starters and mains was around £140
I would happily eat here again and I’m sure I will.

Since the decline of lunch behemoth The Italian Kitchen, Left Bank has become the latest restaurant to earn the title ‘Formby’s number 1 lunchtime venue’. This is not generally due to the quality food it offers and more to the price, with a party of four being able to dine for roughly ten pounds (there’s not too much wrong with what they serve, it’s what you’d expect for less than three quid).
Whilst I’ve never been that impressed with the food on offer at lunchtime, I have been fortunate enough to attend Left Bank of an evening and sample its finer cuisine on the menu. On both occasions, I have visited the restaurant for football team end-​of-​season dos and have found that they can easily accommodate big groups in the upstairs room, which offers a good space as well as separation from the quieter diners downstairs.
The food was delicious and well presented (the steak I had was unrecognisable from the meat in the steak sandwich available on the lunchtime menu) but one point I would make is that the portions were quite small, suggesting that they rely on you ordering the full three courses in order to have your appetite fully satisfied, which I was not (who wants all that food soaking up the alcohol you’re consuming?)
The taste more than made up for the size though and on both occasions, the large group of rowdy lads (myself included) left feeling very happy (if a little drunk), certain to return again.

Necessity, we are always told, is the mother of invention and the credit crunch (or ‘moneygeddon’ as Charlie Brooker rebranded the whole thing) has birthed the dynamo-​success of this eatery. That this place is absolutely packed of a lunchtime owes little to the quality of the food — which is somewhere between airport canteen and city-​centre branch of Bella Italia standard — but rather to the £2.50 lunchtime offer. The menu includes options ranging from steak sandwich and chips (which is literally only steak in a half baguette; no salad, no sauce) to pesto pasta and chicken caesar salads.
Lunch is well worth it, particularly as you would struggle to get a pre-​packed sandwich or pasta-​salad from nearby Waitrose for any less, but also because the surroundings are cool and clean, the staff are genial and the management are really accommodating — no problem squeezing you in, even if you have to wait a few minutes. Drinks are pretty expensive with a soft drink (poured from a multipack bottle — I’ve seen them do it) costing almost as much as the meal itself.
I can’t say anything of the evening menu, as I’ve never visited here except of a lunchtime, but I have heard the quality is a definite improvement on the workaday midday grub.

This restaurant is in the middle of Formby Village, it is a 2 minute walk away from the large supermarket car park, or in the evening you can usually park in the small parking area directly behind the restaurant. It is always busy which is a good sign! It has loads of offers on, there is a fixed price 2 course menu deal every weeknight, its about £7 for two courses and you can get specials such as seabass or steak for a few £‘s extra. On a lunchtime they have a fantastically cheap menu for £2.50 per person! the food is excellent quality, I recommended the goats cheese and asparagus starter, the seabass and mash potato with spinach, the steak or the thai green chicken curry. Not tried the desserts but am reliably informed they are just as good! Service is really good and they will be flexible if you want to mix and match dishes.

Great food at an unbelievable cheap price! This place is lovely. The staff are happy and want to please. The food is fresh and well made in large portions too. Décor could do with a lick of paint but you honestly don’t notice because you will be so bowled over with the tiny bill! Fantastic value and always bust so book ahead.