Red Squirrel

3 stars given for the service, which was excellent. Interior of the restaurant was dated, and rather dim, as there were a lot of lights out, and found it hard to read my menu.

Never been to a Harvester restaurant before. Heard some things about it which meant I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I ordered steak — which I hoped would mean it was freshly cooked. No microwave needed. I picked something from the «Grills» bit. You got Grill + Sauce + Side + Salad.
So I choose peppercorn sauce, side — which I think was chips, and unlimited salad from salad bar. Salad bar is OK, steak was actually pretty good.

The Red Squirrel used to be the ‘stuck in the car and starving’ location of choice for long journeys home. Reliable and fast service was a given. But then we stopped going because the Red Squirrel seemed to go a little down the pan. But since then it seems to have had a bit of refurb and is on top-​form.
Offering affordable meals, from burgers to salads, including some very delectable chips, the Red Squirrel is a nice eatery. You can get bottomless soft drinks, or a range of alcoholic beverages. There is a bargain ‘Early Bird’ menu so make sure you check that out if you’re paying the place a visit.
In a nutshell, the place is average. Very child-​friendly. And a nice atmosphere. But that’s about it.

Until recently, the Red Squirrel had remained somewhat of a mystery to me. Its location just off the busy bypass coupled with the excellent Weld Blundell located opposite it meant I had generally avoided the restaurant/​pub, but a friend’s recent birthday meant I finally made the pilgrimage there.
We visited at lunchtime to take advantage of the ‘early bird’ deal they have, which is a meal for between five and seven pounds and also includes unlimited trips to the salad bar and unlimited drink refills.
The salad bar was standard fare, including the usual suspects such as potato and pasta salad as well as a range of dressings. Whilst it may not have been original, it was tasty and did the job of satisfying us until our main meals arrived.
For my main meal, I ordered a chicken burger that came with barbecue sauce and melted cheese but when it arrived I found it to be somewhat of a disappointment. The chicken itself was nice enough, if a little dry, but that could have been down to the pitiful amount of barbecue sauce applied (nowhere near enough for a BBQ addict like myself) and the cheese was quite cold and was fairly solid, suggesting it was not melted but merely thrown on at the last minute.
Whilst I wasn’t particularly enthralled by the presentation or taste of my main meal, I did leave the Red Squirrel feeling particularly full after filling up on the salad bar and for the price the meal was available at you can’t complain too much so I would definitely consider visiting again.

The ‘Dead Squirrel’, as it was once termed by my incredibly urbane and witty friends, has had a recent facelift and finds itself as one of the new lunchtime eating ‘n’ meeting hotspots of the Formby area. With reasonably priced lunchtime meals (standard pub grub — scampi, burgers etc.) as well as bottomless soft drinks and free salad bar this is a great place to fill up on padding before heading off to conquer the nearby Lady Green garden centre or even just to retire to the pleasant beer garden outside.
As a pub it’s a little more problematic — located at the Hightown end of the Formby Bypass, too far from civilised society to really pop in for a pint, drinkers are left with a quandary; forgo the booze and stick to the refillable lemonade or get a few alcoholic beverages in and call a taxi home. As Ned Flanders would say, it’s a dilly of a pickle.