The Bay Horse

For me the Bay Horse has gone lame. It is soulless in décor with bland formulaic furnishings bought from the corporate catalogue by the shipload and arranged as per some pub interior designer program on an Commodore 64 by a minion who had no intention of ever going there let alone eating the food. Who invented the carvery concept anyway? I bet they were hungry at the time. It took a fight to even keep the original Bay Horse name, that’s how much they cared!
Pre Toby, the place had a snug with the last coal fire in Formby… Hello! who thought that taking that away would lend more character? Underneath the current fake fifties tat lurks a quarry-​tiled snug where plans could be hatched and mates meet up in rewarding sense of place or adjourn to the dress-​coded lounge for that shirt and tie g ‘n’ t.
Put the nag out its misery, get the whole sorry half-​empty reheated shambles put down humanely or rename it «The Toby Shergar» ‘cos the original pub was kidnapped and is long dead. Walk on by.

We love this carvery! It is usually busy and you can be told it’s a 20minute wait at times so you head to the bar, usually, you’re called within about 5 – 10 miuntes.
The food is fresh and real and you can go for the menu [not tried that] or carvery with generous portions of any meat mix.
On this map, it seems to appear twice, it is close to Altcar Road.

Unlike my fellow Unilocaler Matt, I am rather fond of a good carvery (I’ve found it to be a very satisfying hangover cure actually) so as you might guess, The Bay Horse in Formby rates quite highly on my list of pubs-​that-​I-​would-​eat-​in-​but-​probably-​not-​get-​pissed-​in.
The presence of the carvery means that whenever you go in there it always smells like food, but in a really nice way, and the carvery itself represents good value for money due to its generous portions at a reasonable price.
It is also one of the cheapest places to drink in Formby, which is obviously a big plus point however due to the nature of the pub, the clientele it attracts are usually middle-​aged men or families, so it’s not really the place to go before embarking on a night out.
There is also a weekly quiz night which includes a free buffet for all participants, which is perhaps there to soften the blow of the quiz being ridiculously difficult (you couldn’t even Google some of the questions for answers last time I was there, they were that obscure). Still, despite its bad points, The Bay Horse is definitely one of the better places in Formby to go for a good pub scran.

I’m not a huge fan of the carvery, so straight away I am at odds with the basic tenants of the Bay Horse. I just don’t really like the idea of warmed through roast meat — for me a roast is either piping hot out of the oven or it’s cold and eaten the next day straight out of the fridge.
Also every time I’ve come here to drink I’ve not found anywhere to sit, which is another black mark against its name. Location-​wise it’s neither here nor there, being neither in Freshfield nor really on the Formby village pub/​bar route.
In The Bay Horse’s favour, it serves the cheapest pints in Formby — with Carlsberg only just tipping the £2 mark — a decently sized beer garden (which unfortunately faces out to a fairly busy main road) and those little saucy seaside postcards framed up around the place, which I probably shouldn’t like but really do.

Although the dark, old-​fashioned interior is not particularly inviting, the carvery manages to pack the customers in, day after day. There’s usually a choice of three meats, such as ham, beef or turkey, or all three if you’re hungry. The vegetable selection is extensive, definitely enough to keep any veggies in the group happy. Best to stick to the carvery offerings, as the rest of the menu is pretty bog-​standard pub meal fare. Prices are very good, for both food and drinks. There’s a few tables outdoors, for those rare summer days, but you have to take your chances then with the traffic fumes of the main road which runs close by.