Red Squirrel — Restaurant in Scotland

The overall setting and location is totally perfect for us, we have a young child and the child’s area is a great addition to the place and we said how much we should revisit this place. However the food we had was absolutely awful to be truly honest.

We booked for 6pm for the carvery and when we arrived at 5:45 we were told that the carvery was finished which I’m surprised at so early on in a Sunday. We then had to look at the main menu.

I had the Thai curry which I eat Thai food a lot and know the different curries and the different level of spices each curry has. This curry was absolutely inedible with how spicy it was. I politely approached a member of staff to say that I had received my meal and that the curry was inedible with the level of spices and the gents reply was “well yeah Thai food is spicy so what did you expect”. I told him I eat Thai food often and never have an issue and he said “well red Thai food is spicy, maybe your pallet just isn’t ready for this level of food”. I replied to say that I felt my feel wasn’t edible and said that I had paid £15 for a Thai curry with prawns and now can’t eat my meal expect from the rice, half expecting him to maybe offer an alternative. He then said “well we just get all our meals pre made in packets so all we do is heat them up in the microwave (great to hear- not) and if you have added the prawns, maybe it’s them that’s spicy, have you had prawns before”. I told him his customer service was really poor and I am now going back to my table to have nothing to eat for my dinner. He just shrugged his shoulders and walked off.

My husband also paid £2.50 for bread with his fish and chips which never arrived and his meal was equally just as awful, fish had little to no batter on it and the chips were cold. He went to the bar to with his receipt to explain to another member what had happened and they said all they could do was give him the £2.50 back and feed back to the supplier about the food.

I find this awful the fact both members of staff were happy to see me sitting with a full meal in front of me and not once did they offer an alternative or a refund. Funny how they make you pay for things upfront before you get your food!

I am seriously disappointed in this experience and unfortunately will never be back. £40 down the drain and had to go home and cook food for both myself...

We made a last minute decision to have a carvery dinner and, after some deliberation on where to go, we booked a table at 17:50 for 2 adults and 1 child for 18:30. Granted this was a late booking.

We arrived at the venue at 18:28 only to be told that the carvery was closed as they had ran out of meat, but I should have received a message to advise me. On checking my phone I did receive a message, only 2 minutes earlier at 18:26!

I asked why I wasn't informed earlier but was told they had only just run out 10 minutes ago. I asked again why they could not have informed us earlier, given they knew they were about to run out of meat before actually running out and was informed that they didn't know?! How could you not realise you were running so low? Surely at the point of booking, knowing you were on the last lot of meat, a simple call to say that the carvery was likely to be closed by the time we arrived to allow us to make an informed decision. Instead we drove half an hour only to be informed as we arrived!

Left disappointed with a hungry and now crying 4 year old.

Utterly ridiculous experience. How does a carvery run out of meat at 6.20pm on a Sunday? How does a management team not know that they are running so low they may need to pre warn bookings rather than waiting until they had completely sold...

The carvery meat was nice. The roasters were chewy and pale. The Yorkshire puddings were a mix of normal and some sort of onion flavour, but we weren’t told or offered a difference - my children couldn’t eat theirs and we gave them the one normal one we were given and we went without. As there was only Pepsi - which is now made with sweeteners- there was no soft drink options for people who are sensitive to sweeteners. It was all fine, but disappointing for the price.

What was shocking was the state of the men’s toilet. My son and I visited just as we left. There was pee all over the floor, toilet roll stamped in and lying around, and all of the urinals were covered with black bin bags and leaking. The other cubicle was locked - either occupied or also out of order, I didn’t hang around long enough to find out - so it was either wade through a strangers pee to use the one useable toilet, or wait til we got home. We chose the latter. I know that the response, if any, would be that I should have told the restaurant staff and flagged the issue. I normally would have, but when you have two small children eager to get home (one still needing a pee) the last thing you want to do is track down a member of staff to tell them that the toilet is gross but you’re...