The wave of reviews of Frankie and Bennys restaurants has been quite enormous, but nevertheless, I’ve one to add. Having read a few reviews before we went, I was a little nervous, but hey, we don’t eat out all that often, and this had got to be a treat.
We went during the week at lunchtime to the Frankie’s and Benny’s near to Cineworld in Ipswich, and chose our selections from the new lunch menu for myself and Big, while Small and Smallest worked from the kids menu.
We were seated promptly, in a quiet area of the restaurant – the waitress even moved a table to give us room for the carseat too. Our order was taken swiftly, and when I went to order Small a pizza from the junior menu, but without toppings, the waitress told me it was the same size as the kids one, which is several pounds cheaper, So we went with that – and I was impressed that she was aiming to save me money. For starters we ordered two portions of garlic dough balls from the lunch menu, thinking they were something we could all share. While we were waiting for food, Smallest enjoyed the activity pack, which is cunningly set up to have an easier and more difficult side. It could do with some plain pages for drawing though, as both sets were too difficult for Smallest.
The starters were quite nice, but slightly on the crunchy side rather than doughy, which I’d been looking forward to. Didn’t stop Smallest devouring half a portion 😉 As we were eating the table next to us finished, and the waitress came immediately and swept up the debris from their toddler – I was impressed that this was done so promptly.
Then Small’s pizza arrived. He was quite pleased. 
I ordered a goats cheese and bruschetta wrap, after checking it was vegetarian. I was quite surprised that the choices weren’t marked up clearly although the waitress was knowledgeable about the options. My meal pic – vegetarian markings. My enjoyment of it was a little dented by having to go outside and sort out my car alarm – it was celebrating the unfamiliar sunshine by going off regularly. 😳
Big ordered a hot dog. It turned out to be rather larger than she expected and she only managed half of it.
Once we’d finished our main course, we ended up having a rather longer break before dessert than I’d intended. This was because our waitress had gone on a break – I knew this because she brought food out to a table near us and ate. Not a problem – except no one took over. So we were waiting half an hour to order our puddings. I was quite pleased that I’d asked for the free refill on my drink before she went off!
The puddings (we all chose some variant of chocolate brownies with icecream) were pretty good, except that Smallest seemed to have got the end of the brownie and it was too hard to get my spoon through. She also struggled with it being presented in a tall glass – she couldn’t reach over the edge.
Our bill for two adult meals of three courses, plus two kids meals came to just over £30. The waitress was extremely embarassed that she couldn’t give me change out of my voucher. (Reading around, I think some ppl might have got vouchers as change, but I’m not sure.) By the time you take into account the tip I left (because she was lovely, even if she did abandon us for a while!) and the car park charge, our free lunch cost me a fiver. Which explains that funny word up in the title. If you’re thinking about taking up blogging as a way to get freebies, you need to remember
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
Disclosure: we were provided with a £50 voucher to pay for our meal. As you can no doubt tell, the opinions are completely my own. Our waitress recommended that if you’re planning on going to a Frankie and Benny’s, do look around online as there are usually vouchers to be had. Also the lunch menu is particularly good value, and I’d have to agree.
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