Last Friday we were invited to try out Las Iguanas to kick off our bank holiday weekend. Family friendly restaurants make my heart sink most of the time, yes my kids will most likely eat but there won’t be much I’d want to pay for on the menu and in the end I’m picking up a bill for food I’d rather not have had to eat let alone pay for, but that’s family dining out for you, or is it?
Well it would appear all restaurants that welcome children are not created equal and it was great to discover a family friendly restaurant which doesn’t comprise on the menu. At Las Iguanas the grown ups are spoilt for choice with the menu. We enjoyed Happy Hour with 2 for 1 cocktails whilst we made our choices and Lil H and Diva G settled down to the serious business of their activity packs – colouring, dot to dot, spot the difference etc.
We kicked off our South America taste adventure with tapas, you can share three dishes for £13.80 or five dishes for £23.00 before 7pm. You can’t beat tapas for encouraging the small people to try new tastes – translation – the calamari was demolished in no time at all!
Mr L and I tried a couple of the traditional Brazilian dishes on the menu. I tried the Bahia Moqueca with squash, palm hearts and spinach which was recommended by our waitress, Alisha. What a great recommendation it was too. The Bahia Moqueca was absolutely delicious and as much as I’d like to try other things on the menu I’d be hard pressed to walk away from the opportunity to try that again. Mr L had Feijoada de Puerco, the National dish of Brazil which was a rich, smoky stew with chorizo, pork and beef which he also loved. With eyes bigger than his belly he also ordered a side of patatas bravas which we all tried.
A ninos meal (the kids menu) of a main course, dessert and one drink is £5.90 offerred mini burgers, mexi-pizza, quesadilla, fish strips, tacos or meatballs. Great value, especially the bottomless organic squash which means as many free refills as you would like. Love this, a lot! My two had mini burgers and fish & chips which they shared half and half between them.
We all just about managed desserts which all looked and tasted fantastic. My Berry Mexican Mess might have the edge on the British Eton Mess and I speak with extensive knowledge and international research on this particular dessert!
We loved our meal out at Las Iguanas, the restaurant and team at Cheshire Oaks over in Ellesmere Port were great. Special mention to Alisha who couldn’t have been more attentive, genuinely helpful and kind to Lil H and Diva G – they wear their “Iguanas” T-shirts often and with pride! Thank you for having us, we will be back soon!
Las Iguanas has 30 restaurants nationwide visit their website http://www.iguanas.co.uk to find your nearest and follow them on twitter @lasiguanas
