When I was a child I often visited Beefeater restaurants with my parents, I vaguely remember ordering from a Mr Men & Little Miss menu. Beefeater are teaming up with Mr Men and Little Miss again as part of their 40th birthday celebrations, launching a new kids menu.
On Saturday we were invited along to a rather special event to celebrate the reunited partnership at the Beefeater Parkway in Guildford. Even though it was a Saturday the traffic out of London was a blinkin' nightmare and we arrived a little bit late. Thankfully we were just in time for the part of the day I was looking forward to the most, a workshop with Adam Hargreaves. Adam is the son of Roger Hargreaves who created the Mr Men and Little Miss series, he continues his father's work as author and illustrator.
Whilst one of the stories was read, Adam created some matching illustrations and encouraged the children that were old enough to do their own. I did feel in awe to be I the presence of an author and illustrator of such a well known series, one that I enjoyed reading as a child myself.
After the workshop we headed outside for some photos with Mr Tickle and Little Miss Sushine, Eliot was rather taken with Mr Tickle's arms!
There was ample opportunity for the kids to get their faces painted, unfortunately Eliot wasn't old enough to have his done but he did enjoy reading some books and browsing the Mr Men and Little Miss magazine. We also met Adam and he signed a Mr Men and Little Miss Book for Eliot.
Soon it was time for lunch, it didn't get off to the best start which was a shame. To begin with there was a lack of highchairs, understandably there was a fair few of babies and toddlers at the event. There were also families out for lunch in the restaurant but overall not an out of the ordinary amount of people requiring highchairs. I was disappointed, as a family restaurant I felt there should have been more available. The PR team were very helpful and tried to track one down but I don't think we were the only people on the hunt. My other half managed to nab a highchair when one became available, it was a bit messy so he asked a member of staff if they could give it a clean. Luckily I had some sterilising wipes with me as they never came back over to wipe it. Once Eliot was in the highchair we realised the middle strap that comes up between the legs was missing. That meant he could have slipped out underneath the tray. We asked for another when it became available as it wasn't completely safe. When it did arrive it was too late.
We had pre-ordered our main courses but I didn't realise we were getting the chance to sample some of the starters. However we seemed to be the only table from the event who didn't get them, in the end we asked for them and our main meals arrived before the starters.
Grumbles aside, we really enjoyed the food. We had a flatbread and breaded mushrooms to try out as starters and we both had steak for our main, which was served with chips, tomato and mushroom. Both were cooked to how we'd requested and were very tasty.
We'd ordered Eliot Mr Strongs flat iron steak from the new kids menu as whenever we do go out he normally has pasta or chicken. We thought the steak would be a nice change.
But Eliot wouldn't eat the steak as he was being a bit of a fuss pot, he did of course enjoy the chips and ate some peas too.
The Mr Men and Little Miss menu offers plenty of mains for children to pick. From Little Miss Trouble's Tomato pasta to Mr Noisy's Bangers and mash to having the option of creating your own pizza. There is something to appeal to even the fussiest of eaters! As well as mains, there are a selection of starters, sides, drinks and desserts to choose from. Depending on how hungry your brood are, there are three different meal deals available. One course and a drink is priced at £4.49, two courses plus drink £5.49 and three course with a drink £5.99.
To round off the day there was a competition to create a sundae in the theme of a character. Armed with lots of sweet treats, Eliot got to work on his pudding.
We named it Mr Messy's Mess. The sundae's were judged by Adam Hargreaves who liked the 'not so original' name of our creation. Mr Messy's Mess was not the winner but we had a great time at the Beefeater (minus the highchair & starter issues). The highlight for me had to be meeting Adam Hargreaves.
Have you tried the new Mr Men, Little Miss menu yet?
