Kids eat free in school holidays at Bodega

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It always seems like a massive error to feed children for free. Mine aren’t the type to pick delicately at few mouthfuls. Sometimes, they eat as much as we do, so feeding them is expensive. But regardless of my disapproval, Bodega in Worcester, Birmingham, Leicester and Derby are giving children a free meal for every adult spending £10 on food during the school holidays. The South American restaurant serves delicious food and rather good cocktails too. We checked out the menu at the Worcester branch.

The children’s menu

The kids menu was really sweet. Based on the same sort of dishes as are on the main menu but they definitely make it fun. Children could choose from tortillas, a pizzadilla – a cross between a pizza and a tortilla – breaded chicken goujons or homemade meatballs. Everything comes with either rice or sweet potato fries. They also had a choice of dessert and their meal came with a drink and a salad starter. Not bad for free. The starter was a surprise too, and the girls were delighted with it.

Main courses

Unusually, the girls chose different meals. Libby went for the pizzadilla with chorizo on. She loved the meal, but found the chorizo rather difficult to chew. The sweet potato fries were delicious too – I checked.

Lia loves nothing more than a cheese sandwich. This is despite the fact that she will eat virtually anything. So, I wasn’t surprised when she went for the tortillas with roasted chicken and cheese. She enjoyed them and found them quite filling. My husband ended up finishing them off for her and agreed that they were tasty and filling.

I’m always a bit spoilt for choice when there is South American food on offer because I love it. Eventually I decided on the burritos with mole mushrooms and avocado. I added plantain too. It was served with salsa and sour cream and I had the choice of mild, medium or hot. I’m never quite sure which to go for when I’ve not been to a place before, so I decided on medium. It was an incredibly tasty meal and next time, I’ll definitely be brave and try the hot option.

My husband decided on the Xim Xim, a Brazilian dish of chicken, prawns and vegetables in peanut butter and coconut milk sauce with rice and tortillas. He was very impressed with the flavour and wished there had been more of it.

Puddings

Clearly, no meal is complete without stuffing yourself full of pudding. I’d already decided on mine before I even ordered my main. Churros with dulche de leche sauce. It was as good as it sounds. My husband went for the banana and salted caramel cheesecake, which he instantly devoured as soon as it hit the table. There’s no photo of that one, but it does come highly recommended.

The girls could choose from vanilla ice cream with toffee sauce or fresh fruit and berries with fruit coulis. We ordered them one of each and divided it up between them so they both had fruit salad and ice cream. It was one of the best fruit salads we’ve seen. I’m not sure whether they thought we didn’t want the sauces for some reason, but I didn’t see a sauce on either of the children’s dishes. They looked amazing all the same though. We certainly weren’t given the option of trying any, which is always a good sign.

Drinks

The only thing I wasn’t overly impressed about during our meal was that after half an hour, we still didn’t have our drinks. We hadn’t ordered our food either. Although I’d asked for a few more minutes the first time the waitress came to take our order, we then couldn’t get anyone’s attention and nobody came back for quite a while.

I totally missed the fact that the girls’ food came with a drink and we weren’t reminded of this until after the drinks we ordered had arrived. However, the girls were delighted with the drinks they did have. They both went for mocktails, Libby had a citrus fizz and Lia had an elderflower fizz. My husband went for a beer and I had a trusty mojito – or two.

The kids eat free offer is valid during school holidays from midday to 5pm Monday to Friday. Head to their website for more information.

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