Frankie & Benny’s Barrow-in-Furness Review
Reviewed by Sarah-Kate Cantlie
Frankie & Benny’s in Barrow is easy to find, located on the main road into Barrow from Ulverston and South Lakes. The restaurant has a car park and is handily located next to the retail park with the cinema and bowling housed within, dining here could be incorporated into a fuller days activities. The shops are not many minutes walk away, with some of the larger shops located opposite, so handily placed for refreshment during a hard days shopping.
The restaurant itself is well presented and carries the Frankie & Benny’s decor as seen in as many of their restaurants as I have ever been in. The decor was clean and tidy looking, no tired furniture in sight. There were a couple of young ladies working the floor when we arrived for lunch and we were given a nice booth table that we could put a highchair up to and get my large pram up to as well. The waitress was polite and friendly whilst we ordered drinks, which arrived promptly. We ordered crispy chicken strips and goats cheese potato skins to start, followed by a 6oz Burger and a Louisiana hot wrap to follow, whilst from the children’s menu we ordered margarita pizza for my son, who is nearly 3.
The starters when they arrived came in typical Frankie & Benny’s style, on a large tray and served individually by the waitress, I always feel this is professional and a safe way of delivering hot food. The chicken strippers were lovely, piping hot and complimented well by the dip, a good standard starter that’s nice and tasty, the potato skins however could have been hotter, the waitress did take them to be further heated following my feedback and could not have been more polite or helpful. The children’s meal arrived with the starters, which the waitress confirmed with us when taking the order, this is always my preference, or otherwise we could spend all day there trying to convince my son to eat as much as possible before allowing him dessert. His pizza was tasty and I like that it came with a dish of vegetables as well as the salad or fries option.
Our starters were removed and mains arrived a short period later, again the food was well presented, my only criticism might have been that there were quite a lot of fries on both mains, a lot of food generally for lunch if you enjoy the variety of having two courses. The food was hot when it arrived and the hot wrap was exactly as described and had the kick I was hoping for from the description given.
Lastly we tried the new ice cream candy shop that was available, this is served with two scoops of ice cream; vanilla, strawberry, chocolate or a combination of two of these. The ice cream candy shop is fun and has three types of yummy sweeties to mix in, this is in addition to popping/fizzing candy, chocolate sauce and marshmallows. My son and mother thoroughly enjoyed this dessert and we thought it was great that you can choose which sweets to add into the mix and chocolate sauce, or which you might take home n the lovely striped paper bag provided, making it the dessert that just keeps giving. The dessert is fun, the ice cream itself takes a bit of a back seat to the dessert as an interactive and fun end to the meal, my son prefers soft whippy style ice cream to the scoop type, however that’s a personal preference and does not detract from the fact that the pudding was demolished pretty quickly with great satisfaction.
Aside from the friendly staff, the facilities were clean and a baby change unit was available in the disabled toilet. Overall a pleasant lunch in a nicely decorated and well kept restaurant, we recommend the ice cream candy shop as great value for money and fun for the kids. This is a real family friendly restaurant, with children’s pack and bits and bobs for the kids to do and keep them entertained, this is great, as we all know what children are like once they’re bored. The drinks were free re-fill, so lunch generally is good value and there’s no shock when the bill comes. My son was very cheeky and requested a balloon, which was kindly provided and replaced with a smile when popped shortly after getting into the car park, thank you Frankie & Benny’s for not making me drive home with a teary child and a popped balloon!!
Rating: 4/5
For more information, to view menus or to book a table visit:
www.frankieandbennys.com/restaurant/frankie-bennys-barrow-furness
Frankie & Benny’s. Unit 5 Hindpool Retail Park, Barrow-in-Furness, LA14 2PD | 01229 877801
