A family meal out with #PrezzoLaFamiglia

We always love to try out new family friendly restaurants and even more so since we have moved. We’ve already found a few firm favourites but of course are always on the look out for more.

Recently we visited one of our local Prezzo restaurants in Norwich as part of the BritMums #PrezzoLaFamiglia Challenge.

There are two Prezzo’s in Norwich but I decided to book the one in Tombland purely because of it’s location. We hadn’t actually managed to get to that area before our visit and because of it’s proximity to the cathedral and river, I had plans to have a little wander around once we’d had our meal. Sadly the weather was appalling and we had to resort to running back to where we had parked the car in the pouring rain! However, we loved what we saw, so we’ll definitely be going back for another look around soon.

We received a warm welcome when we arrived and were seated at a table in a booth. Always a favourite with our kids and with us, as it’s easier to ‘contain’ them in one!

From their menu we were choosing from one of their sharing bowls known as #LaFamiglia. There is a choice of Penne Arrabiata, Spaghetti Bolognese, Spaghetti Carbonara or Penne Alla Rusticana. We went with the Rusticana which comes with a tomato sauce and chicken. Along with that, we had two extremely large onion garlic breads followed by ice cream and sorbet and a soft drink of our choice. I was extremely tempted with the salted chocolate ice cream but in the end decided on chocolate ice cream and blood orange sorbet and that worked perfectly together.

Our meal was brought to our table fairly quickly and the boys loved being able to tuck in and help themselves. They actually much prefer it at home when we have meals that we share out when sat at the table. Most of this is down to pure greed but I shouldn’t complain when they are good eaters and clearly growing boys!

My husband isn’t a fan of tomato pasta dishes, so he he opted for a pizza topped with proscuitto ham accompanied with an obligatory bowl of chips. So there was more than enough for all of us. The sharing bowl would have easily fed all five of us though.

I find that when we eat out at a restaurant and choose different meals, there is undoubtedly somebody that is eyeing up someone else’s dinner, wishing that they had opted for theirs instead. The bonus of a sharing bowl, is that everyone is having the same and the only thing to argue about, is who is going to polish off the bowl. It’s also great for teaching your kids about sharing and the importance of not just diving straight in, without a second thought for everyone else eating the dish.

The boys both have one thing in common and that is that they like to eat. We are blessed with kids that really love their food, but perhaps a little too much! Elliot tends to dive straight into sharing bowls and plates, without a thought for anyone else, whereas Tobias is a little more considerate. He will always think of Elliot but sadly it doesn’t work the same the other way round.

Georgie loved helping herself mainly from my bowl and when she wasn’t trying to sit on my lap, she would sit like a big girl tucking into her own bowl. She loves her food as much as her brothers, so it’s usually money well spent when dining with them.

We were sat next to this really funky wine room.

Eating out with kids is without a doubt, always stressful for us. With three children, there is always going to be at least one of them that is going to play up and at the worst, all three of them! They get excited about eating out and they often get extremely silly but they’re kids and that’s what they do.

The staff in Prezzo though were completely unfazed by this (as you would hope) and were very good with them. The meal catered for four people, with four ice creams but the lovely Manager presented a bowl of ice cream for Georgie to enjoy too.

When we asked for the bill we found that they had decided not to charge us for the pizza and chips meaning that the entire meal was on them.

The manager quite frankly blew us away with his generosity and it was clear that all of his staff shared the same work ethos. We may have been there for a review meal but he made us feel like VIP’s. We owe a special thanks to George (or at least we think that was his name).

We simply couldn’t leave without giving them a large tip as a massive thank you and we’ll definitely be returning there again very soon, hopefully without the rain.

Nb. This post is an entry for the BritMums #PrezzoLaFamiglia Challenge, sponsored by Prezzo.