Eating at Beefeater: What a Family Meal Was Like

A family meal in 1989

At Bentley Wood Farm in Burnley, a family meal could begin with a choice between the pub and the restaurant. The January 1989 opening advertisement described a farmhouse cottage extended into a 113-seat, split-level restaurant, with a conservatory and a public bar. Bar meals were available during licensing hours; the restaurant offered a more settled family dinner. There was also a non-smoking section, a reminder of how different an evening out could feel in the late 1980s. Source ↗

The seasonal menu ranged from rump and fillet steaks to steak and kebab, chicken, lamb, gammon and fish. Ice cream or cheese and biscuits came with the meal, with other desserts available for an extra charge. Younger diners could have half portions, while the very young had their own three-course Mr Men meal for £1.75, available at lunchtime and up to 7.30pm. Source ↗

A familiar steak at a familiar table

Part of the attraction of a chain restaurant is knowing what will arrive. In evidence to Parliament in 1998, Whitbread explained the care behind that familiarity. Steak specifications covered the size, weight and thickness of each cut, its marbling, fat cover, maturation and eating quality. The aim was a repeatable dish: the same choice should feel familiar on a return visit, at another branch, or beside somebody ordering the same meal at the table. Source ↗

The printed menu also helped families plan the bill. Whitbread said its menus generally fixed prices for six months. Cooking, serving, wastage and overheads all sat alongside the ingredients in the cost of the dish. For the customer, those arrangements appeared as a named meal and a printed price. Source ↗

By October 2010, the menu described a Steakmaster training programme, with staff able to advise on cuts and cooking. The same menu offered steaks with chips and a choice of accompaniments. The conversation about a steak could therefore begin before the order reached the kitchen: which cut to choose, how to have it cooked and what to put beside it. Source ↗

Mr Men meals, activities and badges

The Mr Men connection gave children something of their own at the family table. The revived 2014 menu named meals after familiar characters, including Mr Noisy’s bangers and mash, Mr Small’s cod bites and Mr Strong’s 4oz flat iron steak. One course cost £4.49, two £5.49 and three £5.99, with a drink included. A sixteen-page activity pack and a balloon made the visit more than a smaller version of an adult dinner. Source ↗

The badge designs had their own little cast. Mr Beefeater appeared with Mr Chatterbox and Mr Tickle, and Mr Happy wore a Beefeater uniform. Other designs featured Mr Mischief, Mr Clever, Mr Bump, Mr Small, Mr Funny and Mr Impossible. Some characters stood alone; others held a Beefeater sign or appeared beside the restaurant character. Different coloured backgrounds gave familiar faces a different look, from yellow Mr Bump to the pink Mr Funny design. Source: Beefeater Mr Men badges seen in sale listings, October 2026

Further designs paired Mr Greedy and Mr Happy with Mr Beefeater, while another showed Mr Tickle on a pale green background. The complete historical badge range is still unknown. Source: Beefeater Mr Men badges seen in sale listings, October 2026

Activity packs included crayons and a Mr Men Space Game based on snakes and ladders; coins could be used as playing pieces and a substitute for the die. Source ↗

Beefeater’s fortieth birthday

In 2014, Beefeater made its fortieth birthday part of the meal. Vernon Kay became its “Boss of Beef”, and the Golden Ticket campaign offered chances to win one of 350,000 offers or one of fifty pairs of VIP tickets to a London birthday event. A limited-edition ’74 tri-tip steak cost £10.99. Source ↗

There was plenty for diners who remembered the older steakhouse favourites. The birthday menu brought together prawn cocktail, chicken liver pâté, gammon and chips, rump steak Diane, Black Forest gâteau and caramel apple crumble pie. Beefeater also joined Marston’s to produce Naughty Forty beer, available bottled and on tap. Source ↗

The Mr Men partnership also reached home. A website app let families create a Mr Men family portrait, while children’s and Christmas parties carried the theme into celebrations. The three-course children’s meal included a 20p contribution to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. Activities, meals and a small charitable contribution were brought together in the same family offer. Source ↗

Six toys for a summer of fun

The 2015 Summer of Fun gave children six characters to collect: Mr Bump, Mr Tickle, Little Miss Naughty, Mr Happy, Little Miss Sunshine and Little Miss Princess. A different toy was offered each week with a two- or three-course children’s meal during the school summer holidays. Source ↗

The summer offer came with a refreshed activity pack and menu. A Funny Face Sundae and chocolate, strawberry or vanilla Beechdean milkshakes added treats of their own. Children’s meals ran from £4.49 for one course to £5.99 for three, with a drink included. The six named toys belonged to this particular summer campaign; they were one chapter in the longer Mr Men connection. Source ↗

At Countess Wear that August, a child received a Little Miss Sunshine figure and watched the open kitchen from the family’s booth. Source ↗

Christmas at Beefeater

A Christmas meal brought a different menu and a different sort of occasion. In December 2016, the Uxbridge festive menu offered two adult courses for £15.99 or three for £19.49, with a children’s festive menu at £6.99. Roast turkey and Yorkshire puddings sat alongside choices such as a red-pepper and butternut-squash tart. Mince-pie brownie, served with mince-pie ice cream and sauces, carried the seasonal theme through to pudding. Source ↗

The tables had Christmas crackers, paper hats and jokes, with colouring and balloons for children while the family waited for its preordered food. Source ↗

Later Christmas menus continued to give the occasion its own choices. The 2022 festive nutrition guide listed separate festive, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and children’s menus, including a plant-based festive roast, Wellington steaks and chocolate-branded sundaes. A family’s Christmas booking could therefore involve a different menu from an ordinary evening visit, as well as different prices and a longer list of seasonal choices. Source ↗

A phonecard and a meal deal

One Beefeater promotion could fit in a pocket and be useful before anybody reached the restaurant. A green and red BT Phonecard carried twenty units of telephone credit, with a restaurant offer on the same card: £6 off a meal for four. The discount ran from 14 January to 30 April 1996 and applied when four adults each ordered a main-course meal. The reverse asked diners to hand over the card when ordering; it would not be returned. Source: Beefeater BT Phonecard, 1996 promotion (card reverse)

Phonecards paid for calls from compatible public telephone boxes without feeding coins into the phone. They also gave businesses a small space for advertising. A card could stay in a purse or wallet between calls, carrying its restaurant name and meal offer with it. The Beefeater example combined that everyday use with an invitation to gather four people around a table. Source ↗

A unit represented 10p of face value, so the twenty-unit card held £2 of telephone credit. The £6 restaurant discount was separate from that balance, and a unit was not a fixed number of minutes. Both parts of the card had a purpose: credit for a call and money off the meal. Source 1 ↗ Source: Beefeater BT Phonecard, 1996 promotion (card reverse)

What a menu cost

A children’s set meal, a daytime steak and a Christmas dinner each had their own price. Keeping the date, portion size and number of courses beside the amount makes the differences easier to read. These are the pounds and pence of the time. Source ↗

An undated menu. An undated Beefeater Menu & Wine List adds another family meal to the picture: an 8oz rump at £9.30, an 8oz fillet at £12.50 and chicken tikka masala at £7.99. Its children’s three-course meal was £2.65 for children up to eight, with activity packs. A roll, butter and an ice-cream dessert accompanied the meal. Its year is unknown. Source: Beefeater Menu & Wine List, undated; recorded October 2026