Bandit's - Kids Eat FREE!

One of my longtime amigas reminded me that Bandit's in Thousand Oaks has a "Kids Eat Free" promotion on Tuesdays, so that I could post it on SoCal on the Cheap, my Facebook group where I share deals I've discovered in the Southland. Mmmmmmm, Bandit's. I flippin' love that place, but since I lost my job, I have really scaled back on dining out, so no recollection of when my last visit was. Lately, restaurants are akin to luxury for us.

However, just thinking of the words to describe the yummy fare at Bandit's for my FB group had me salivating. Next thing you know, I'm dreaming about supper in the middle of the day! (Read this next line with your most serious voice possible...) In the interest of research, I decided we should stop in and find out if this offer is all it claims to be. "Luxury", here we come!

We went after the typical dinner rush, sometime around 8 pm. We were seated right away, within eyeshot of the TV showing the Dodger game, to my delight. We didn't even need menus... It's been months since we've dined at Bandit's, but we remembered what we like!

I ordered a scrumptious Bandit's Burger with cheddar cheese, a baked potato, and a dinner salad. My daughter ordered her favorite, chicken strips with fries, and a side of ranch. Her meal even came with a soda! Since it was so late, her tummy was already rumbling. My salad arrived promptly with toasty, warm dinner rolls, and soon, my daughter's stomach quieted down a bit. I'm not sure if they bake their bread on premises, but it sure tastes that way!

We chit-chatted about her upcoming camping adventure and I peeked at the Dodger game from time-to-time (I couldn't help it - we were winning for once!). We also took bets on whether or not they'd remember to bring the ranch. We used to frequent Bandit's quite a bit before unemployment set in, and this was something that happened nearly everytime we visited. Not sure why, and it's an easy fix so it's not a big deal, but it makes us giggle nonetheless.

Right on cue, someone turned the corner, carrying our dinners. We snickered a wee bit when, as predicted, her ranch wasn't included. The server trotted off to get it for her, which gave me a minute to snap a shot of our dinners. My cell phone camera doesn't do well in low light, so really, this picture doesn't come anywhere near the thousand words that I wish it did.

My burger was fantastic and the baked potato was delicious! My daughter devoured everything on her plate. She commented about how yummy the shoestring fries are, and I couldn't agree more! I couldn't finish my meal so I boxed up half of my burger.

I don't mean to skip through my meal description, which would be nothing but positive if I did, but I reallyreallyreally can't wait to tell you what the final tally was! Right around the time my Dodgers actualy WON the game, the check arrived. Grand total for bread rolls, dinner salad, cheeseburger, baked potato, chicken strips, fries, and a soda? $12.44. That's right, all that deliciousness for $12.44.

(Let me take a moment here to remind you that when using coupons or taking advantage of other promotions, always tip on what the bill would have been BEFORE those bonuses were factored in. So for me, the kids meal would have been about $5, so I tipped on $18ish.)

Let me assure you, this is one promotion completely worth taking advantage of. The food can't be beat - in my opinion, it's the best American/BBQ restaurant in the county. And if you can feed your rugrats for free, well, you really can't go wrong on the price now, can you?