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?
for a lot longer than that. 
We had a winner with that idea.
The girls got situated and proceeded to bowl as poorly as humanly possible, but still had a huge amount of fun. They hit the snack shop, which needs some dollar deals to go along with the evening's theme. A large order of fries, side of ranch, and large soda was about $7. How about dollar Cokes and one buck hot dogs? Now THERE'S a plan they need to think about.
You know, like the one in the original 
where the adorable 
sorta worship "The Claaaaaaaaaaaaaaw". My daughter's friend fed dollar after dollar into that thing, and shockingly, has nothing to show for it. She did have fun, apparently, just trying to get ahold of one of those elusive stuffed animals.
and 
This led to some of the most spastic bowling I've seen in a good, long time, which made this whole evening completely worth the price of admission.
stepped into one in DC, followed by every photographer in the country who was not chasing 
or 
at the time. This made the 
grew to ginormo proportions as a result of his affinity for Big Macs.
The wait is made less traumatic by the free peanuts waiting for customer right there at the front door. 
Bar-B-Q sauce, or hot sauce. Get one, none, or ALL of those toppings - FREE! Cheese and bacon are available, of course, but you've gotta pay extra for those.
but less costly than 
They wandered back occasionally for an energy refill (read: food). There's no snack bar here so if you want to eat, you're gonna have to haul in your lunch yourself. That works for me! Brought from home = inexpensive!
certificates or coupons from our 
like the ones we used to play back in the day. They also used their prized quarters to get 
and 
and more recently, 
Best of all - it's FREE to visit!
On the second day, a few of the buildings were open, so we were able to really see the sets! 
and 
all performed here for a local TV show. There's a huge old pool on premises - currently it's empty, but don't get any big ideas, skateboarders, it's not like a modern pool with easy-to-skate bowls. It was built in the 40's, could hold 650K gallons of water and had a capacity of 3000 people! (And to that last part I say, "No thank you!" LOL) 
and comedian 
We might have stopped in for a cerveza on the patio, however, the kids were looking forward to lunch on the beach, so we kept on going.
First, we wandered down to the beach, where we plopped down in the sand and tore into lunch. We watched the numerous 
compete for waves as we dined. On the second day, we took a bench on the pier and watched dolphins swim by.
After lunch, we wandered along the pier to the end, beckoned by 
are enshrined here in the World Peace Memorial. 
on Sunset Boulevard. Most of the visitors respected the tranquility of the place, with one or two exceptions - not us, I promise! - and dotted around the lake were several meditating individuals. By the way, there is no admission fee to visit the Lake Shrine, although donations are graciously accepted.