I’ve been to both Bognor Regis Butlin’s and Minehead Butlin’s. At Bognor we opted for Budget dining, at Minehead we went premium.
Budget Dining / Basic plan at Bognor Regis Butlin’s
The price difference between them in 2024 was quite steep, so we opted for the cheaper dining plan. The menu seemed okay, and £174 for breakfast and dinner for 4 people for the week (roughly £5 per person per meal) we thought we’d give it a go.
We ate at the Ocean Drive Restaurant. The girls who checked us in were lovely, shame it went down hill from there.
The food hall was small, and they’d crammed plenty of tables in. We went at 5pm and there was a big queue.
We got the girls drinks — only option is fruit juice or hot drinks. We got a milk by asking for it. No water or squash on offer.
The queue for the food is was about 20 deep. I went up first and skipped the majority of the dishes as they were meat.
Veggie options were spars and pretty sad looking. Grey liquid labeled mushroom stroganoff, bean juice, a jacket potato, and a beetroot wellington. I went for the wellington with chips and salad. I got the girls chips and halves of fish fingers.
Matts turn. He came back with something that looked orange and watery lumped onto rice. I assumed some kind of Thai curry. Turns out it was a korma.
The place was loud. The floor was sticky. The forks smelled of wet dog.
Not for me.
We’ve decided to skip dinner there. I’m not sure if it’s being pregnant or just a general ick but I can’t cope with seeing plates piled high with cottage pie and curry in a Yorkshire pudding.
Thankfully, breakfast was a much calmer event. We got there at 8/830 each day and there wasn’t the same influx of hungry people I’d experienced in the evening. With 4/5 stations serving up the same thing, the system worked much better. For veggies, there was Quorn sausages, hash browns, beans, and tinned tomatoes. Full English minus mushrooms for meat eaters. Including fried bread. I actually can’t touch the stuff since going to Butlin’s as a child and eating a plate of it.
There are pancakes and toppings, toast and toppings, cereals, yoghurts, croissants, granola, and fruit. Cow, soy, almond and oat milk also available.
Premium dining plan
The premium dining plan at Butlins is a little more expensive, but you do actually get a little more. More options and less chaos.
The reason for this is that everything is set in stations. Pasta station, burger station, noodle station — for example. This means everyone doesn’t queue in one long line, instead they go to where they want to get food from.
I also remember more options for breakfast pastries, too. The veggie food was nicer. I really enjoyed my curry I had in Minehead premium dining plan.
A friend who was at the Deck restaurant in Bognor (Premium dining plan) said there was a pasta station and she had mushrooms on toast for breakfast one day. Good news for kids who love plain pasta!
There’s still nowhere to get a glass of water in the premium dining plan though. Maybe if you asked, but nothing to help yourself to.
Premium vs Budget Dining Plan at Butlin’s
I think the better option is to pay for the premium. Particularly if you like food. I felt like the budget dining plan was filler food. But, if you’re on a tight budget and have to go budget dining plan, it does the job. It will give you two meals a day, but don’t expect too much finesse.
What I will say about the budget dining plan at Butlin’s, is the service was actually really good. The chefs and wait staff were all very friendly and accommodating to requests.
There is also the option for the Dine Around Plan. This gives you access to restaurants within Butlin’s, such as Papa John’s. You have set menus, but if you go for this option at least you get out and about a little.
We ended up eating at the FireHouse. This was like a Nando’s. Had a good meal there. We also had lunch at Papa John’s. The buffet option is really good value, but you can also just get a takeaway and sit on the beach/out on the benches.
Is the Butlin’s dining plan worth it?
If you’ve got kids who like to fill up at breakfast and dinner, it’s worth it. If you’ve got toddlers and preschoolers who tend to graze all day, or just focus on a big lunch like mine, it might not be the best move.
Butlin’s do have apartments where you can cook your own food. Next time we go, because inevitably we will, we’ll get an apartment. This way we can eat breakfast at home – toast, croissants, cereal. Then for lunch we can either go out and take advantage of lunchtime meal deals and have a sandwich for tea, or eat dinner back in the room.
The food plan meant we paid £7 per person per mean, roughly. Which for some families would be amazing value. But for us, the girls ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast and a sausage, then didn’t touch dinner.
Here’s Matt enjoying a meal at FireHouse. When I say enjoying, I mean cutting up someone else’s food while his goes cold. You know, standard parenting stuff.
More coming up on my cheap eats at Butlin’s blog.
Fromthemotherside 
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