We tried LÉA pre-show dining at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds and discovered a gourmet menu along with child-friendly meals

Going to the theatre is one of life’s pleasures, but now there is a way to add a further layer of indulgence to the experience.

Theatregoers visiting the Theatre Royal, in Bury St Edmunds, have been able to enjoy pre-show dining from LÉA for a while, however now younger guests have their own bespoke menu to choose from.

My seven-year-old daughter Clara and I were invited along to try it for ourselves and we jumped at the chance. After all, we will soon be visiting the theatre again to see its pantomime production of Snow White, so we may want to treat ourselves to a meal beforehand once again.

LÉA is the brainchild of award-winning independent town restaurant Maison Bleue, located in Churchgate Street – just a stone’s throw from the Westgate Street theatre.

Since August last year, a selection of the brand’s gourmet LÉA ready meals range of cold starters, mains and desserts have been available to pre-order for pre-show dining at the Theatre Royal, with its Greene Room bar offering a light and airy environment in which to savour the dishes.

All food options need to be pre-ordered up to 72 hours before performances as each dish is made freshly to order by the LÉA team.

So, as Clara and I headed into the theatre ahead of our afternoon performance – LÉA meals are ready 45 mins before shows start to allow diners time to eat (food is not allowed in the auditorium) – we already knew what we would be eating.

However, nothing prepared me for the excitement of seeing our bag of delights sitting on our table in the Greene Room.

Each LÉA order is presented in a dinky burnt orange branded jute bag – and it feels a bit like Christmas morning unpacking it.

One by one I pulled out glass jars containing our starters, mains courses and desserts, with Clara’s ‘Oohs’ at each new gift growing louder as her eyes grew wider.

From a starters menu including chicken liver parfait, port and cranberry gelée and smoked mackerel rillettes, I had chosen goat cheese and sweetcorn (£4.95) for my first course – and I was thrilled to open a jar packed with ingredients.

I found the chopped red onion and vinegar gave a kick to the dominant flavour of the goat’s cheese, while the sweetcorn added texture and… a little bit of ‘sweet’ to the mix.

My next glass jar contained a quinoa salad with golden beetroot, apple and feta (£7.50), for my main course choice – although the menu also includes roast beef, Suffolk chorizo and pasta salad; smoked salmon and garden peas salad or honey roast ham salad

Don’t let the size of those jars fool you, as I scooped a small mountain of quinoa salad on to my plate.

And what a salad it was – every mouthful contained a delicious combination of sweet, savoury and fresh ingredients.

Finally, in what was an exceptionally appealing menu of desserts (fig and vanilla panna cotta; dark chocolate mousse and salted butter caramel; crème caramel or coffee and amaretti biscuit tiramisu), I had opted for the creme caramel (£4.95), which is one of my favourite desserts of all time.

Being a classic French dessert I was expecting great things of a brand created by Brittany-born Pascale Canevet. And I was not disappointed.

The creme was as punchy as I could have hoped, while it was accompanied by a rich brown caramel. All you could hear in the Greene Room at this point was the clinking of my spoon against the glass as I endeavoured to extract every last drop of caramel.

Meanwhile, Clara was busily making her way through the contents of her own glass jars.

From a children’s menu (£6.95 for two courses) including main courses of ham and cheese coquillette pasta salad; cheese coquillette pasta salad (no ham) and chicken nuggets served with Marie Rose dip, Clara had made a beeline for that classic child menu staple – chicken nuggets.

Getting feedback from a busy seven-year-old is hard work, so I settled for the fact she devoured them with alacrity as a winning thumbs-up.

Then, her dessert was English strawberry bavarois (the alternative menu option being milk chocolate mousse topped with Smarties).

With that small jar containing more than she could eat – although she had a good crack at it – I had to sample the contents for review purposes. And I can report that this is a dessert worthy of adult diners as well as children.

The bavarois was light, fluffy and delicately creamy, while the English strawberry provided a tart contrast. Once more, the clinking of my spoon against glass echoed around the bar.

And so we had finished our indulgent pre-show dining experience in plenty of time to find our seats before the show started.

With very reasonable prices, delicious cuisine and a lovely – family-friendly – setting in which to enjoy our meal, we will certainly be booking LÉA pre-show dining again.