Real menus for children - campaign?

yes to the cheese. We were out at lunchtime a few weeks back and DS got a childs cheese butty, my dad got a "adult" cheese butty. His was a slice of plastic cheese with a tomato, my dads was proper cheese with a decent side salad. The price difference was about £1.50 I would have happily paid more for a decent meal.

And agree also re sausages. Stop with thei cheap shit but proper ones for every body

This would be great. And maybe even the kids stuff they keep could be freshly made. So proper fresh chicken cut and breaded.

And anything that uses cheese to be real cheese not the pre grated stuff that doesn't melt properly, and have it actually taste of something.

Agree a smiley face next to options that are available in kids size is a good idea too!!

I just wish that restaurants would always offer a half portion and not just for children, I'm two thirds the size of DH and don't want or need to eat the same size meals. I find I either force it down or leave some which feels wasteful.
Half portions available to everyone will be my rallying cry!

Even if they just put a note on the bottom of the menu saying "some of our meals can be made in half portions, please ask" that would be good.

Oh it is working
kingsarmsburton.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Main-Menu.pdf

My parents pub do a light bites section and a children's section. They get frustrated because they want to do nice children's food but removing things like chicken nuggets nearly caused a riot
So they do the light bites bit, and then the children's bit is a mix. But if someone requested something else or a half portion they would do it
I think the website is down so can't link to menu

There is still a point even if the crap was still available.
There will always be children who will prefer beige but really why should every child only have that option or an odd collection of starters or an adult meal if they dont eat like that?
I took my son to a Beefeater while on maternity leave he's tomato pasta was basicly penne with tinned tomatoes it wasn't sauce, as if they would serve that to an adult, but it's ok it's only for a kid after all, he was dairy intolerant at the time so couldn't have the pudding and doesn't have juice so had tap water £4 for pasta and tinned toms with bullet peas I wanted to call the police

exactly fuzz pig. That is actually my biggest issue.

if you do a pasta dish for the adults then the childrens one should be the same quality. If you serve sausages for adults you should serve the same ones for children not cheapy frozen crap for the kids and decent one for adults.

I like places which have a "light bites" menu as I often order for DS off that as often he doesn't like any of the options on a children's menu. Other places star the items which are available as a half portion which works well.

I don't agree that it's the restaurants which serve crap adult food which serve crap children's food. I have been to plenty of decent places where the children's menu is obviously an after thought of things they can easily grab from the freezer

One final thought on this topic that I thought I didn't care about: the stuff you see on childrens menus is what the vaaaaaasast majority of children in the UK do eat. Every day.

Not your child - of course - not mine, naturally, but beige freezer food is on an awful lot of family menus.

My son wouldn't eat nuggets, sausages etc either. He'll devour a margarita pizza though and, really, that's fine with me - can't you stuff them with olives, sushi and quinoa at home and turn a blind eye in a restaurant. Or buy them a starter (as I often do) or, gasp, just order an extra main course from the menu?

Campaign? Really? Talk about first world problems...

I think one problem restaurants have with the half sized portions is that adults try to buy it for themselves, As a cheaper meal option, and can become quite agitated when they are told it's a child's portion meant only for children.

My DS won't eat any of the nuggets/sausages/chips type meals, if there isn't pizza or pasta on the children's menu we tend to order two mains that he will share with us plus some garlic bread for him and chips for us or similar. I'd like to see optional small portions of normal meals.

I would love to see better children's menus - surely we should be encouraging kids not to eat processed crap!

My dd dislikes most stuff on the typical child menus, but will usually enjoy something from the main menu. However, she has a tiny appetite do I don't really want to pay full price. Many places will do smaller portions, but some won't, or they charge you for the full portion anyway!

ime places with bad children's menus have crappy menus generally. Not all food scales down well so there is never going to be a situation where every meal can be halved. I can't remember the last time I was somewhere where the children's menu was nuggets/sausage and I eat out at fairly cheap restaurants a lot.

Yes definitely, my dc do not like sausage, nuggets and chips why do restaurants assume they do? Great idea for a campaign my eldest dc is nearly 16 this has annoyed me for years.

I think it just depends where you go.

If you effectively say no more chicken nuggets/pizza:/whatever there will probably be just as many folk with their nose out of joint as the current situation.

Just choose places to go with better options. There's plenty of them that do exist.

It would be nice t to have just a smiley face next to all menu options that could be done in child portions, and I say that as a parent of a very fussy eater who will generally only eat chips even if there is a children's menu serving the kind of bland stuff he might eat. Actually we tend to go places with bread and he will eat that if nothing else.

I like the children's menu here