To think most kids menus are awful

[ditziness]

Is it just me that always ends up getting ds a starter rather than anything off the kids menu? Why are they usually just chips, chips, chips, goujons, Chios and fishfingers?

Surely a veg soup, a pasta dish, an omlette, bangers and mash and peas, a spag bol, lasagne, would all be healthier and more balanced and still popular?

Annunziata it is really interesting to find out why things are the way they are. It lends a bit of understanding to the difficulties we have eating out.

Our favourite restaurant doesn't have a kids menu. The children order from the main menu, they let you order small portions but still bring out the same sized portion as the adults, but they only charge you as if it was a small portion. Now I can see why that is a bit easier for them than having half of meals hanging around the kitchen on the off chance that another child will order it.

All it needs are smaller portions of adult meals. They are utterly depressing.

Ok - I have worked in a pub for too many years. One thing at a time!
demand does tend to dictate what you get on the menu - things that don't sell get removed and replaced and so it goes on
Half portions - unfortunately it is problematic to get this concept across to staff. Either adults end up with half portions, or children with full portions. Depending how busy / large the establishment is, this can be a nightmare.
If you go somewhere regularly, you can always ask about their policy for adding things and would they consider suggestions don't say their menu is crap just mention a sensible option you would like them to consider.
Neither of my DCs have children's menu, they either share an adult main meal or they have a starter each on most occasions. They do this because they prefer 'adult' food. My sister, as a child, always used to have a starter and a dessert and skip the main for the same reasons. Can be a good option.

ps our children's menu is not as described in op! forgot to mention that!

I have DTSs and so provided they can agree on an adult main course they are allowed to share! My DD often has a spare plate and shares with us. I loathe dinoburgers, whale fish shapes etc!!

Totally agree. Also, they forget that some kids are vegetarian...

... and that some simply have parents with higher standards!

I work in a pub/restaurant/hotel. Anything on the children's menu that isn't something-and-chips simply doesn't sell. It states on the menu that a child sized portion of anything can be provided at half price - I've been there for over a year now and never had such a request.

Currently it's like this:

Sausage (good local organic 95% pork sausage), mash, gravy and veg
Cheese and tomato pizza with chips, optional veg or salad
Chicken breast with chips/mash/new potatoes and veg or salad
Mini battered fish (fresh fish in our own batter), chips and peas

Again, I've never had a salad ordered and very seldom the veg. Not many takers on the sausage and mash. Lots ask for chicken nuggets (we'd slice up a chicken breast and batter it) with chips and beans. Pizza and chips is far and away the winner. Three kids this past week have eaten nothing but garlic bread.

Despite having an age limit on the kid's menu we frequently have to cause offence by telling adults that they cannot have a kid's meal.

I quite like our wetherspoons, it's not manky it doesn't have a great choice of kids meals to be fair, but it's cheap so they have what they want,I think they have a couple of pasta options though. The portion sizes for the kids meals are frigging massive though.

We don't really eat out much but went to a harvester once, that was quite nice, I seem to remember they had a decent kids choice, dd had steak, baked potato and corn on the cob.

We usually go to the local chinese buffet restaurant if only to eat industrial quantities of peking duck.

I think that it is a good idea to let the elderly have a child's meal. I took an almost 90yr old out a few weeks ago and she was thrilled to find that she could have a child's roast dinner-she can't possibly eat an adult one and it is such a waste.(of food and money)

In reply to hephaestus

Lots of restaurants do "lighter options" or "senior options". They are not much cheaper but it puts some elderly people off, just as it puts some kids off, if they are presented with an enormous plateful that they can't remotely make a dent in.

BTW when we holidayed in Yorkshire we found the kids menus brilliant. We even found a place that did a vegetarian roast dinner for kids. My dcs were in heaven!

Ds recently did a week's holiday camp at our local theatre (which also has a bar and restaurant offering food both at lunch and evenings). For £5 ds could have a hot lunch. I thought that was expensive but assumed as it was a proper restaurant the food would be good. Instead every single item on the menu was something with chips. Ds doesn't like chips so took a packed lunch. I don't know anyone who took the hot food option.

Most of our local gastropubs do half portions, the more traditional pubs tend to do everything with chips. Restaurants vary. Ds likes Pizza Express but doesn't have the child's menu as I don't think it is enough food - he is 7 and will eat an adult sized pizza plus starter and dessert. The child's portion is tiny.

Yes anything except beans or peas DD2 hates both! Else I'm afraid the junk is about her level. I try believe me I try, but I make very slow progress on getting her to eat anything exciting. DD1 and I had lunch while she was at a friends today. Bliss we didn't have to find a cafe with kids stuff.

exotic - we have an OAP lunch Mon-Thurs (set menu, traditional stuff i.e cottage pie and veg, spotted dick, tea or coffee included, reduced price) and I am trying to push for an OAP rate for Sunday lunch too but the management are sadly having none of it. We do a lot of doggie bags.

We have to draw a limit somewhere with apparently healthy young adults ordering kid's meals as they are a little subsidised in price, so a table of adults with a £4 kid's meal each and drinking jugs of tap water can take up a table that would otherwise make £60+ in that sitting. Doesn't bother me in the slightest but you can hear the owner's teeth grinding in that scenario!

I think that is is size as much as price-a huge meal is off putting to an elderly person with a bird like appetite.
When I took my DS to Canada the DCs portions were so huge he wouldn't start-in the end we got wise and just had an plate and gave him some of ours.

OP those tend to be the kids menus in bargain bucket places and they also usually serve Froot Shoots :o

Personally I agree with you - having smaller portions of the adult food would be the way to go.

Bloody indoor play areas party food - utter crap.

Hep - The waitress could see whether the people at those tables are children or not. Children are classed as under 12 aren't they? Your restaurant wouldn't sell children's meals to adults surely?

No, we wouldn't, but as I said above people ask for them surprisingly often and it can cause offence when we have to enforce the age limit. The above is just an example of why we are now very strict about it. Most of the staff would use their discretion with an elderly person who couldn't finish a large meal but you literally have to sneak the plate past the boss.

The same thing kind of applies to people who order only a starter and one drink for their entire meal, I appreciate that this is totally reasonable but the owner of the place is extremely unreasonable and simply jacks up the price of the starters instead.

I quite like the children's menu idea. It's a great way to instantly establish that the place will be overrun with badly behaved children and go somewhere that doesn't have a children's menu.

One of our local gastro pubs has a twin track approach. To families that look like their children might be a problem they say "I'm afraid we don't have a children's menu" to other families they say "I'm afraid we don't have a children's menu...but we'd happily make a smaller portion of an adult menu for you".

It might not be fair but they've had a lot of damage done by children and they say that they no longer have much of a problem. Not sure how they spot which family is which though!

wetherspoons has Annabel Karmel Cheesy Pasta and spaghetti Bolognese on their kids menus

Still the same food just with AK name attached. It's all the same menu stuff wherever you go really.