to think a children's meal should be enough for a four year old?

[CustardLover]

Had a nice lunch today in Carluccios - we all liked it, especially DS who's 4. He liked it so much (penne with tomato sauce) that he finished it in minutes - there was about 10 pieces of pasta in the sauce. I had to order extra bread and broccoli as well as give him my pasta to make sure he'd had enough food. When the waitress was taking the supplemental orders she commented that I should have ordered him an adult portion, which surprised me. He's not a fussy eater but he's not gluttonous and he's FOUR. AIBU to think that a children's meal, at £6.50, should have enough pasta in tomato sauce to satisfy a pre-schooler? Or am I being naive and do you have to switch over to the adult menu much earlier than I had expected? Restaurant owners - what is your expectation of child diners?

[CustardLover]

You know, I should have, and I guess my version ('he's still hungry, may I order some bread and broccoli please'?) was too late and passive aggressive.

There's no child meal at our local one - I could understand if it was £1!

[ErgonomicallyUnsound]

Depends on the child and the type of food. For eg DD (9) never finishes the child's rice dish at Wagamama which appears small, but would need at least double that amount of pasta before she was full. But then she is a pasta fiend.

Similarly, 12 yo DS struggles with adult helpings, unless it's pizza then he can eat almost a whole adult one, if its v thin.

It does sound stupidly small, and £6.50 is bonkers for what costs less than £1 at home, plus plenty of Italians do adult pasta dishes for £7.

[WorraLiberty]

The £6.50 includes bread sticks, a drink, main course (doesn't have to be pasta) and a dessert though.

Still pricey mind, but that's the sort of restaurant it is.

[RandomMess]

I would write the manager a polite letter. Both acknowledging that you should have raised your complaint at the time but asking him to clarify in a pasta main meal as you thought 10 pieces was inadequate.

So long as you are polite and friendly about it the worst that can happen is that you get nowhere but conversely they may send you a voucher or confirm that is what they intended to serve!

[curren]

So he had bread sticks, the pasta and dessert? Not just the pasta for £6.50?

Plus bread and broccoli?

I haven't been there in years, but always found kids portions good. Personally, since you have been before, I would have questioned it.

[rookiemere]

Tell you where else has a tiny portion of pasta. Toby Carvery. DS not a big carvery fan but children's meal there is as expensive as an adult carvery most of the time, we counted 20 pieces of small pasta in the serving.

[skankingpiglet]

We've always found Carluccio's to be stingy for DD from about 12mo (she's 22mo now), but she does have Mary Poppin's handbag for a stomach and we have the same issue with most chains. (She's a skinny minny with twiggy arms too, so not a hulkingly obese little thing).
A fab local independent Italian serves huge portions to adults and what I would class as a reasonably-sized adult portion to children at lower prices than Carluccio's so we tend to go there if we can. DD can nearly finish their 'child's portion'...

YANBU we often wonder how long we have left before we are shelling out for adult meals for her. We definitely won't make 8yo which is when I feel kid's meals should be suitable until. Some chains have two children's menus for different age groups which is an excellent idea.

[AndNowItsSeven]

Yes Toby Carvery childrens meals are ridiculously small.

[Obviouspretzel]

6.50 is pricey for bread sticks, a drink, a main and a dessert? How much cheaper could it realistically be?

[2ndSopranosRule]

My 8yo has a huge appetite but still finds kids' meals adequate. It also means she automatically has "room for dessert" which pleases her no end. A kids' pizza in somewhere like Pizza Express is still a good size for her and means she can nibble on garlic bread or olives too.

Sometimes I look at what the dc get and wish I could have a similarly-sized portion, tbh.

[CustardLover]

I didn't say it was pricy and you're right - it does include breadsticks (two, broken in half) plus a glass of apple juice and fruit. And when I bought more bread and broccoli that was enough for DS. My surprise was that the waitress then said 'you should have ordered him an adult portion'.

[rookiemere]

We're in the situation where DS is 10 but has a bit of a limited range so prefers the kids menu.
Sometimes we have to order 2 children's meals due to the portion size and he's got a fairly average appetite. Fair enough I suppose as he is older than they are really aimed at, but means that his meal generally costs as much as ours these days but will have taken the chef seconds to microwave or bung in the oven.

[WorraLiberty]

skankingpiglet I would have thought a 3 course meal is more than enough for a 22 month old baby.

[skankingpiglet]

Worra the last time we went the '3 course meal' was breadsticks, a half dozen ravioli, a drink which she admittedly didn't have (only has water) and a small scoop of ice cream... The main was inhaled in seconds and she was demanding some of ours.

[WorraLiberty]

Blimey. Not sure where you'd go from that point then.

[Isetan]

I always order the IKEA child's menu for myself or I'll share an adult sized portion with DD. I would not be impressed with 10 pieces of pasta.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Weird really to suggest a 4 yr old should have the adult meal if they do a children's one, but perhaps she was just trying to diffuse the situation/ said the first thing that came into her head?!
A good thread for general discussion I think which hopefully restauranteers might see and respond to.
We used to like the children's meals at our local Brewers Fayre/ Brewsters which also had an excellent large soft play area and was happy to have them for longer than some places so we kept going back

[YonicTrowel]

I find Jamie's portions pretty small and Strada to have the best selection for the price. £6.50 for some kind of small main/small pud/drink is pretty standard for a chain kiddie meal.

If it was smaller than normal you shpd have said so. As the waitress, I wouldn't have read your comment as being about the portion but as about your child's appetite.

We once got served two very different amounts of the same kiddie dish so it might just have been an aberration of someone not filling the bowl as usual.

[WorraLiberty]

Weird really to suggest a 4 yr old should have the adult meal if they do a children's one, but perhaps she was just trying to diffuse the situation/ said the first thing that came into her head?!

It is weird that the waitress didn't notice the portion was much smaller than usual, and that rather than realise that, she suggested an adult meal.

[YonicTrowel]

Quite possibly a different waitress if OP grabbed one in passing to order the extra bits.

On a busy weekend, not sure of the waitresses would be paying loads of attention to portion sizes either!

When we got the disparate portions, I did mention it (the bowls were different sizes so it was clear!) and we were brought some more of the same pasta.

[JassyRadlett]

I find there are one or two branches that are quite stingy - and others really generous! We go back to the generous ones, it's DS1's fave.

[Scarydinosaurs]

Prezzo sizes are crazy big. I've never eaten at Carluccio's- ten pieces of pasta is ridiculous.

[retrorobot2]

I have had this problem in the chains. We are fortunate that we have a 2.5 year old and an almost 4 year old and we just have them share an adult main course. If we have starters they are shared among everyone.

Some of the children's main courses in chain restaurants are ridiculously small and the choice can be very limited and not very healthy/interesting (Jamie's - I am looking at you) . The only place I can think of that had decent children's main courses was Cafe Rouge.

The problem with children's mains is that at most of the chains you have to take them as part of a menu and then the children end up getting some dessert as part of it, which we'd rather they didn't. Our two are savages for the food - unfussy and big eaters. We'd rather they filled up on a relatively healthy main.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Yes, I do wish they'd offer a few veg at least as an option retro?
There seems to be this idea in UK that children don't eat veg, which isn't very helpful?