AIBU about not allowing outside food in restaurant?

[Gnomesrule]

I own a restaurant with play area. We do not allow people to bring their own food. Many reasons including allergies, food poisoning etc and also there is a restaurant so we cater for all food requirements. We do have parties and allow people to bring birthday cakes only, but they are cut and wrapped by us and not eaten on the premises.

We have more and more people bringing their own food especially for unofficial parties etc. Many even leave the wrappers for us to clear, plus mash it into the carpets etc. We recently even had a parent cracking peanuts who was shocked when we told them that it wasn’t allowed (we don’t sell food containing nuts).

Would you find it an unreasonable request to be asked not to eat outside food in a place that has a restaurant?

Also if you held an unofficial party would you find it unreasonable to be charged to have your cake cut and wrapped for you?

YANBU

Of course you're not being unreasonable to ask that people actually pay you for food when they're in your premises. I'm assuming you allow people to eat birthday cake on the premises.

I admire you OP as I have been considering opening my own soft play business, as I feel the same about healthy eating at soft plays.
Having previously worked in a few soft play centres, I would suggest as others have said a 3 strike rule standard and have that written around the soft play and on each table.
As for authorised parties If you have a party room keep the cake blowing to only in that one room. Maybe offer to parents if the children would like the cake for pudding or to take home. Could save you money and give parents some freedom of choice.
Non authorised parties I wouldn’t even let them blow out candles or have the cake out. Soon as children see cake they will want to eat it. You can state you have sensitive fire alarms and therefore not allowed. Also you can state that outside food isn’t allowed and you cannot make exceptions just for birthdays.
Also maybe have a sign to state that although all precautions are in place to encourage an allergy free environment this cannot be guaranteed. Could weiver you from any future problems.

A sign saying "No chavs" should do it.

Actually, I think you will find that parents from all backgrounds feel entitled to behave in such a way, but don’t let your ridiculous snobbishness get in the way of your judgemental beliefs. 🙄

I feel sorry for anyone who's involved in any sort of family or child focused business like this because they're inevitably full of pisstakers.

YANBU.

What age are we talking? Under 2, you might be being a bit unreasonable - I remember going out for Sunday lunch with my ILs (so there were four adults eating and drinking), and getting told off for feeding DS (who was about 8mo) a yoghurt. Asked if I could order a puree for him off their menu instead, oh no we don’t sell purees or anything else suitable for a baby to eat.

So we got the bill and left to feed him elsewhere. Their loss, local coffee shop’s gain (we ordered a cake and a couple of coffees each and spent half the afternoon there).

But yes if you are talking about 8yr olds YANBU

I am a catering manager of several large outlets, we have a flexible policy, we allow careers of people with complex needs to bring food in for the person they care for, we are also pretty flexible with young children or persons with Allergies. We provide a very wide range of food in different settings, we sometimes find people worry about food available due to the horror stories about Allergies. We would not charge for cutting and serving a cake. The one thing that used to upset staff was customers coming and paying for a cup of tea and then filling four cups with hot water and put our teabags in their pockets!!! We now have machines that dispense fresh leaf tea, that has stopped them !!!

My DS is allergic to cows milk, nuts, eggs and certain seeds and carries and epi pen. Unless you can guarantee a safe meal for my child with an extremely low chance of cross contamination then I'm bringing my food. I would challenge anyone to challenge me about it.

I have frequently gone out to birthdays at a restaurant and taken a cake, which the restaurant don't mind and give us plates etc. If there are fire alarm rules, then I would say you can't bring cakes unless it is a booked party due to the requirement of extra staff. Or, I would create a little place which is obvious to be able to blow out candles/ sing Happy Birthday (eg. a mural of balloons), and allow people to bring birthday cake, but no other food or drink. I would also let them eat the birthday cake in the birthday cake 'area'. Hopefully they would also purchase some food or at least drinks. If they asked why not other food, I would point out that you wouldn't go to a restaurant with a sandwich.

Maybe look at the childrens menu again, OP. When dd was younger it was very frustrating to go somewhere and have to pay for a meal she would barely eat a little of because the menu options were limited/ not to her taste. If you are offering a play area but not offering an affordable toddler-friendly menu people will bring their own, whatever the signs say.

No food in the play area, only food and drink purchased from the restaurant to be eaten on the premises is entirely reasonable though.

I would challenge anyone to challenge me about it.

And they could, quite rightly, tell you to leave the restaurant premises. A private property is not obligated to provide you with space to eat food you brought in from somewhere else .

OP is it possible to create a picnic zone and charge a nominal fee for people to eat their own food in it to cover the additional cleaning? Alternatively you may have to consider charging the adults to come in.

Maybe look at the childrens menu again

This too. We’re vegetarian, and I can’t tell you the number of children’s menus that offer either burger and chips or chicken nuggets and nothing else. He usually has a starter off the adult menu instead, but those often aren’t particularly nutritionally balanced for a whole meal (lots of fried/salty stuff, not much protein).

We struggle with this as ds1 has ASD and severely restricts his diet. He simply wont eat anything you have prepared. Altho he eats 'ham sandwiches' the bread and ham has to be exactly right and it has to be cut in a certain way etc. I'd happily pay for a ham sandwich just so he could eat the one I've prepared. We buy food for me, dh, and the other 2 children but often have a sandwich or something which I know he will eat if we are out for a day out. If we go to national trust we always eat outside as far away from the restaurant as possible to give him his sandwich.

Places will say 'but we sell ham sandwiches' and wont understand that it has to be so so specific. We went all inclusive last year and he ate dry bread for 8 days. I wish I could pay 'foodage' and bring my own.

Their loss, local coffee shop’s gain (we ordered a cake and a couple of coffees each and spent half the afternoon there).
No that was not particularly a gain for the coffee shop.

Can I suggest tou look at prices of the food you sell. We are on a very low budget so going to the soft play is a real treat for my kids, I cannot then afford £1 for a small bottle of water and the same again for a small snack that they inevitably ask for while we're there, it can cost more than entry just to get a small snack for them each. I certainly dont have the money to afford to buy them a meal while we're in there. How much would it cost for a bottle of water in your centre? And a small snack or a meal? It puts me off taking them there instead of the playground where I can bring a picnic and make a day of it

I’d have paid extra to get in to a soft play venue that had a strict no tolerance no food rule in the entire play area! Justifying it on a hygiene basis rather than allergies should appeal to a wider audience. Entirely separate restaurant area means nobody can consume their own food, outside the limited extreme cases / weaning babies.

No that was not particularly a gain for the coffee shop

There were four of us, it was otherwise empty (they are next to a station and most people take their coffees with them), and we ordered eight coffees and four pieces of cake between us. Came to about £65 (artisanal hipster coffee place). For two hours I don’t think that’s a bad return.

^Their loss, local coffee shop’s gain (we ordered a cake and a couple of coffees each and spent half the afternoon there).
No that was not particularly a gain for the coffee shop^

So glad someone pointed that out!

. For two hours I don’t think that’s a bad return

It is though when you think most people would spend say £10 but only be there 20 minutes max. I’m not sure how many of you there were though. 4 in total?

It doesn’t exactly solve the problem, but our local soft play has started offering deals, so either entry and a kids meal, or entry and a snack. I’ve always avoided going at meal tones, or given the kids packed lunch in the car park, but au find this more tolerable. It’s slightly cheaper than doing it separately.

YABU if you mean food for babies; you can't possibly provide food for every range of what babies have or haven't tried yet and what they will or won't eat in the 6-24 month age group. Many parents only provide their own food for very little ones, so it isn't as simple as just putting out a range of puree jars and expecting people to give them to babies.

For older kids I don't see any issue barring food if you cater for all mixes of allergies, have a sign and have some kind of snacks that can be made available immediately for very little (whiny) ones or kids with particular needs.

Don’t think you are being unreasonable at all.
You are a business, with responsibilities and liabilities.
How to address this is a tricky issue though.
1/clear signage
2/tackle the issue of why some people might reasonably want to bring own food and think on ways to address that in your offering.
This pub in Holkham does a really good, comprehensive kids menu - not just for young children, but toddlers too. As a parent, this would entice me into staying and paying for more food. www.holkham.co.uk/stay-eat/the-victoria-inn/menu-wines
3/step up enforcing asking people to leave. Don’t assume they will respect the signage (they won’t).

I love the cheese and apple and mashed banana on that menu Aqua, so even a 6mo who's just starting weaning can join in. Although my eldest would have spat the banana out.