Is no hot food a deal breaker?

[Gnomesrule]

If a soft play centre didn’t serve hot food at weekends, would it put you off going?

Are you planning to go over a meal time?

I think panini's (maybe)...
But nice quality "home made sandwiches, abit of salad, crisps, cheese cubes, raisins, veg sticks and hummas. Nice selection of tea, coffee and cakes is what people prefer

No. I never bought food at soft play anyway.

Toasted sandwiches/ panini and jacket potatoes would be fairly straightforward. I wouldn’t be bothered about no deep fried stuff.

Personally, I wouldn't care.

From a business POV, you'll make more money off each person through the door if you can charge them for a meal, rather than for coffee and cake. That's why those places all do pizza, pasta, chips, sausages and jacket potatoes... mark-up and margin.

So do your sums carefully! It might be more profitable to offer hot food even if your costs increase.

Soft play centres used to put me off going to soft play centres!

There's not a chance I'd eat anything in one of those places

Depends what you mean by no hot food. No chips and pizza, not bothered, unable to stick a tea cake in a toaster, more on an issue as I'd rather DD had something like that than a bag of crisps.

Are you removing staff at weekends who can cook and therefore cost more or starting up a business and doing your costings for what staff you can afford? I'd say you need a consistent offer, so hot food every day or none, not hot food Mon - Fri and not at weekends. You'll get annoyed parents complaining they didn't know there was no hot food at weekends.

No coffee: yes I'd be hugely put off going.

No hot food: of course not, it's somewhere you take your kids to play, rather than eat, and the food is usually rubbish and overpriced anyway.

Wouldn't put me off, I rarely eat at places like that though the food is usually frozen crap that's ridiculously expensive.

I think actually I'd rather go somewhere that didn't stink of overused frying fat.

At a soft play near me they do a kids snack pack that you can choose from a range- a drink, fruit, yogurt, vegetable sticks with hummus, sandwich and a packet of crisps/raisins. Think it’s £4. No Hot food wouldn’t put me off if there was something like that on offer

My soft play doesn’t offer hot food. Can’t say I’ve ever thought about it and like others, I suspect soft play hot food would be grim.

I think as long as they served sandwiches or snacky bits that were healthy it wouldn't put me off.

If the coffee machine was broken we'd have a problem though ;)

I'd see it as a selling point tbh as my kids won't them mither me to death for chips

I guess you're planning to open one? No, it wouldn't put me off. I'd like coffee though.

AIBU to think no hot food is a deal breaker?

AIBU to say no hot food?

We can't vote OP unless we know the AIBU!

YABU to not provide an AIBU, does that help?

No I've never bought the hot food.
If you're asking for research purposes then decent cold food like a sandwich meal deal or snack box would be better in my opinion.

Some people on here must have some rubbish sp areas.. Ours do hot and cold food.. Lasagna.. Pasta.. Jacket potato.. Panninis to name a few... I often ate there.. Those that only do stuff like pizza and chips must be in a different area to me!

It wouldn’t bother me. Especially if the “cold food” was decent.

Second the suggestion above of little boxes with a sandwich, cheese stick, drink, crisps and fruit etc in them. My kids love that kind of stuff and I’d rather they ate that than some horrible chicken nuggets or pizza

Our local one serves both the typical pizza, nuggets, sausages etc and also has a selection of snacks like veg sticks, cheese, crackers, fruit, cakes etc

(Disclaimer - my kids eat chicken nuggets and pizza all the time - just the ones at soft play are usually fairly grim)

Fortunately I haven’t had to enter a soft play place for at least 15 years but even when I used to take my DS I would never eat or drink anything, I am a total coffee snob and, certainly in those days, you would only be offered a luke warm mug of Nescafé . I would make it clear to my DS that we would eat at home either before or after soft play.

No, the food’s usually shit in those places anyway. I’d just bring some butties and get fish and chips on the way home.

Don't think I have ever ordered hot foot in a soft play. It's always shit.

I get a coffee and a cup a milk for DS. We sneak or own pack lunch in.

If the food wasn't gross, I wouldn't do that so I don't feel guilty at all.

Last time I went to soft play the hot food was all utter junk - chips and sausages and stuff. I’d much prefer a sandwich or something. Surely people don’t go to soft play for the cuisine

It may be a “deal breaker” in that soft plays make their money on refreshments. If you don’t serve hot meals then you’ll lose a big source of revenue (especially in winter).

I would never buy anymore than a kit kat or bag of crisps at soft play.