What does a child friendly restaurant mean to you?

[FoxCushion]

AIBU to think that there's a difference between a restaurant that allows children and one that's child friendly?

I'm having this debate with a friend because we're planning a big meetup and there will be several children attending. A friend suggested a rather formal restaurant which allows children but isn't what I'd called child friendly and 2 friends don't want to go there because they have babies and toddlers and don't consider it to be child friendly e.g no kids menu, high chairs, baby change etc

I'm not a parent yet but to me there is a difference and it doesn't have to involve a play area or be McDonalds but I find it hard to define it.

So AIBU to think that there's a difference between a restaurant that allows children and one that's child friendly? What do you consider to be child friendly in a restaurant?

Just thought I would add that when I say kids menu I don't mean it has to be chicken nuggets, fish fingers etc. A children's sized portion of jacket potato with beans, fish and chips, spaghetti Bolognese or lasagne is fine, just as long as it's not only adult sized portions of really fancy food available.

Also one with space is key. eg space for a buggy next to a table. Some restaurants will have highchairs but then no way of adding it to your table without it being in the middle of an aisle or blocking in others.

I completely agree there is a difference of a restaurant that tolerates children to one that has a set up that works to make a meal less stressful. It's not always just the restaurants providing crayons, it's more about ambience, space, toilet facilities etc

It's the same things with dog friendly restaurants. All too often places accept dogs but don't actually sit you somewhere where your dog can be out of the way

I've recently gone to a advertised as child and dog friendly restaurant , we told them we had both when we booked . We then got stuck at a table like the one pictured and had to leave

Any one of these seating is a complete pain imo

High chairs and baby change for sure, although we have been to one pub which has high chairs but no baby change and that was really frustrating. Luckily I have a travel mat and managed to change her in one of the giant ladies cubicles...where they could easily add one of those fold-out wall changing tables.

Probably children's menues as well unless it's a cafe where lots of things would be suitable by default.

Enough background noise so that the noise of my own kids merges with everyone else's.
I find it really stressful shushing throughout the meal!

High chairs, kids menu, space & bonus if they have crayons/paper menu they can draw on.

Doesn’t ban kids, friendly, ideally can provide a highchair and has food on the menu that my kids are happy to eat.

I’m not bothered about kids menus, if there’s a main they can share or a starter they’d like we’re fine! I can bring my own crayons and changing mat. There’s a place we go to a lot in France a lot where the highchair is a stool from the bar so we kept them in the stroller until they were toddlers 🤣 but they will do small paired down versions of any main course (it’s a michelin so can be a bit fussy) and they even let the kids into the kitchen to choose their own ice creams for pudding. So wouldn’t meet the typical criteria but I’d say definitely child friendly.

We also went to a well known fancy steak chain recently too and they were amazing- had colouring and highchairs, let my 6YO enter her own order on the till. Again, no kids menu but they suggested a few good size steaks for an adult and child to share.

So I think it’s more the ambiance than box ticking if that makes sense? So difficult to judge if you haven’t been there before.

High chair and baby change is a minimum.
Ideally you want a child's menu (bonus points if it's normal adult food that is child sized like Pizza Express)
Also booking at 5:30/6pm is more child friendly than 8pm which will be past bedtime so more likely for the mums to have to rush home as baby will be grumpy.

If it's too formal then it will be harder to relax because you'll end up being self conscious about the kids making noise. (Strangely noise from adults like a hen party won't be judged so much)

Anywhere that has a child's menu. Kids don't have to eat from it but at least you know they expect children.

Definitely high chairs, I actually didn't realise some places didn't have any! (even high end restaurants I have been in have provided them) But if they don't, they are certainly trying to discourage bringing young children.

Anywhere with a soft play in it usually doesn't have particularly nice meals so bear that in mind. I used to just take along colouring books and crayons to places instead.

Although, we do have a local place which is great with kids and the food is lovely so maybe look for a local family run restaurant or something?

Assuming if one friend only is suggesting this and the others are against it you'll need to find somewhere else anyway.

A kids menu, so you don't have to pay adult prices for an adult meal they may not even eat! Bonus points if it is a kids menu with some thought and efforts - not just nuggets, chips and beans etc. And probably somewhere that they have something specific for kids - e.g. the menu is also a colour in sheet, and they provide crayons.

I'd say definitely not formal dining - it will be a lot less relaxing for the parents in an environment like that. And it should also have baby changing in both male and female loos.

While for me a play area or play corner that you can see from the table is the gold standard (and the only sort of pub/restaurant I managed to have a relaxed meal in when my older DC was younger and on the move), I agree that a place can be "child-friendly" with a lot less.

For me, it's about space. With very small children, you're going to be constantly entertaining them and moving stuff out of their way and that doesn't work in a crowded, formal restaurant with lots of stuff to grab. Instead, you need space for high chairs/buggies, space to get out and grab toys and books, space between you and neighbouring tables and a tolerant and relaxed atmosphere. And definitely no parents trapped between people on bench-style seating where they can't easily reach their DC 😬!

When dc were young we tended to go to chain restaurants like Nando's, Frankie and bennies or pizza express. They were full of families so little bit noise didn't matter.

Parents should also recognise that child friendly does NOT mean kids can run around the place

Yes there's definitely a difference.

Pizza express/TGI Fridays - child friendly, has children's menu, high chairs, colouring sheets etc

San Carlos/Miller & Carter- accepting of children but generally wouldn't tolerate the same levels of noise etc

It's for the enjoyment of everyone. Eating out isn't cheap, even at chain places and people paying for a meal should be able to enjoy it. Equally people should be able to take their kids somewhere without fear of them making more than a murmur. Choose somewhere suitable.

Child-friendly, as opposed to children welcome:

• High chairs
• Kids' menu (potentially with the traditional crayons/ colouring in options)
• Baby changing facilities

We're out of the high chair stage now, so we look for a child's menu.

We are going to London at the weekend for a show and dinner, but wanted to go somewhere that wasn't just a standard chain that we could go to anywhere, we wanted somewhere that would be a treat for us too.

A lot of the ones that we wanted to try didn't have a child's menu.

We've booked one which has a set child menu for a price we are happy to pay, and booked a table for 6:45. I will put a couple to note pads and some pencils in my bag. They are over the age of thinking it's ok to get up and stroll around, so the only thing I'll have to stay on top of is level of voice 🤣

For me it means:

• it’s ok to walk around with your young children if they’re bored/ there is a space for them I.e. an outdoor space but not necessarily a ‘play area’
• Also, high chairs and child sized cutlery which is a rarity!
• A bonus is space to wheel in a pram/pushchair if there’s a baby
• a menu with smaller portions of what adults choose from and not just a load of crap where peas are the only veg and it’s all fast food
• they sell drinks suitable for kids I.e not fizzy or alcoholic!
• obviously a baby change, isn’t this a legality?

High chairs
Kids menu
Other kids so everyone there is expecting kids
Good baby change facilities

These will make it easy for the whole group

To me child friendly means good service. All the crayons and kids menus in the world don’t stop a hangry child from having a tantrum and often the service in chain restaurants is appallingly slow.

I’ve had lovely meals with the children at our local Italian and Japanese restaurants because the staff are welcoming and not a crayon anywhere. Similarly I’ve wanted to leave Nando’s in tears because they messed up an order and food took a lifetime to arrive.

Child friendly actively welcomes them (think high chairs, good changing facilities, perhaps pens and paper/colouring books provided, interesting menu with standard child items and some more adventurous items, play area, patient waiting staff, the expectance to eat with other families) whereas places which allow them would cater less specifically for the kids, but still not be downright unwelcoming (so there might still be a high chair available, changing facilities, smaller portions, the odd unwelcoming stare from fellow diners etc).

I would interpret 'child-friendly' as somewhere that will provide high chairs, will adapt dishes for a child if necessary and where the staff are used to those kinds of requests, and isn't somewhere ultra-formal and quiet so if a child is a bit noisy, it won't completely wreck the ambience and attract furious glares from the staff and the other diners.

I don't think child-friendly automatically means providing a 'children's menu' or crayons or a play area or anything like that, and I also don't think it means people's kids have carte blanche to run around, scream or watch 14 episodes of Peppa Pig on an iPad without headphones.

I've worked in a bar-restaurant that considered itself child-friendly. We would provide high chairs on request (and cushions for older children) and if children were too young for a full size portion or were fussy, we'd suggest an adapted version of adult dish for them or offer to split an adult dish between two children or something like that, or suggest they had starters instead of main courses. Drinks-wise, we didn't serve stuff like Fruit Shoots but we would happily offer to invent mocktails for kids, and if they were having something like a lemonade or an orange juice we would serve it in the fanciest-looking manner possible for them with fruit slices, cocktail cherry, swizzle stick etc to make it look more exciting. Generally speaking, we'd always make a fuss of kids. But it was about giving them a kids' version of a grown-up restaurant experience that they could enjoy, not about combining eating out with playing, or mimicking the experience of eating at home.

The owner's theory was that the more we treated children like grown-up customers, the better behaved they were in the restaurant, and I honestly think he was absolutely right.

This!!

Anywhere in Europe you're welcomed as a family!! Unless it's specifically an adult only or date night place, any restaurants is child friendly. There are no kids menus, kids eat the same as adults and have been simply taught to behave at a restaurant.

Only Britain (and America) seem to make a bigger deal out of kids than it needs to be, introducing kids menus (let's put all the processed food we can give kids and all is ok with the world....)

It means a place to avoid at all costs.

The owner's theory was that the more we treated children like grown-up customers, the better behaved they were in the restaurant, and I honestly think he was absolutely right.

This! I honestly the think the best meal out I’ve had with the kids was a big treat meal at Nobu. Totally no billed as child friendly, not a high chair or crayon in sight. Definitely no kids menus. But the waiter treated them just like grown ups and they were the best behaved I’ve ever seen them. And they loved the food! Sometimes children surprise us.

Definitely a high chair. What do you do with a baby otherwise? Try to perch them on your knee and eat your dinner at the same time? Bring a gigantic pram inside the restaurant? Drape them over a chair and hope they don't fall off?