Children's menus - I urgently need your opinions

[penandspoon]

I'm writing a blog about children's menus and urgently need your views and recommendations about the best and the worst children's menus. Do your kids like them? Do you know of any really brilliant or awful ones? Or do you think that kids should eat the same as the grownups?

I loath kids menus as i've always brought my children eating the same food that we do. Why on earth should i feed my kids nuggets/burger/pizza/tomato pasta (all with chips) while i'm eating nice food in a restaurant.

For a while i just put up with it but since my DD became veggie, her choices have been limited so now i've just taken to ordering one main course between her & DS. It's not ideal since he's not veggie but not many restaurants do half portions and neither of them have big appetites

Giraffe is probably as good as it gets when it comes to kids menus as at least there's a choice of grilled chicken or salmon & veg for my DS (though no veggie kids main course other than pasta or pizza).

so far they have all been dire. either pasta and tomato sauce or burger/nuggets and chips. I'm pretty shocked tbh.

in fact wagamamas was good.

I think we are going to have to start ordering something for adults and ask for no salt - not always possible, or carry on taking our own stuff. often we just order a corn on the cob or similar side dish and armed done with it.

we don't eat burgers or chips at home so I can't see why I'd offer it out, and even if its OK for a one off, its dire when you are away for a weekend of eating out and they don't get eat a single vegetable. I think that is shocking.

On the one hand it is good to know that if we go out, they will usually have tomato pasta on the menu, but it does get boring, especially as DS doesn't like chips. I would love more places to offer smaller versions of adult meals. Of course, we used to be able to feed him exactly what we were ordering, and we do this for DD, but since he has turned 3 he is much less adventurous.

Brasserie Blanc is fab, ranging from carrot puree for babies to small portions from the adult menu. Also like Carluccio's, with its choice of pasta and sauce.

I have to say that pasta and tomato sauce is a good option which we know DD will eat, and some places don't even do that.

We have a lovely "gastro pub" fairly nearby, which does a small steak & chips and a lovely chicken curry. Will also do small portions of other dishes.

Sometimes we order a starter and maybe add a side dish of carbohydrate.

We came back to the UK in February and really noticed the difference in the kid"s menus. Almost all of the places we ate had really healthy options including fresh fruit for pudding. Unfortunately the Adults menus hadn't done the same. Why can you get fruit salad, or strawberries on the children's menu but not on the Adult's?

Big fan of Wagamamas for the kids (and us :))

My children generally like childrens menus, or at least the 6 yo does, the 9 yo often chooses from adult one instead. They both prefer the duck noodle thing on the adult menu at Giraffe to anything on the childrens menu.

The very best is a buffet, like on holiday. My children dream of buffets.

I prefer ds to eat normal food, rather than there being a bland childrens menu. We eat at several places where they are happy to do smaller portions of anything on the menu - Bar 288 in Cheltenham for instance where they cheerfully hand out plastic bowls so you can decant food from your plate for tinies/ small eaters, small portions of anything, or starters as main course.

My personal preference would be for child portions to be available for all menu items. Not as common as I would have liked when we our DCs were eating child portions.