EATING OUT WITH CHILDREN!

[Esme]

I love eating out with my 12 month old son. I try to do it as often as I can. I don't have to cook anything or clean up the mess that my son makes. It's also a great social time for my son as he usually gets loads of attention. I don't think I've ever had a negative response from anywhere that I've taken my son. I usually aim for lunch time or tea time (around 5pm) as this fits best with my son and also I feel that these are family times in restuarants and no one can complain if you are spoiling the atmosphere. We live in York and I've found that the best places are the following;

Cafe Rouge - small but staff remove push chair for you, bring high chairs and toys. Child menu available with crayons and colouring book. Non smoking section

Frankie and Benny's - Great for birthday parties as everyone sings happy birthday(highly embarrasing but kids love it) ballons, crayons and child menu. Non smoking section

Pizza Express - Vast building with plenty of space so no need to worry about annoying other diners. No child menu so only good if your child likes pizza or young enough to eat jars. Huge non smoking section

Blake Head Bookshop (Micklegate) Great bookshop with light and airy vegie cafe at back. Often busy but very child friendly. High chairs, beakers available. Happily warm up any food. I make loads of mess and they never mind. Young staff who are very friendly. Great children's book section. Smoke free

M&S cafe - very good. Good wooden high chairs, bottle warming available and loads of oldies to entertain your little darling. Smoke free

Slug and Lettuce - big and airy, high chairs. Be warned that after 5pm can be loud and smokey so avoid. It's a mecca for the push chair brigade on Saturday lunch times. If you like total smoke free zone do avoid completely althogh big and airy enough to deal with the odd smoker - you could be unlucky to get a table near a smoker and they do not have non smoking section. I do stress however that I've never found it smokey during the day.

Esme, lucky you living in York, I love it there having spent many happy childhood hols in Yorkshire, and gone back there with my husband and son a couple of times. Don't you like Betty's? We have been there a few times, and I absolutely love it. So child friendly.

I've been to lots of lovely eating places with my sons but one thing really makes me cross.

So many of these places provide high chairs WITHOUT SHOULDER STRAPS!!!. There are these new wooden ones I've seen everywhere. Lovely curved linea lines. Pale wood. A waist strap to hold in little bodies. All very pretty in a modern restaruant interior but of no practical use for my 20 month toddler who thinks they are a pedestal designed to let him to stand up and survey the other eaters.

Tigermoth, I must confess our son's reins go with us everywhere these days. If no D rings are visible on these pesky pieces of trendy furniture, we tie the walking part of the reins to the chair back. Fortunately so long as he has a plate of chips we could hang him nude from the light fittings and he wouldn't care.

En route to Edinburgh a big thumbs up to The Gordan Arms Hotel in West Linton, child friendly, excellent menu and not expensive. If the adults have the sunday roast, then the kids eat free, depending on the roasts eaten and children there in the group. Good portions, free ice cream with their lunch, plastic plates so they can't be broken. Also the Wimpy in Dumfries is good as well, they are quick and it is clean and the non smoking area is a good bit away from the smoking area, not that it affects me!, being a puffer.

Actually Betty's is a place I often forget about but yes Paula1 it is really child friendly and has great cakes. I think that I'll have to pay it a visit soon. Only problem with it though is that it is often very busy and you have to wait for a table. I'm going to London soon for a weekend. Does anyone have any recommendations on great places to eat with a 12 month old?

Esme and Paula1 I read your messages with glee as I too know these places living as I do not far from either York or Harrogate. I was going to recommend Frankie and Bennys but didn't know if it was unique to York. I love the way the kids are catered for immediately i.e. drawing stuff and drinks etc. Unfortunately with three rugrats in tow we don't go out to eat that often but we were impressed with this place so much we have been back a few times.

Binza, where do you live? I spent every childhood holiday in Ripon (we had a caravan, and used to always stay on a site there every holiday except Christmas - too cold) Me and my husband and son have had a great few hols around Yorkshire, doing all the things I remembered as a Child (although 20 years ago!), some things have changed beyond recognition - Lightwater Valley as an example. But Mother Shiptons Cave, and Harrogate were exactly as I remembered. There was a very child friendly coffee shop in Harrogate, I can't remember the street name, but it was on a hill? Had a child area protected by picket fences with loads of toys. Wish they would do some of these child friendly things in the South East!

In London, Smollenskys on the strand is great for kids, table magician,(disco,away from adults on a stage area! kids very safe, competitions , play area for tinies with lots of little tykes toys, balloons, etc, kids can have steaks etc, or downsized adult meals. The fries are good and the adult food is good, the brownie is to die for! hot dogs a foot long, pasta, fish etc also for the kids, not too junky. Great for adults as well as the kids. There are three, one near the Ritz and the other at the O2 centre in Swiss cottage. Benihana Japanese is a great favourite with my children, they love Sushi, that can share from any adult portion as they are huge, it is all cooked in front of yoyu and the chef's entertain everyone with their antics and cooking skils. A bit pricey but worth it, Stratton Street W1 , Kings Road, SW3 and Swiss Cottage. I'm from St Albans but we go to Lodon all the time to eat with the children

Cheers Alibubbles for your recommendations to eating out with children in London. I've made a note and will let you know what I think.

Paula1,you hit the nail on the head.I live in Ripon and I'm willing to bet that the caravan site was on a hill overlooking the river. Am I right? I can't think which cafe you mean in Harrogate but if the name comes to you let me know as it sounds ideal. We tried to keep Lightwater Valley a secret from our kids for as long as possible and then told them they weren't allowed in until they were 16! Sadly my eldest was invited to a birthday outing there last year and has done nothing but rave about the place ever since. Does anyone else get sick of the expense of days out with children? I hate to feel I'm being ripped off. For example £1 for a two year old to spend 2 minutes on a roundabout at a fair!! Anyway enough ranting, who knows we may bump into each other one day and never know it- SPOOKY.

Yes Binza, you're right! We stopped going there when we moved from Sunderland (which was only about an hour to Ripon) to Essex (several hours!!)

I would endorse the recommendation for Cafe Rouge. I went there PC (pre-children) with my brother's children and was really impressed with the welcome we ALL received. The staff make a special effort to greet the children which makes a big difference to the way that they then behave.

Also, a lot more pubs have a far better attitude towards children than they used to have - maybe it's the old story that "Happy children = Happy parents = return visits"

Kate, have you come across "Titch Hikers' Guide to Bristol"? It has a whole chapter on good places to eat out with kids, not just in Bristol, but surrounding areas too. It's published by the NCT, but most local bookshops seem to have it.

If you're looking for somewhere in the city centre, Browns at the top of Park Street is great - highchairs, colouring pens, varied kids menu - and still manages to feel like a grown-up restaurant too.

I live in south London and we often walk up to Est Est Est on Wandsworth common - big green space to kick a ball and run etc and then down the restaurant for OK food - Italian in style etc. with a couple of kids choices, crayons on every table, balloons, those horrid wooden high chairs that everyone loves! but the atmosphere is great - there are lots of children and families there at the weekends and they have a parking area for your buggies and if your little angel is still asleep - they'll keep an eye on them for you (they don't allow pushchairs in the restaurant bit) Overall an easy place to take children. I would also endorse Smollensky's I have only ever been to the one on the Strand but they were fab.

My one gripe is that in a lot of restaurants their childrens menus do not offer vegetables with their meals and look at you strangely when you ask for them. No wonder our children grow up not wanting veg!!

I know this is a bit basic, but when I am in a city with an Ikea I head there for meals with my two. The changing and breastfeeding facillities are great, they're cheap, they offer alternatives to the ubiquitos rubbish-and-chips and they even have an Island in the middle of the local one (Bristol) complete with microwave, kids cutlery and bottle warmers.
Only one gripe: why do they, like so many places, give kids meals on china plates? My 18 month old got through two when we stopped in a supermarket coffee shop last week!.

Final topic for Tuesday's Radio 5 thing - they want mumsnet members views on kids and restaurants - should they be allowed to run around, should parents even take them to restaurants if they know they won't sit still, should restaurants adapt to be more child-friendly - all that sort of stuff.
I have a fair few views on this one, but wondered if anyone else had thoughts or anecdotes of other diners/waiters being helpful/rude - or took the view that they wouldn't go if their kids couldn't behave. Ta in advance

It strikes me as being dangerous to allow a child to run around when people are ferrying hot drinks and food to tables, not to say annoying for other people. I've always been strict about my children not running around though, luckily, they have always been pretty well behaved when eating out.

It's also much easier nowadays, than when I had my first child, in the 1970s, with the provision of highchairs, special meals and so on. I've found that even if my child hasn't wanted anything from the children's menu there is usually something they will eat, such as a jacket potato or a sandwich. Or many restaurants will serve a small portion of an adult meal, if you ask.

I'm always very insistent that my children sit quietly with us in restaurants; I wish some other parents were equally insistent. There's nothing I hate more than some stray child coming and running around us, or staring at my two - it spoils things for us whilst its parents (who are quite obviously not Mumsnet users!)are presumably enjoying a quiet drink without worrying at all about where their child is - ugh! I'd recommend The California Pizza Company (I don't know if this is national but there are several around Birmingham) which often has "arty crafty" activities supervised by a nanny so that parents can have a drink knowing that their children are safely occupied whilst the pizza is being prepared.

Here, here Star, I love it when there are other children in a restaurant, the kids tend to amuse each other, chatting or playing together which allows BOTH sets of parents a little, very rare time, to talk to one another. Of course if it seems inappropriate, i.e. the other parents have a problem with it, then I would ask my child to leave them alone, but I do think that children's natural inquisitiveness and sociability should be encouraged rather than repressed.

I don't like kids in pubs. They run around all the time. You are trying to have a pint and some kid knocks you which is annoying and dangerous. We have a pub which serves hot pizza in big steaming pans, and there are toddlers toys right next to the eating place which is dangerous. And dare I say it, you do want somewhere quiet when you are out. I don't even like noisy pubs filled with adults!

I agree with Emmgee and Star, children make up a fair portion of our society, so why should they be squirreled away like a shameful secret? We used to live in Spain and go back to visit friends and relatives and the difference in attitude to children is wonderful! I remember Libby Purves in 'How Not To Be A Perfect Mother', saying something about the welcome that Southern Mediterranean countries give children makes you want to weep with relief! Sorry Candy, I'm a Mumsnet user and I let my children talk to other children and people when we're out! And we're enjoying a quiet drink, whilst still keeping a subtle eye on the children. Are non- Mumsnet users of the seen but not heard ilke then? I think not!!!!

Didn't check that! What I should have said was are Mumsnet users of the seen but not heard ilke - oops!

If we go out to our local pub for a meal, we let our little boy roam about, but I (or Daddy, or grandparents) follow along behind him so he doesn't come to any harm or annoy anyone! The pub has a fountain and a couple of giant fish tanks and he loves looking at them! He also loves it when they have a band or musician in playing dinner music and gets up for a dance. I do keep a close eye on whether he's annoying anyone (pre-children I was not at all tolerant of seeing children moving around an eating establishment) but so far all he gets is smiles!

Do you all find you are generally more laid back and tolerant of other people's children now you have children of your own!??!?