Where do you take your children for lunch?

[morningpaper]

When I had just the one child, we had lots of lovely lunches-for-two in nice cafes and she was predictably and suitably behaved at all times.

Now I have the toddler PLUS the baby (who is nearly 1) lunchtimes in public are a bit of a managerial nightmare - the baby is not as predictable and if anyone needs a wee then it's IMPOSSIBLE to manage.

I mainly stick to Wetherspoons because it's noisy and so I stress less.

Where do you take 2 small children for lunch?

I ALSO regularly go to my local garden centre - mainly because it is open, so I can sit them at a table and then get food - and the food is GREAT, lovely and fresh.

We sit on a bench overlooking the sea with something healthyish from bakery

Pizza express, any italian resturant without a table cloth, wagamamas and the odd chinese, sometimes the harvester. ave been doing this since babies, you just have to bite the bullet and ge on with it and not worry about other diners, eventually they get the idea

Beefeater - ds1 LOVES the yorkshire pudding kids meal, the menus are really good for kids and the whole place is pretty kid friendly.

Wetherspoons, Brewers Fayre...anywhere there are likely to be children with worse behaviour than mine, also anywhere with outdoor running around space.

Very difficult for us, as my dds have varying food allergies and so have to ask for ingredients lists before ordering.

"anywhere there are likely to be children with worse behaviour than mine"

hahaha yes that is a very good criteria

M&S Cafe. Mine is lovely and light with huge windows overlooking the street, which dses love. Shame the childrens' lunchboxes are so rubbish though - who would have thought that the vegetarian option would be a jam sandwich!

Any where as long as they've got high chairs, frankly. Our criteria for a good meal out have also changed drastically since having kids.

Harvester restaurants. You can have a salad while waiting for dinner (so children are occupied eating). I usually also take a little bag of "goodies" like colouring pens, pencils, 1 or 2 magazines in case of boring moments although our local Harvester provided colouring things last time we were there.

Yes M&S offer such awful food I don't bother with them anymore - it's always over-priced and absolute rubbish

jam sandwich - terrible isn't it

mostly sandwiches in the park/ open air cafes when they were that age.

Now, at 3 and 6 they go anywhere we want to go with them. But their favourites are wagamama, pizza express and terre a terre (well known brighton veggie place).

Pizza Express

M&S cafe - but we've never bought the kids' meals. We've always just bought ordinary sandwiches and drinks and the children have been happy with those.

Our local garden centre - really nice, home-cooked food and nice environment.

I hate 'family pubs' with a vengeance.

Just wherever I feel like it really and sometimes it has been stressful - Ikea cafe on a Saturday with a 5yo and a 1yo. The problem with Ikea was getting them non-fizzy drinks from the main bit. So I got them juice from the sandwich bar first and then queued up for hours with them both in the main bit. Just as we were about to get served DD dropped her glass bottle of cranberry juice and it broke. She burst into tears and we were stood in a pool of sticky juice and broken glass. Nightmare. The staff got me another juice and served me and it all improved from there.

I take them to various "family" pubs although I am going off them. These would usually be with DH/my sister or whatever.

If I am on my own with them I will take them in BHS cafe, or to Greggs or to the garden centre cafe. I am more put off by the expense than anything else TBH.

Our Sainsburys has a nice cafe, does lovely brunchy things and jacket potatoes.

local tea shops full of indulgent grannies
we were on a permanent picnic over the summer
on a bench by the beach
local child friendly pub
local child friendly italian restaurant (staffed by Real Italians who pinch the dds cheeks, the dds suffer this in a polite, British way )

if we 'go up to town'
wagamamas
nandos
anywhere really

I used to take my 2 to Debenhams as our local store is very child friendly. (dh hates it though) We take them to a local independent cafe (although it is quite expensive), M&S cafe,

pizza express, M&S cafe (agree tho about veggie sarnie - wot's wrong with cheese?), local lovely organic deli cafe....erm...swim pool cafe....picnic...don?t get the chance to eat out with them that much.
Oh yes sainsbo's cafe a good bribe for a shoppign trip!
hey are 7, 5 and 3 tho so a bit easier to deal with (sometimes)

our m&s does cheese or chicken sandwiches none of this jam stuff!!! but agree ds hardly eats anything from it.

Waitrose Cafe, John Lewis Cafe. Whilst on holiday I was also very impressed with the childrens selection at the Refectory Cafe at the cathedral in Cod's home city.