If Carlsberg made family friendly restaurants...what would you want them to be like?

[rosie79]

I've been disappointed quite a bit at the lack of genuinely family-friendly restaurants and cafes in my city, so have started wondering what would actually make an establishment family friendly in parent's eyes?

There are literally hundreds of cafes and restaurants here, but at the most a few of them offer
a limited unimaginative child's menu (fish fingers, chicken nuggets,pasta chips etc.)
a few sticky high chairs
maybe a peice of paper and some colours
baby-changing facilities
This all seems rather half-hearted, mediocre and boring!
The huge warehouse sized soft-play area has an appaling 'kid's menu' too IMO

Personally I would like a place that :
-Has adequate space somewhere to park/store pushchairs (I don't use one anymore but remember what it was like whn I did)
-A properly thought out child's menu or smaller portions of the main menu with wholesome nutritious meals and variety! Oh and with different portion sizes according to the child's appetite and maybe even baby/toddler meals...
-Children's cutlery
-wet wipes
-stools in the bathroom so they can reach the sink
-a clean well looked after play corner where the children can go while they are waiting for their food or when they have finished and adults are still chatting

I would like all this without having to go somewhere with lots of bright plastic and noise...

what would others like in their dream family-friendly restaurant?

I'd like them to give my kids a lovely balanced dinner and actually make them eat it, take them home and get them ready for bed, give dd her physio, & sort a babysitter out

if they could get them up for school/ nursery in the morning and get a load of nappies on too that would be a bonus; but admittedly not the job of a restaurant

well you did ask

admittedly we had a lovely restaurant that did all the things you mentioned but it closed cos no-one went to it

it was up a hill out of town a bit and no-one seemed to be able to be fagged pushing their buggys a little bit further

Free earplugs for the grown-ups.

What a shame cappuchino!!

Kathy- in my ideal restaurant all the children and babies would be so quiet (anf happily entertained) that there would be no need for ear-plugs!

A fairly traditional Italian restautant would do nicely.

Child-friendly easily-identifiable salads, like carrot sticks, pepper sticks etc and no dressing.

That's it really.

Staff who actually liked children, not tutted at them!

I think a few color sheets and some crayons aren't alot to ask for. There is a restraunt here locally that gives the kids the individual DVD players with screens, but then my DD won't talk to me. Crayons are better.

We have some italian friends, and when their amily comes over from Italy to visit, we often go round for a meal, with our children We don't see the kids from the start of the evening to the end - they are whisked away to sit with the Italian grandparents, who coo and fuss over them delightedly. That's how I'd like a restaurant to be!!

our local one brings out a place mat which is a colouring in picture, plus a pot of pencils with the menu. The children's menu is printed on a balloon. The urinals apparently are fab with ping pong balls and goals. I've never got to see it myself, but never have to nag the boys to do a wee there. Varied menu, mostly child-friendly variations of adult menu. Kids meals always come first.

Yes, all of that, and a place where the staff actually liked children!

I find it quite odd that over here we do generally have kids facilities but the staff don't actually like children and they are not really welcome whereas on the Continent they often don't have child facilities but they love having kids in.

We went to a fantasic little italian in Glasgow, I asked for a childrens menu. No no no they do all the full menu is availible in small portions and half pizzas too. Coming back form the loos I lifted DD up to see the pizza oven (wood burning), the chef gave DD a bit of dough and showed her how to shap it and roll it, passing waitress bought over a chair for DD to stand on. lovely relaxed atmosphere.

I would like places to have a nice clean play corner too, but parents let kids take food in or send them in with manky hands so they never stay clean, can't blame the restrauants for everything.

I'm taking notes her for when I open my fantastic little family freindly cafe, still in dream process ATM , but some day.

I just found it here !!!

Pity it's not even in the same country as me and on the other side of the Island we live on!!

Skribble I too am in the dream stages of actually opening somewhere like this where I live! Oh the things I could do with unlimited money and time....

Entrance fees???? No pics on website. I want a family cafe not a kids cafe .

What was that place called skribble?

I was talking about cafe junior that Rosie did a link for.

I want something veggie on the menu that's too complicated to cook at home - something with beans and lentils, not just pasta with tomato sauce!

And maybe a naughty corner...

Naughty chair for grumpy staff

I wouldnt eat there
as they sponsor
liverpool football club

earnest mentioned that the kids meals came first. Perfect, but would also like it at eating temperature when it got to my DD who is three. She gets upset because things come out scalding and she has to wait while my husband and I look foolish blowing on things.

cafe junior that Skribble linked is great (for kids) but for adults it's not so good, the volume is heinous in there, hundred of other kids.

While we are in dream world can we have a restaurant thats just great for our own kisd, with everyone adoring them, but have no other kids there at all?? Mean aren't I?

We recently went to a restaurant near us in Preston. They had childrens menus which contained toddler and child sized portions of adult meals with free dessert. They also let children design and make their own pizzas if they want plus placemats for colouring in. Also the prices were very reasonable. We really liked the fact that the staff seemed to like kids and there were plenty of other families there too. It was the Olive Press (chop house)in Preston.

The only downside was not big enough changing area in toilet.

Oh and they had a big-ish storage area for pushchairs too...

Weny to a cafe in Newquay that had low chairs and table with books and newpapers. It wasnt until we actually sat down in there that we realised it had small table at chairs for children and childrens books too.

Lovely organic fresh produce and children size portions of anything on the menu. Lovely fresh smoothies as well.

Cant remember what it was called though.

Generally speaking I find Italians are the best at catering for children without actually having anything specifically for children iyswim.

Local one near us, are always very happy to see DS. They bring various bit of entertainment from a wooden spoon when he was a baby to pizza dough and sparklers in his ice cream now. So no special 'kids' facilities but we are actually welcome and that makes a huge difference.

was it pippas in newquay?