Real menus for children - campaign?

[fuzzpig]

Following this thread it seems parents may like the idea of persuading restaurants to change their children's menus to be more in line with the adult ones.

Some places still seem to offer little more than nuggets/fish fingers etc, which only serves to encourage the idea that children don't want 'real food'.

It would be great if more places were openly willing to do a children's portion of any adult meal for a smaller price (apparently some places do this but I've never seen it advertised), for example. It was mentioned on the above thread and some posters seemed in favour of the idea, so here I am :o

Well, then, perhaps it is worthwhile? If it gets enough adults in to pay for it, then it's worth doing. I mean, perhaps it's worth doing here, too.

Stealth, the point is, sometimes that isn't an easy thing to find. And voting with your feet means that quite a lot of widely available chains aren't places you can go with your children if you feel strongly about this/don't want to feed them the crap they serve. Why can't they just take as much care with children's meals as adults' ones?

I don't mean to be a grump but I've just never eaten somewhere where they don't do a small portion of an adult main for children as a matter of course or where they won't if you ask. The only exceptions are chain restaurants/pubs where the food is all pretty awful anyway for both adults and children.

Havent rtft
I agree op.
Even expensive wedding venues can be woeful when it comes to the childrens' menu choices.

Maybe most children go for half of the 16 or 20 euro meal (it is probably less likely to be fancy, though honestly all the meals are good quality and use very good meat etc). At those prices, perhaps half the 16 euro meal represents a small profit, and half the 20 euro meal represents cost price? And most kids might not choose the more expensive and fancy option of the 24 euro menu. Not sure. I am going to watch like a hawk next time I go and see what people are choosing.

Living as I do in the middle of nowhere, I find it hard to believe that there are many places in the UK where you can't find somewhere that does decent food for children. Including some chains. Jamie's children's food is fine, so is ask, so is pizza express as long as there are no dietary limitations. If parents stopped going to the ones that only serve crap for DC, they would improve their children's menus. Job done.

goodasitgets I know that pub quite well. Haven't been with the children last went a few years ago. Shall go next time am over.

I don't tend to think of voting with my feet as very effective TBH. In some towns there aren't many options besides chains (that's a whole other thread I guess!).

And as I've said, I'm not totally against the food they do now, I'm happy to take my DCs anywhere and let them choose what they want, they enjoy it - but no harm encouraging restaurants to increase choice for children, IMO.

"Well, then, perhaps it is worthwhile? If it gets enough adults in to pay for it, then it's worth doing. I mean, perhaps it's worth doing here, too."

Mmm. I'm not sure the dynamics of family meals out are the same in france and the uk.

In France and Germany I have often ordered small portions for the children, even though there's none offered on the menu. I sometimes order them a main to share and have never had problems getting extra plates and cutlery etc. there have even been occasions when the staff have made off menu suggestions or done mini tasting menus for the kids (they are toddlers).

Where there are children's menus they are often the same sort of thing you find in uk children's menus. Which are hit and miss with mine.

I've also got a main for the kids to share, or got, say, a main and garlic bread for me and one child to share.

As a parent, I have stopped going to the chains that don't serve nice food for children. They are still serving the same crap. I realise that many children are happy with sweet slop but is this something we should encourage? Or should we perhaps let them know that that is why some people don't want to eat there? I mean, I'm in London. There are tons of options for us. Tons. Of the ones near me, Carluccio's and Wagamama are literally the only places where I consider the adult food and children's food to be of the same quality. Pizza Express is OK but we have often been served genuinely vile salads there - very old cucumber and pepper with a dry surface on it so you can see it's been sitting there for ages. They don't serve that to adults. Why can't they cut up the cucumber fresh for children too, so that they will actually eat it? I wouldn't eat cucumber like that. It's not nice to eat! Yes, I mention it. No, things haven't improved. We don't go there often but it's always the same.

The difference between sausage and chips (or similar non-challenging meals) in France compared to sausage and chips in somewhere in the UK can often be quite amazing, though. French: proper sausage, mostly meat rather than filler, fried so it is brown and crisped up a bit on the skin, good chips, salad on the side. UK: microwaved previously cooked bread-based sausage shoved under the grill to brown a bit, flabby chips, no veg bar perhaps some tinned beans. In both cases I am talking about a low-priced supermarket caff meal, nothing fancy.

...no idea how one goes about encouraging them though. Hence starting this thread. Also because somebody on the other thread told me to.

Maybe 'campaign' means different things to different people. I didn't mean something all guns blazing and I didn't mean it was some huge vitally important thing that should have everyone up in arms. It was just a lighthearted, small suggestion.

I'm now doing my amazingly pathetic and embarrassing thing of over-investing in MN and getting a bit upset because I've handled this all wrong (nobody's fault - I have numerous issues) - this is why I don't normally a wimp and don't start threads that can get such widely differing opinions - so I'm off for a bit

I don't think you handled it wrong. There are people who disagree; that doesn't mean it is your fault!

I think it's a good idea OP.

FinDeSemaine I agree the quality is generally better here.

Typo - I meant "I am normally a wimp"

Thanks fin :) I meant the way I worded it, I forget people don't necessarily read things in the same way as me, so I should've made it clear I meant it lightheartedly. IYSWIM.

And now I really am going

Fuzz, hope I haven't upset you!

I know more than i would ideally like to about failed restaurants!

I think it is the quality I mind, more than the content. DD is perfectly happy to eat sausage and chips, or pizza, or pasta, if it's nice, and I am happy for her to have that if that's what she wants. I don't want to have to coax her to eat slices of flabby horrible pale microwaved sausage and pay for the privilege (when I could and do cook nicer sausages at home and cook them better for less money) and I don't want to pay for a child's meal and find it to be low quality, tasting horrible and not worth the paltry six quid. Which I agree isn't that much to pay for a meal. But it's a lot to pay for something that is much less nice than the same meal you would serve at home. Sorry, does that make sense a bit? If I go out for a meal, I expect it to be of the same or higher quality compared to what I serve at home (we are not precious, we love takeaways, onion rings, chips and pizza as much as the next person) and to be an enjoyable experience for everyone, yes, even the child. I just expect the cook to have taken as much care over the child's meal as the adults' meals. That's what this boils down to for me. And if children were ordering off the adult menu, the chef would probably have a pre-ordained flight plan to follow and dish up something nicer, IMO.

I'm truly sorry if I upset you fuzzpig - really wasn't my intention. And I do agree that everywhere should do adult meals for a smaller price - I didn't realise they didn't!

If we take the kids for meals out nowadays we tend to go for specific cuisines, either Chinese, Indian, Greek or Italian. It's easier to get a mixture and all share or a banquet/mezze so the quality is better and they tend to be smaller family businesses that are more welcoming of children.

We haven't had this issue, always found the places we eat have half decent menus for kids or they are happy to give you a smaller portion. Maybe it's a regional thing?

I've never heard of 90% of the restaurants mentioned on this thread never mind eating in them. Not sure why people keep bringing up pizza for kids either, I know quite a few kids in our circle of friends won't touch them.

Bill/Odd it's really ok but thanks it was all me being daft, honestly. Sometimes I think I'm not cut out for this MNing lark :o

I think it really depends what restaurants you have around, we pretty much just have chains here - PE, TGIF etc - whereas my hometown still has a decent amount of independents - though now I think about it I should make more effort to seek out independent places here (though round here they never seem to last long :() and will do that in future. We tend to stick to where we know especially due to DH having coeliac. Been to too many places when on holiday/in different towns, with parents etc only to find out they haven't a clue what gluten is - sadly, chains tend to be 'safer' in that respect.

Glad you are ok.

"though round here they never seem to last long"

Yes, it's a tough business.

I fond the attitude of waiting staff really off putting.

Last autumn, my brother got married and the night before we had a big family meal, all ordered in advance.

The waiter categorically refused to believe that my then-9 year old dd2 had ordered mussels. Of course she had! One of the highlights of our trips to NW Scotland is her plucking them from the shore and eating them an hour later.

She got her mussels.

And then there was the issue of her medium-rare steak........

She got that too!

(Dd1 and ds aren't quite so adventurous!)

Last summer we went to Italy (Sorrento and Rome). No kids menus but half portions everywhere if asked, no if a dc asked for olives, or pesto, or clams, or prawns. My dd2 was interested in the deep fried mini octopus being served at another table one night - the waiter noticed and they brought her a small bowl to try - no charge! Funny enough, when ds was 8 months and dd2 not born, we were also in Italy and the wee octopus were his favourite, after a similar free trial! Can't think that restaurants in the uk would mainly be happy serving that to a 8-9 month old!!

But then we were also able to cater to (fussy) 14yo dd1. Margarita pizza, salad, garlic bread, bruschetta and pasta arrabiata were available everywhere. She ate shedloads more veg there!

Hello - obviously lots of interest here. It may not be a fully-fledged MN campaign but we'll have a think about what we could do to draw attention to it; thanks for raising it.