Food and Drink

Practicalities Getting Organised Food and Drink Choosing a Restaurant 

If you can visit a restaurant before deciding to eat there. This will enable you to check out the style and general facilities.

Avoid:

• Places which only allow 'well-behaved children'. However angelic yours are, this will be the day for them to act up.



• Places with lots of frills and furbelows. A tugged table cloth, accidentally or on purpose, can result in the entire contents of the table ending up on the floor/over your child.



• Sitting in front of a basket of bread which, in addition to any nibbles provided with a drink, are liable to be consumed in preference to the more nourishing - and expensive - food which is due shortly.

Look for:

• Places with a children's menu. Even if you don't like or use it, its existence is a message of good intent.



• Places with high ceilings and plenty of padding which will absorb noise. (Babies between 4 and 8 months are particularly likely to be testing their vocal cords).



• Places to eat out of doors. This means noise is much less of a problem and there is often running around space where children can let off steam while waiting for the food to arrive and adults to finish. As long as the weather is good they can also do drawings, play with pebbles etc.



• Places with high chairs. Note though that these come in a variety of different styles. Many are simply a chair without an attached table. This can be difficult if you have a child who grabs everything within arm's reach. If the chair does have a table you might like to take along a wet or disinfectant wipe to clean it down before use. If there is not even a guard rail the waiters may be willing to tie napkins for the purpose but it will not prevent the child from limbo-ing under this if he or she so wishes.

Other Pointers

• Consider taking your own booster seat, clip on seat or one of the fabric restraints. Note that the safety of any of these is variously reliant on how tightly you can secure them to the chair or table and whether the chair or table is stable enough to hold the weight/wriggling of the child concerned. Check this before getting settled. [Suppliers]



• If you are new to eating out as a family, do so at lunchtime when children will not be quite as tired and even serious restaurants are more relaxed and less busy.



• If the evening is what will suit, think about insisting on an afternoon nap.



• Unless you are happy about substituting bread, think about providing a snack shortly before going for the meal to avoid spiralling hunger in waiting children if the restaurant will be busy.
  
  
• ‘Ethnic' restaurants are almost always a good bet with children including Indian, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Turkish, Lebanese and African, unless they are very smart/fashionable.
  
  
• Given that service is the key in very expensive restaurants, they should be able to help families just as much as anyone else - but phone first to check and you may well find that evenings are out of bounds.
  
  
• A reservation can be helpful, if only to check on attitudes to children. If you use a buggy you might like to check in advance whether this will be allowed in the restaurant at the table. This is less likely in the more cramped but characterful spots.
  
  
• Make it clear from your arrival that you would like your child/children to be served swiftly and that you are happy to wait to be seated until the food is ready.

Keeping Children at the Table

• Introduce the concept of restaurants as early as possible in a child-friendly environment (like a Pizza Express in the UK) so that the idea of sitting at a table until food comes is not an alien one. Always ask to be served as quickly as possible.



• In the US you can phone ahead to order before arriving so that you know the food will appear immediately. This seems unlikely to work other than in North America.



• Aim to eat before peak times so the kitchen can process your order faster, the staff are likely to be more attentive, and your children are less likely to irritate co-diners.



• Take something to entertain children while they are waiting. Pencils and a colouring book or a small portable game which isn't likely to end up too riotous [Wanted on Voyage]. Books are great, though a bit anti-social, if the children are old enough to read them themselves or you aren't going to be embarrassed at reading out loud. Best of all teach your children to play card games; a pack of cards is easy to take anywhere and even 4-year-olds can manage snap or Uno. Restaurants with open kitchens, aquaria or live music are more interesting and cooking at the table can be exciting (and dangerous).



• Take a portable high chair to keep babies and toddlers comfortable and corralled. Options include the wooden, folding Handysitt, a fabric ‘seat' which attaches to dining chairs but would require a cushion under to get the child closer to table height, and clip-on seats which are dependent on the stability of the table and the security of the screw fixings to hold it into place. Best used only with a standard chair underneath for safety. [Suppliers].