Children in restaurants

[21TonyK]

bigandclever said:

Restaurant policy or place-restaurant-is-in policy?

their website said:

Remember that the Marc Fosh Restaurant is located in the Hotel Convent de La Misió, which is “adults only”, so children under 16 are not allowed.

Ahh... that explains it. Didn't realise the hotel was adults only.

Makes sense, thought it was a bit odd to have kids banned from a stand lone restaurant.

[Deep Thought]

21TonyK said:

Been thinking about this the past couple of says as I want to book a specific restaurant when I am away in a week or so. They have availability etc but at the time of booking made a point to ensuring there were no children in our booking, no under 16's allowed in the restaurant.

It was at this point I made the booking provisional as its something that doesn't really sit very comfortably with me.

To be clear, there are no children in our group. The youngest is 52!! But one of the principles behind my own restaurant several years ago was that everyone was welcome. Granted, yes, it would have been a little odd to have a family dining on valentines but I would not have refused the booking, I would make sure they new what menu was on offer leave them to decide if it was appropriate.

Both my kids grew up eating in a wide variety of eateries from local cafes to Michelin-starred places, not as babies but by the age of 3 or 4 they just went everywhere we did without comment or barrier from any restaurant. So to have respected M* place have a no kids policy was a bit of a surprise. After all, you really don't book a restaurant at 200+ euro a head with kids not knowing what you are getting into.

So, am I the odd one out? I don't mean taking young kids to fine dining restaurants but being a bit put off by a restaurant essentially banning children?

I'm all for it and a restaurant doing that would be a big positive for us.

If i wanted to listen to parents indulge their little darlings as they bang the table, run about, cry constantly or watch a tablet on full volume i'll go eat in McDonalds.

[andyA700]

We have been in restaurants in France, Germany, Italy and Austria, where the children are well behaved, so is this a cultural thing in this country?

[21TonyK]

Too a degree I think do. Eating out in g try he UK seems to be more of an occasional thing and seen as something special whereas my experience on the continent is it’s more an everyday thing which always seems to involve the whole family.

[djc206]

21TonyK said:

Too a degree I think do. Eating out in g try he UK seems to be more of an occasional thing and seen as something special whereas my experience on the continent is it’s more an everyday thing which always seems to involve the whole family.

Good point despite autocorrects best effort there!

I think British parents tend to have a more passive style. Of my friends with kids as someone who sees it from the outside and is therefore best placed to notice differences I see those that involve their kids in conversation at the table to be generally have better behaved kids. The friends who have gone down the ‘we’re off to the pub grab his iPad’ route find themselves having to contend with boredom and poor socialisation which breed bad behaviour. None of my friends are bad parents some are just more involved than others and the results speak for themselves.

[Timberwolf]

Genuine question, because I don't know: in the more Mediterranean-style cultures where eating out as a family is more normalised, do they have the same sort of "catering for children's parties" style restaurants with staff in fancy dress, bells ringing and Happy Birthday being sung every 10 minutes, and some sort of Lord of the Flies style situation actively developing around the ball pond?

I do wonder if part of the issue in the UK, other than eating as a family being generally rare and unfamiliar outside the circles of People Who Brunch, is children having so much of their experience skewed toward places where bedlam is encouraged and not being able to differentiate when they go to a "proper" restaurant. Obviously if they have exactly the same type of thing in France, Spain and Portugal that theory would be undermined somewhat.