Hints for Eating at Restaurants with your Children

Planning Ahead and Strategic tips:

Have an exit strategy, you can always get food to go and leave

Go early, for better service, avoid waiting for a table

Choose family restaurants

Choose noisy restaurants

Choose restaurants where children can be entertained: ceiling fans, fire places, fish tanks, open kitchen, other babies

After ordering, take children for a walk around the restaurant or outside

Make reservations if possible

Order appetizer as child’s meal

Share your meal with a child (don’t need to order “kid’s meal”), ask for an extra plate

 

How to Eat YOUR Food While it is still Hot

Take turns eating with other adults

Have your meal brought later or earlier

Have you Child’s meal brought earlier

Make sure your child is hungry, give only small amounts of snacks before the food arrives

 

What to bring:

Portable high chair

(Upside-down wooden restaurant high chairs will hold a car seat) “Floppy” which fits over high chair and shopping cart

Sippy cup

Toys (on rings)

Small snacks to eat before food arrives or if child finishes first

Disposable or reusable mat for table

Bib

Wipes

 

Safety

Move most items out of child’s reach as before child sits down

Don’t put a tray down within child’s reach

Check food temperature, may be too hot

Check for hot plates, especially in Mexican restaurants

Cleanliness of table tops, highchairs and floor

Stability of restaurant high chair

 

How to Deal with the Mess

Pick up after your child

Tip more, don’t forget the bus person who is likely to do most of the cleaning

Use a bib with a catch pocket at the bottom

If available, ask for a paper drop cloth