Kids' Menus

[DanM]

Now that my daughter is about 1.5 years old, we are ordering food for her at the restaurant rather than feeding her off our plate. We often look at the kids menu and find the same stuff everywhere... hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets, and mac and cheese. Granted, sometimes kids can be picky to darn right stubborn, but why don't restaurants offer interesting meals for kids?

One great example is the Jolly Pumpkin in Ann Arbor. You can get anything on the regular menu in a smaller portion for your kid. An Indian restaurant near me offers small idli and clarified butter as a kids option.

What do you think about this. Do you think that restaurants are not catering to kids as much as they should? Don't kids have an influence on where the family goes for meals? Should unique menu options be offered to kids to provide them with new experiences?

[nikkib]

AS someone wgho admittedly doesnt have kids and has yet been subjected to fussy eaters and i'm sure the temptation to give in, keep the peace and let them eat whatever they want, Kids menus freak me out in general. Adults order themselves a well balenced meal and then go for fried rubbish for the people who need nutriuents most, usually with no vegetables - French fries do not count.... In the Uk kids menus consist generally of a mini burger and fries, fish fingers and fries, chicken nuggets and fries and maybe a pasta/tomato sauce dish. I saw this menu when i was in Norfolk recently and this impressed me - much better than the usual nonsense but still recognisable to all, a healthy, balenced alternative http://www.whitehorsebrancaster.co.uk/Photos/TWH%20Sandwiches%20&%20Kids%20menu.pdf

[gfweb]

Give the little animals whatever it takes to keep them quiet.

[Mjx]

I have a hunch that many restaurants aren't that enthusiastic about having children about, so the kids' menu is a distinct (and possibly intentionally discouraging) afterthought.

[Florida]

First of all, I disagree with MJX. Any restaurant trying to dissuade children from coming would simply not offer a separate children's menu. Why would a restaurant incur the costs of a separate menu and separate ingredients, as well as a lower profit margin, if they were trying to get people to not bring their kids.

-Granted, sometimes kids can be picky to darn right stubborn, but why don't restaurants offer interesting meals for kids?

Restaurants offer what people want. The kid's menus contain familiar items because that is what people are requesting. I can only imagine any restaurant not offering chicken fingers gets asked “don’t you guys just have some chicken fingers?” on a regular basis.

-Do you think that restaurants are not catering to kids as much as they should?

Or course restaurants are catering to kids. That's why they have the shitty menus. Children tend to be xenophobic. A restaurant alone is already an environment that is unfamiliar. Offering unfamiliar foods is not going to help the situation.

-Don't kids have an influence on where the family goes for meals?

Yes, but most people feed themselves shitty food in the first place, so why wouldn't they give their kids the same

shitty food they eat themselves.

-Should unique menu options be offered to kids to provide them with new experiences?

Yes, that would be nice, though I could ask "Why doesn't the local Applebee's offer La Roja or Weizen Bam on tap to provide their customers with a new beer drinking experience?" It just isn't going to happen. Personally, I wish kid's menus offered more, but I also understand kid's menus are a type of service being offered by the restaurant in the first place. If you don't like what is on the kid's menu, I'm sure your child is free to order off of the regular menu.

[Mjx]

First of all, I disagree with MJX. . .

It was only a subjective notion, based on a vague hunch, nothing there to disagree about

-Granted, sometimes kids can be picky to darn right stubborn, but why don't restaurants offer interesting meals for kids?

Restaurants offer what people want. The kid's menus contain familiar items because that is what people are requesting. I can only imagine any restaurant not offering chicken fingers gets asked “don’t you guys just have some chicken fingers?” on a regular basis.

-Do you think that restaurants are not catering to kids as much as they should?

Or course restaurants are catering to kids. That's why they have the shitty menus. Children tend to be xenophobic. A restaurant alone is already an environment that is unfamiliar. Offering unfamiliar foods is not going to help the situation.

-Don't kids have an influence on where the family goes for meals?

Yes, but most people feed themselves shitty food in the first place, so why wouldn't they give their kids the same

shitty food they eat themselves.

-Should unique menu options be offered to kids to provide them with new experiences?

Yes, that would be nice, though I could ask "Why doesn't the local Applebee's offer La Roja or Weizen Bam on tap to provide their customers with a new beer drinking experience?" It just isn't going to happen. Personally, I wish kid's menus offered more, but I also understand kid's menus are a type of service being offered by the restaurant in the first place. If you don't like what is on the kid's menu, I'm sure your child is free to order off of the regular menu.

For the rest, you may well be right, although I'm not sure how xenophobia fits into the picture ('neophobia', on the other hand, does apply).

[Dakki]

Kids' palates differ from adults', and a lot of the things that appeal to "foodies" are acquired tastes that don't apply to the general population anyway, so don't expect the zucchini blossom salad with goat cheese and a raspberry vinaigrette to be a big hit on the kids' menu.

As an aside, I can see the healthy foods thing being a big problem if you eat out three nights a week, but when I was growing up restaurant meals were special occasions when you could eat what you like instead of what mother wants you to eat, and I don't think I suffered much for it.

[annabelle]

Give the little animals whatever it takes to keep them quiet.

Exactly. If you have a child who won't eat anything but bacon or grilled cheese sandwiches for months on end, give them bacon or grilled cheese and eat your own meal in peace. They'll come around eventually.

[ScoopKW]

If you have a child who won't eat anything but bacon or grilled cheese sandwiches for months on end, give them bacon or grilled cheese and eat your own meal in peace. They'll come around eventually.

Not necessarily. As mentioned in an earlier thread, I know an adult who to this day only eats PB&J, chicken fingers, pizza and hamburgers.

(And he weighs less than me, and I bicycle regularly and eat healthy food that I prepare myself. Go figure.)

[Florida]

For the rest, you may well be right, although I'm not sure how xenophobia fits into the picture ('neophobia', on the other hand, does apply).

I've always considered xenophobia as fear of soemthing foreign, but I'd certainly agree that neophobia is porbably the more appropriate phobia.

[Genkinaonna]

I generally (and I tip well and am super polite and my kids are super polite too, at least at restaurants) have the kids look at the regular menu and then split an entree for the two oldest to share. Then they have more to choose from. Occasionally I ask for the sauce (if there is one) on the side, since my kiddos do like to know what they're eating, they don't want it covered up by sauce. At most of the places we go, they offer sandwiches as an option, which are a good choice for kids, being easily take-apartable to remove any offending ingredients contained inside. Plus there's usually some lettuce or other greenery snuck in there, and generally nothing's fried...

One of the places we go pretty often, the girls (three and five) split steak frites medium rare drenched in garlic parsley butter. Once they had some of mine I couldn't get them to even LOOK at the kid's menu anymore.

[annabelle]

@ScoopKW

That's always possible, of course. I think your friend is two standard deviations from the norm, however. My boys were extremely picky as toddlers, but will eat nearly anything today. Once they could sit at table in a chair, not a high chair, they got whatever we were eating and learned to eat or go without. In fact, they are a little on the food snob order today. I wonder where they got that from?

Edited July 14, 2011 by annabelle (log)

[Genkinaonna]

As for the original questions,

Do you think that restaurants are not catering to kids as much as they should?

I feel like restaurants should know their clientele. If the restaurant is more of a fine dining concept, I don't think they necessarily need to cater to children. But then again, I think too many people go out of their way to cater to their little ones' every whim, which doesn't generally make for very nice children in the long run. However, if a restaurant wants to be considered "kid-friendly" ie good highchairs, higher ambient noise level, the menu should at least offer some options that parents can choose from that may contain items familiar to children, or they won't get a ton of repeat business. Not so much fried, as basic type stuff, and maybe a mix and match option, like choose three items for a set price.

Don't kids have an influence on where the family goes for meals?

My kids definitely have an influence on where we go for meals, just as my husband and I do, they have favorites. But we don't eat fast food, so their favorites and mine coincide a lot more than most families, I think.

Should unique menu options be offered to kids to provide them with new experiences?

Again, it comes down to knowing your clientele. If you have a certain concept for your menu, like maybe it's a seasonal french restaurant, it wouldn't make sense to have the kid's menu be all american stuff, maybe something more like what kids might eat in France, nutella on bread, ham/butter on a baguette, etc. The other option would be to have a line on the menu along the lines of, "we will happily make a half-sized portion of starred menu items for $5 less (or whatever reduction fits the prices) in lieu of a childrens menu."

Clearly, this wouldn't work at a place that has elaborately plated entrees and lots of components to each dish. But those wouldn't necessarily be places I'd take my children anyways.

[SylviaLovegren]

There's nothing wrong with restaurants offering bland, familiar food in small quantities for the kids who are picky. But usually those choices are bad food, high in fat and salt and empty calories and prepared with the cheapest ingredients in a not particularly caring way. It's trash fast food and the restaurants are training kids to accept that. Some kids will only eat a few things (I know one teenager -- whose parents are both fantastic, creative cooks -- who will only eat a certain type of hamburger, plain pizza and certain hotdogs, won't eat fruit or vegetables at all and who is slim and seems healthy), but lots of kids will try all kinds of things. Our own son loved sushi, octopus, squid, curries, pate, pesto, artichokes and pretty much everything else by the time he was 4 or 5, unless it came with a cream sauce or melted cheese, which he detested (no mac 'n' cheese for him!). French restaurants generally don't have crappy kid food -- they expect the children to educate their palates by eating good food and I like that idea.

Also, turn down that radio and get off my lawn!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Here, the "kid's menu" is just a smaller portion from the adult one. I have yet to meet a picky Ecuadorian child.

[Kouign Aman]

Because sometimes we really do just need them to eat. Anything.

Its not even a matter of whether your kid normally eats well or not. Many kids are not adventurous about food (many adults are not adventurous about food). At the end of a long tiring day full of other people's demands & constant grownup-style good behavior (aka a child's normal life on vacation), let 'em eat.

Granted, I usually scan the adult menu for options before we look at the kid's menu, but when my spinachloving sashimieating munchkin walks in the door of the restaurant proclaiming "I want a hamburger", its probably going to be a hamburger night.

I've noticed I too do a kind of 'kids menu' when other kids, especially ones I dont know well, are at the house. Again, the goal is to get them to eat a meal. I will serve what I know they will eat, rather than send them back home cranky and hungry and overwrought because the only option was eggplant parmesan. We do a lot of grilled cheese and tomato soup.

[annabelle]

As for the quality of the food on most children's menu, I can't get excited about that, either. We very seldom ate out when the children were small because we were broke. When we did, it was really exciting to just BE at the restaurant to them. Most of the time, they ate all the bread in the basket, drank forbidden soda-pop and people watched. If they ate anything else: great. If not: no harm, no foul.

[Kouign Aman]

a place that has elaborately plated entrees and lots of components to each dish

And yet, of unfamiliar foods, that sort of presentation would have the best shot of being eaten by a child. They can pick out the bits they like and dont like. Its mini-tiny bits ("my" size!). Its like playing with your food.

[David A. Goldfarb]

1.5 was a good time. Melchi would eat anything and liked to sit in a restaurant. Around 3 he wanted to walk around and explore more, so we stopped doing restaurants for a while. At 4.5 he's going through a picky phase, sometimes eats things from the kids menu, sometimes off our plates, sometimes something else, other times he isn't in the mood to be out. We go with the flow, don't take him out if he seems tired or cranky, and try to make it work.

I don't think any generalizations can be made about kids and the menus offered to them.

[Genkinaonna]

a place that has elaborately plated entrees and lots of components to each dish

And yet, of unfamiliar foods, that sort of presentation would have the best shot of being eaten by a child. They can pick out the bits they like and dont like. Its mini-tiny bits ("my" size!). Its like playing with your food.

You're right, lots of little bits are appealing, I meant more that if the kitchen is taking time to do super elaborate platings with lots of components I'm not going to be a PITA and ask for something in a half portion. I'd just order the whole thing and call half of it breakfast the next day .

[heidih]

Are there often Kid Menus in restaurants that are not casual dining? I have only seen as described the chicken nuggets, spaghetti, mini burger thing along with crayons and a placemat to color on. These are food that can be tossed in the fryer or defrosted for the single order I imagine. If the option is cheap we often ordered something like the nuggets as a "fail safe" and just shared from our plates to round out the child's eating experience if the interest was there. Usually we asked for an extra small clean plate. I think to expect much more would be cumbersome and not cost effective from either the customer or restaurant stand point. Children can be fickle. If there was a more varied menu it might add to prep and generate potential or probable waste. Letting them taste from your plate is the best exposure with the least cost impact on either end I think. I am talking about young children here. I doubt the pre teens or teens are ordering off any kid menu.

[Kouign Aman]

At the more expensive places, there's usually been an offer to make some kind of pasta dish, rather than a standardized kid's menu, in my experience, heidih.

I turn that down ,because if she wont eat something prepared specially, that's a real drag. At least if she doesnt eat what's ordered off the menu, there was no special fuss involved.

G - what a fabulous breakfast that would be!

We're dragging the munchkin up to your corner of the world in a couple days. I took notes off your blog, but it wont be a food oriented trip, so may have no control of where we eat. Still, I can hope.

Edited July 17, 2011 by Kouign Aman (log)

[DanM]

Are there often Kid Menus in restaurants that are not casual dining?

Here is another example of a kids menu from Zingerman's roadhouse in Ann Arbor, MI. We almost stopped here, but chose Jolly Pumpkin instead. The chef, Alex Young, just won a James Beard award for best chef of the Great Lakes region. Again, I have not dined here, but I think it is a bit nicer than casual dining.

http://www.zingermansroadhouse.com/display/images/pdf/kidsmenu.pdf

Its the typical fare for kids menus, but with slightly better ingredients.

ETA... We were at Bouchon in Beverly Hills last Cecember while traveling for a wedding. If my daughter did not sleep through breakfast in her stroller, they had high chairs and I am sure a couple of menu options for her to choose from.

Edited July 17, 2011 by DanM (log)

[TeakettleSlim]

I have a 1.5 year-old, too, who so far enjoys many varied foods and who I'd just as soon keep on that track as much as possible. I understand why they need to offer certain bland items for the many picky eaters out there, but why not ALSO offer a couple of healthy, child-sized versions of some adult mains? After all, they already have everything on hand for those. The kids' menu mac and cheese in particular makes me weep-- it isn't hard to whip up and freeze a simple mac and cheese using real cheese, but in most restaurants it's the powered nasty stuff. So I just make my own and bring it with us, which will work for the foreseeable future. If they want to sell me theirs, they can trying making an edible version. Until then, we're brown-bagging it.

[Andrew Fenton]

Because sometimes we really do just need them to eat. Anything.

Exactly. I'm not going to worry too much about the healthfulness of a restaurant meal, because restaurant meals aren't usually healthy, period. If I wanted to make sure that the kids got a balanced serving of vegetables, whole grains, etc., we'd be eating at home.

I don't have a problem with the kids having chicken nuggets and french fries for dinner as a treat when we're out at a restaurant; we'll make up for it the next night. If they'll try some of our food, so much the better. But if that treat will keep them happy, fed, quiet, and inclined to let me, mom, and the rest of the restaurant enjoy our meals, well, mission accomplished.