Children's Menus

[Sharnita]

At Cracker Barrel there is no age limit for the kids menu and the items ate smaller versions of the adult size so I have ordered off the kids' menu a few times.

[Thipu1]

Maybe it's a fluke of the neighborhood but children here seem to be very sophisticated about food. In sushi places, it's not unusual to see 7 or 8 year-olds tucking into an order of chirashi after a Little League game.   

Recently, a quite famous chef opened a restaurant a few blocks away. We haven't eaten there because the menu is odd Asian fusion...pretzel dough pot stickers, anyone?

Still, the place is always packed and there are many of the diners are children. 

A few weeks ago we were out during the brunch hour and saw a family with a girl of about 5 entering the place.  She was skipping merrily along and chanting the name of the restaurant.  Apparently, it was one of her favorite places to eat.

     

[*inviteseller]

My older DD is the adventurous one and will eat anything so the kids menu was very boring for her.  It did bother me once when she about 6 and she was ordering from the regular menu and our waitress said "are you sure honey?  Maybe you should be ordering from the kids menu."  I just looked at her and said "that would be my issue as I am paying for the food, now please just take her order."  Yeah, her tip was not all that great.

[Deetee]

I posted earlier saying that I liked the kids menu because I know that I can get a cheap meal that she likes at a restaurant. I didn't put it in the original post because I didn't think it was required, but the fact that she likes mac and cheese doesn't mean she doesn't like other food or is picky, picky. She eats sushi and mexican and italian and curry and lots of fruit and veggies etc.. because that's what we eat. We went for a 2 hour 12 dish dinner of reasonably authentic Chinese food and she cheerfully ate 11/12 dishes and tried the 12th. But she would have been as happy with mac and cheese.

[Rohanna]

My older DD is the adventurous one and will eat anything so the kids menu was very boring for her.  It did bother me once when she about 6 and she was ordering from the regular menu and our waitress said "are you sure honey?  Maybe you should be ordering from the kids menu."  I just looked at her and said "that would be my issue as I am paying for the food, now please just take her order."  Yeah, her tip was not all that great.

In fairness maybe the waitress was covering herself from a complaint and a demand to have the items removed from the bill if she didn't like it. As log as it was said politely it wouldn't bother me- restaurants often do/try to dock staff checks for discounts and voids so I wouldn't necessarily blame her for clarifying. The Indian place we go to always verifies that new customers know about spice levels in some dishes- that doesn't mean they don't want people to order them.

[dawbs]

I posted earlier saying that I liked the kids menu because I know that I can get a cheap meal that she likes at a restaurant. I didn't put it in the original post because I didn't think it was required, but the fact that she likes mac and cheese doesn't mean she doesn't like other food or is picky, picky. She eats sushi and mexican and italian and curry and lots of fruit and veggies etc.. because that's what we eat. We went for a 2 hour 12 dish dinner of reasonably authentic Chinese food and she cheerfully ate 11/12 dishes and tried the 12th. But she would have been as happy with mac and cheese.

We're not this fortunate (yet) but I like having crappy kids menu food as an option. 

In part because I'm not keen on dropping $15 on food for my child to not eat (I'm annoyed enough at the $4 mac n cheese she didn't eat )  and in part because food is a battle zone in our house (and because of under-weight and nutrition issues, one where "she'll eat if she's hungry enough" isn't an option our pediatrician supports)--I can fight the battle to keep my child quiet and well behaved and eating/tolerating/ignoring familiar food, but if we add ONE more battle to that--like the one of trying to get her to eat something that's unfamiliar or whatever, that's setting us up for failure.
I'll be thrilled to order my kid something that isn't nuggets or mac n cheese from the kid's menu someday, but for today, I'm thrilled that "do you want nuggets or mac n cheese" is a viable option.

[Hmmmmm]

I posted earlier saying that I liked the kids menu because I know that I can get a cheap meal that she likes at a restaurant. I didn't put it in the original post because I didn't think it was required, but the fact that she likes mac and cheese doesn't mean she doesn't like other food or is picky, picky. She eats sushi and mexican and italian and curry and lots of fruit and veggies etc.. because that's what we eat. We went for a 2 hour 12 dish dinner of reasonably authentic Chinese food and she cheerfully ate 11/12 dishes and tried the 12th. But she would have been as happy with mac and cheese.

We're not this fortunate (yet) but I like having crappy kids menu food as an option. 

In part because I'm not keen on dropping $15 on food for my child to not eat (I'm annoyed enough at the $4 mac n cheese she didn't eat )  and in part because food is a battle zone in our house (and because of under-weight and nutrition issues, one where "she'll eat if she's hungry enough" isn't an option our pediatrician supports)--I can fight the battle to keep my child quiet and well behaved and eating/tolerating/ignoring familiar food, but if we add ONE more battle to that--like the one of trying to get her to eat something that's unfamiliar or whatever, that's setting us up for failure.
I'll be thrilled to order my kid something that isn't nuggets or mac n cheese from the kid's menu someday, but for today, I'm thrilled that "do you want nuggets or mac n cheese" is a viable option.

Dawbs explains it perfectly Kids menus are what they are because they feel a need of dining families. An inexpensive option of foods most kids will like. And if the kids decide they don't want to eat it even after ordering, your not wasting a ton of money.

And that's why I'm irritated at parents complaining about the condition of most kid's menus. These parents have the option of ordering from a much more diverse adult menu for their kids. If you don't like the kid's menu at a restaurant go to a different one or order from the adult menu.