Sanity Tips for Eating Out With the Kids

Before children, I ate at a variety of restaurants in town and enjoyed sampling everything from fine dining to quick bites. Meals out with a child can be enjoyable, although usually not completely relaxing, but your restaurant choices are limited somewhat if you want to have a successful meal.

First of all, timing is key in taking a child to a restaurant. Lunch at 2:00 p.m. typically clashes with nap time for younger children and rarely can a little one (or dad) wait until that late for lunch anyways. The 11:00 a.m. hour is best for lunch and 5:00 p.m. hour for dinner. Eating establishments are typically not crowded at these times so you can choose your seat and get quick service. If you go to Cheeseburgers in Paradise (1608 S. Randall Road, Algonquin) early, you can ask for a booth with its own television. Ask the server or bartender to turn on kid’s channel and you’ve just bought yourself a few extra minutes to enjoy your meal.

Some restaurants are considered kid-friendly for a reason. Yes, the claw game may essentially be a child’s version of a slot machine, but $3 and 15 minutes spent at this game is well worth it when you return to your table and your food is there and the whole family can begin eating. Red Robin (444 S. Randall Road) has the claw game as well as gives balloons to the kids. This restaurant is extremely kid-friendly.

Pizza, while easy to agree on and something the entire family enjoys, does pose a problem when dining with kids. Typically, a deep-dish pizza takes 45 minutes to cook once you order it to arrive at your table. Thin-crust is around a half hour. That is way too long to expect a kid to wait to eat. If pizza is what you have a taste for, call and order ahead so your pizza will be at your table soon after you sit down.

One tip that has worked for our family is to not have the server bring our son’s food before ours. Some restaurant servers seem to think this is better since kids can not sit for as long as adults and bringing the kids their food early will keep them satiated. The problem is, once the parents’ meals arrive, the children have now finished eating and want to go, instead of all eating together. Granted, eating together is a relative statement because it usually involves one parent eating with only one hand while feeding, cleaning, wiping, or catching crayons as they roll off the table with other hand.

If you’re child is starving and can not wait until meal arrives to eat, go out for Mexican, as the chips and salsa hit the table when you arrive. (I realize chips and salsa are not a meal, but a few can tide everyone over until dinner comes) On the Border (1512 S. Randall Road) serves great chips and all kid’s meals here come with ice cream to help extend the time at the table, allowing mom and dad to finish their margaritas.

Ultimately, expectations of the meal and the child are what will dictate how well the experience goes. If you expect your child to remain seated and well-behaved at a quiet, two-hour, seven-course meal, you are asking for failure. But if you go at an off time, order quickly, and walk around looking at things in the restaurant while waiting for the food to arrive, everyone can enjoy the pleasure of someone else cooking and doing the dishes.