Many restaurants are catering to families more than ever before. It’s not hard to find restaurants with playgrounds, kids’ menus, and high chairs.
With the number of restaurant options today, family-friendly options are getting more popular each day as they’re great for families. But before you decide on a fun family restaurant to get a bite to eat it’s best to know the pros and cons of family-friendly restaurants first. Here are the pros and cons of family-friendly restaurants.
Pros Of Family-Friendly Restaurant
Knowing the pros of a family restaurant can help motivate you to dine in this kind of business venture. This way, you can see all of its benefits and enjoy every piece of them. With that, below are some advantages of a family-friendly restaurant:
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Kids Menus Are Available
If you’ve ever dined with young kids then you can understand how frustrating it is to order a meal that they don’t eat because the menu isn’t kid-friendly or how frustrating it is when a kid’s meal is served on a porcelain plate. I once ordered my 1-year-old a meal in a restaurant that was served on a porcelain plate. You can understand how annoying this must be for parents. Not bonly is it a waste of money but might also result in unfulfilled and hungry children.
At a family-friendly restaurant, you can order kids’ meals for your children so they’ll have something to enjoy. Then you won’t need to worry about having a hungry, grumpy child and also won’t have to worry about bringing your own snacks along to the restaurant.
In most cases, kid’smeals are very basic and suit most kids’ tastebuds. They are usually much cheaper than adult meals, the portion sizes are kid-friendly and sometimes they even come with a free drink or free dessert!
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Provides A Kid-Friendly Atmosphere
Not every child is comfortable if you put them in a place where everything’s too plain and dark. To help your child feel at ease whenever you plan to dine with them, bringing them to an area with a kid-friendly atmosphere would help.
A kid-friendly restaurant tries to make the entire place light, airy, and comfortable, especially for your children. It’ll usually include bright colours, they may even offer children crayons to draw on while they wait for their food. Some restaurants even go above and beyond and will have a playground on-site at the restaurant. This helps stop your kids from getting bored and causing a scene.
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They Have Plenty Of High Chairs
Most restaurants can only provide a maximum of two high chairs to accommodate children visiting the restaurant. But if you’re bringing more than two kids or the high chairs are already in use you might find it difficult to look for a place to sit your children, especially if they tend to run around the area. Luckily, a kid-friendly restaurant can provide plenty of high chairs to accommodate their guests’ needs. This will save you from having to bring in your pram so that your kid has a place to sit.
Alternatively, some restaurants can only offer booster seats to save on space but still give your child the comfortability of dining at the same table. While it might have a different setup, this will still be beneficial for most families.
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Keeps Children Entertained
Keeping a child still in a restaurant feels impossible to achieve, especially when they’re at that age where they like to roam around and explore the world. While it’ll be nice to get on their feet and move around, doing it in a dining area isn’t the perfect place to do that. With a kid-friendly restaurant, they can offer your children activities or entertainment to help them sit still.
Some family-friendly restaurants can provide toys or activity sheets for tracing, writing, and colouring. Others can even include a TV screen for them to look at and some restaurants even have kids’ playrooms and playgrounds/
Cons Of Family-Friendly Restaurant
While a family-friendly restaurant offers plenty of benefits, there are still some drawbacks that you need to prepare for. Looking at the cons can help you decide if this will be a good option for you. With that, below are some disadvantages of a family-friendly restaurant:
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Might Be A Tad Noisier
Of course, a family-friendly restaurant wouldn’t be complete without any children. While they might be a joy to be around, they can be quite noisy, especially if you’re going to accommodate their loud noises, screams, and crying. This is normal, especially for children, since they still can’t control their emotions well.
With the noisier atmosphere, see if that’ll be an environment you’d be comfortable dining in. You have to expect the worst, especially when a tantrum happens that no one can control.
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Children Might Run Around
Kids are naturally exploratory as they’d like to find out everything happening around them and constantly look for a place they can roam around in. But when it comes to restaurants, having children continuously walk and run around the room might not be ideal, especially since food can fall and drinks could topple over.
If you’re uncomfortable with children constantly running in the background, which might include some occasional screaming, going inside a family-friendly restaurant might not be the best option for you.
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Might Not Offer Alcoholic Beverages
Sometimes, it’s nice to pair a drink or cocktail with a nice meal, It could be something celebratory, or you just want to have a glass of wine or beer to end your meal. Yet with a family-friendly restaurant, you might not be able to order an alcoholic beverage, as simply they won’t offer one.
Most family-friendly restaurants can only offer juices and shakes as their alternative drink choices. This can be awful, especially if you’d like the adults to enjoy themselves while the children are around.
Alternatively, you can look for other family-friendly restaurants that also accommodate the adults’ need for alcoholic beverages while still assisting the kids. Nonetheless, you might only come up with limited options as not everyone is comfortable serving alcoholic beverages with children around.
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Can Be A Busier Environment
A family-friendly restaurant will always have a busy environment, especially since there would be plenty of children running around and parents asking for requests from the staff. With this, you might find it difficult to catch the staff’s attention if you ask for something from them.
If you’re the type of person who likes to be extremely specific with your meals and make frequent requests, especially if the restaurant doesn’t provide you with those things as you sit down, going for a family-friendly restaurant might not be the best place for you.
Takeaway
A family-friendly restaurant can help to accommodate and make children feel comfortable inside the restaurant while also providing maximum convenience for parents. But knowing the pros and cons of each can help you identify if this will be the perfect option for you. While they can provide delicious kiddie meals, the environment might be a bit noisier and busy. As you read everything there’s to know, see if dining in would still be an option for you.
