Why I Hate Restaurant Kid’s Menus

I hate them. I really do. However, in their defense, I will admit they are good for one thing… coloring:

If you think about the true purpose of a kid’s menu its simply for one thing… to keep the kids quiet enough so the parents can attempt to enjoy a dinner out. It starts with the coloring… kids are entertained while they wait for their food. Then they get to pick a meal that will likely cause little or no conflict (i.e. chicken fingers and fries). Most of the kid’s menus don’t even offer veggies. Or if they do, you have to look hard for them and ask.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take the kids and Oscar’s mom out for a nice lunch to Tuscany (a local Italian place). The kid’s menu above is from our meal there. Now from a straight nutritional standpoint, their menu was not horrible… they did have a few decent choices and offered veggies. But seriously, what kid will pick chicken breast with veggies over fried cheese?

What makes me the most frustrated is the injustice we do our kids with such a basic, overly processed menu. We were at a restaurant where the chef likely spent long hours planning the adult menu. Much care was taken to develop offerings that contain many delicious flavors that marry into the perfect symphony of Italian cuisine. It included “one-of-a-kind pasta dishes, the finest steaks and freshest seafood, as well as daily specials prepared to perfection by [the] executive chef. Tuscany is the ideal destination for revealing the rich virtues of a Tuscan village.”

And the kids get frozen chicken fingers that were thrown in the deep fryer for a few minutes????

Now I could go on and on about the chicken fingers themselves… they are likely overly processed chicken bits that came from a factory farm where the chickens could hardly stand cause we are breeding mutant chickens with excessive large breast meat muscles and they are constantly being fed added antibiotics therefore reducing the effectiveness of the antibiotics we take, but that is actually not my point here.

My point is, why can’t we teach our kids to appreciate the same food we do? Why do we give them so little credit? Seriously, most restaurant food tastes great… that’s why we love it. We allow our kids to have “scare” around grown up food. It is just plain silly. But as you can guess, the habit does start at home.

I suggest you try letting your kids pick an adult meal and either take the rest home or split the meal with them (I know I don't need the whole portion!). You could also let them choose an appetizer for a smaller option. You never know what they may end up eating!

So what did my kids eat yesterday? We all split three small appetizers: smoked salmon toast points, baked goat cheese and asparagus tomato salad. Then I shared my grilled salmon and spinach as well. Both kids ate almost everything except Annie didn’t have much salmon entrée because I think she was already full as she was also eating some of Oscar's mom's soup and salad. It was perfect because we all got to try a little bit of many different things!

Kelley