Tricks to Relish While Dining Out

Skip the fast food on your next trip. The good news is that there have never been so many restaurants interested in welcoming you and your children.

The bad news: No matter where you go, kids are going to behave like kids. They’ll spill their drinks, bicker with their siblings and complain that they’ll starve to death if they have to wait a minute longer for their food. When the meal finally arrives, they won’t be hungry anymore.

I know. I’ve been there countless times with my kids in restaurants around the country, and I’ve watched plenty of other frustrated parents do the restaurant dance too. But when you’re traveling, there’s often no alternative.

However, restaurateurs at many places are trying to make dining out less difficult. They’re tinkering with children’s menus to include a more eclectic selection, training waiters to be more child-friendly (bring those French fries out quickly) and even planning activities that amuse.

One Pennsylvania-based chain, the Italian Oven, invites children to make their own pizzas and TGI Friday’s hands out activity books complete with postcards that traveling kids can punch out and send home to their friends.

“Going out to dinner isn’t a status thing anymore,” observes Barbara Patrick, a researcher for the Yankelovich Monitor, which has tracked social trends for 25 years. “People are spending more time with their kids and restaurant-going is a reflection of that.”

These days, that doesn’t always mean fast-food places.

“Our customers are bringing their kids to the places they went on dates,” says Jimmy Banakis, a vice-president of Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, which is known for its themed restaurants. Banakis notes that some of these children have extremely sophisticated palates, ordering up Greek lamb and barbecued shrimp, as well as burgers, pizzas and grilled cheese sandwiches.

They are shaping up to be some of the most important guests at the table too. “The kids have the swing vote in deciding where the family goes to eat,” said National Restaurant Assn. spokeswoman Wendy Webster. “If the kids are happy, the parents will come back.”

There are, of course, plenty of restaurants that prefer adult patrons, so it’s a good idea to call first and, to be safe, stay away from quiet, dimly lighted places, especially on weekend nights.

Ethnic eateries are always good bets when traveling. Not only will the tab be modest, but the kids are bound to find something to eat: plain tortillas, rice or pasta.

With children, noisy is often better. An early dinner is too.

For some busy families, vacations may be the only time they eat meals together on a regular basis. Child development experts note that eating out can even be a good learning experience. “They can try new foods, practice making choices, even learn about money,” said Dr. Edward Schor, a pediatrician and Iowa public health official who is chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ early childhood committee. They can learn appropriate ways to behave in public places and see how other families interact, as well.

Schor recommends always bringing along a book to read. “You can read while you wait,” says Schor, father of three young children, who wonders why restaurants don’t stock kids’ books. “Any child can hold still for a story.”

Along with a couple of books, tote a special restaurant bag filled with stickers, plastic characters and small games for younger children. Los Angeles pediatrician Neal Kaufman, director of primary pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, says cards always worked well for his older children. The important issue here is distraction and interaction.

No matter what their ages, don’t expect any child to sit in a car or plane for hours and then sit quietly in a restaurant for two more. “That’s impossible for their bodies,” says Hanne Sonquist, a Santa Barbara-based parent educator and family therapist. “Go to a playground first and let them burn off some energy,” she said. “Then they’ll be ready to sit.”

Separate sparring siblings on opposite sides of the table and immediately order something so the kids don’t have to wait.

If the older ones turn up their noses at the kids’ menu, ask the waiter if they may split a portion. Or let them make a meal of soup and a potato or an appetizer and desert.

Whatever you do, don’t make a restaurant a nutritional battleground. “You’ll always lose,” Kaufman says.

Taking the Kids appears the first and third week of every month.