This is purely anecdotal but… I was at Bob Evans one time, and the Turkey Lurkey meal on the kids’ menu was exactly what I wanted. Turkey, mashed potatoes, and carrots in a small portion. I asked if they had anything like it on the adult menu or if I could order off the kids, and they said that I could but they would charge me a dollar more (or maybe $2 I don’t remember). I’ve often ordered it since, but keep forgetting to check if they really do charge me more.
On another note, I went out to a restaurant with a friend once who had recently had one of the stomach surgeries (gastric bypass I think, but it may have been one of the others). She had a card from the doctor saying something to the effect that she was to eat off the kids menu to get the smaller portion due to her health. This was less than 6 months after her surgery, and she said so far she’d never had to show it, but always pulled it out just in case.
I’m perplexed about what yall order that doesn’t reheat well the next day. I love me some restaurant lefties. Bag it up and I’ll eat it tomorrow!
The only thing I imagine doesn’t fare well is salad or soup. But everything else is fine. I only cook about 3 days a week. The rest of the time I reheat my homemade food. I can’t think of anything that doesn’t last a few days in the fridge and can be microwaved or heated up in the oven/broiler.
To the OP… I think a smart restauranteur would explain that the kids meal is for the under 12 set, but they can make a smaller portion for an adult… And maybe even say fine, have the kids meal this time, but next time get the adult plate.
I’ve noticed a number of you have mentioned “plate charges”. I live in Western Washington State, go regularly to restaurants in the $8-$30 range. I’ve never heard of them. What are they and are they an East Coast thing? High end or low end restaurants?
I’ve never heard of one either and I’ve been in the industry a long time.
I suspect those people are referring to one of a few things.
Either a “shared plate charge” which is an additional fee places charge to people who wish to split an entree as opposed to ordering 2 dishes.
Or they are referring to a general concept of food cost and margins. Restaurants have complex formulas built to determine what their margins must be over wholesale food costs in order to pay or the overhead. Some places, instead of simply charging a menu price that is a simple multiple of the food cost might establish a baseline per plate cost and add the wholesale food cost on top of that. The premise being the a person consumes the same amount of your resources regardless of what they order.
Lastly they might be referring to a per person minimum. Some establishments, those that are very high end or which have very limited seating, might place a minimum on a diner in order to justify them taking up valuable seats. This is more common in night clubs where tables are a premium commodity, but some restaurants that offer “private dining” options may do the same thing. I’ve also seen rooftop/penthouse restaurants that do this to ensure that people aren’t showing up and taking a reservation just to order a soda and a appetizer just to soak in the view.
It’s absolutely the case that restaurants sometimes do lose money on the kid’s menu. If they’re not losing money, they’re at least making little to no profit. The only reason they offer the kid’s menu is to get the business of families. If they have options for kids, then families will come in and the parents will spend some real money.
If you don’t want to eat much, get a side salad and a cup of soup, or an appetizer as your meal. Or ask the restaurant if they can specially make a small portion of food for you. Most restaurants will bend over backwards to make you happy, as long as they are also making money. I once went out with my family, including two small nieces. They ordered off the kid’s menu: grilled cheese and fries. I also wanted a grilled cheese, and I asked our server about it. He told me they could do something for me. The kids got wonder bread and American cheese. I got mozzarella, havarti, tomatoes, basil, on some really good french bread, and a small side salad. I paid about $4 more, but it was still a cheap (and really good) meal.
So, no, I do not believe you’re entitled to order off the kid’s menu. The restaurant should provide you with what you want (if they can), but they are entitled to make money while doing it.
I went to the iconic House of Prime Rib in San Francisco on my 21st birthday. I was accompanied by about 5 of my friends, most of whom were students or working low-wage jobs. None of them had a problem with paying $30 or $40 for dinner except one guy who’s exceptionally cheap. He tried to order off the kid’s menu, but they wouldn’t allow it, so he ordered a big boy meal and owed another guy for the cost of his meal.
I guess I feel that if you aren’t willing to assume the cost of a regular adult meal, you shouldn’t be going to that restaurant. I also agree with the sentiments expressed by Omniscient, in that restaurant overhead contributes to most of the price of the meal. If six kids went into a restaurant, all of them ordered kids’ meals and drank water, and sat at the table for 2 hours, the restaurant would take a bath.
Outback Steakhouse has a kid’s meal that is a single serving size steak and a smaller than their adult size baked potato. It’s quite a nice meal if you are watching your portion sizes.
If you go to a low or moderately priced restaurant in the US, you’re likely to get served HUGE amounts of mediocre (or worse) food. If you go to a better restaurant, you’re likely to get a reasonable amount of good quality food, cooked well. If you’re a teen or young adult, or extremely active adult, then it’s possible to finish a plate of 16 ounces of meat, and five cups of mashed potatoes, and gravy, and a veggie or two, and still have room for dessert, without overeating. But most adults don’t need that much food, even if we can actually finish it.
Last night, my husband and I went out to eat. I had one of the adult meals, 12 ounce steak, baked potato, and salad. And I added a half pound of snow crab to the meal. My husband and I split the potato and salad, I ate about 3 ounces of steak, he ate another 3 ounces and the crab. And this satisfied the two of us. The thing is, a teenage boy could have easily eaten that, by himself. But Bill and I would have rather had a smaller steak option.
Oh, and we asked for a separate plate, which was brought to us. Some places would have charged us for that plate, because we have the nerve to not want to eat to the point of pain.
I, for one, would appreciate more reasonable serving sizes in restaurants. I’ll pay a reasonable price, too.
I understand why a waiter/tress would balk at serving off the kids’ menu. Aside from the restaurant owner’s perspective (loss leader or otherwise), the waitstaff’s main income is (generally) a function of the size of the bill. Ordering off the kids menu doesn’t mean the waitstaff has to work any less, but it does mean that (in general) the tip will be proportionately smaller.
Smile and take it as part of the job, but it’s still a shitty part of the job.
My worst experience with this was years ago at a hotel’s restaurant. A national promotion of “kids eat free” for guests meant that we presented a check for the total minus the kid’s meals. All the numbers were there (total, subtracted amount, discounted total) right on the bill. You can guess the figure that 99 percent of people tipped off of. Even without that, a table of four adults was different from a table of two adults and two children. Both were similar amounts of work, but they paid differently.
We fall in the casual fine dining category (tablecloths but casual atmosphere) and adults aren’t supposed to order off the kids menu. In practice, I couldn’t care less if they do.
Why be bothered to piss off a customer? I guess I could make a big deal out of it and my boss would probably back me up, but it isn’t worth the fuss.
Honestly, I don’t enjoy being a dick and I’m certainly not going to be one just because someone is cheap or not very hungry. I don’t think I’ve run into this situation more than a handful of times in the last 15 years. My profit margin is much smalller on the kid’s items so I imagine if it became common that would make enforcement more strict.
I have enough aggravation at work on a daily basis as it is; why would I draw a line in the sand over something so out of the ordinary?
One, I don’t think it’s my job to worry about profit margins: I don’t think there is anything wrong with asking (politely) if it’s ok to order off the kids’ menu, and if they say it is, I don’t think I am some sort of free-loading bastard to do so. Their restaurant, their rules.
Two, while I agree that it would be uncouth to walk into a nice restaurant (anything above TGIAppleChillis) and order off the kids’ menu, I really don’t see it as a horrible faux paux to ask for that option at Jason’s Deli or Denny’s or pretty much anywhere with a laminated picture menu.
So long as you are polite its perfectly fine to ask. Many places will accommodate you. The issue is with people who act like its some sort of entitlement to do so and assume that any restaurant who chooses to enforce their policy has no reason to do so other than greed and malice.
When we visit the US, I often order from the kiddie menu because a normal adult portion size is way too much for me to eat. We would be staying in an hotel, so taking food home to eat later wouldn’t really work out for us. The choice would be to have a child’s meal, or for the two of us to order a main meal to share. Either way, the restaurant’s not making a massive profit from us.
I’ve ordered off the kid’s menu on occasion when Mr saje calls from work and asks if I want to go out. I’m sort of a grazer when I’m at home, and if I cook at home it’s no big deal. But when we go out like that, he’s hungry for a full dinner, I am not. But I don’t want a plate full of iceberg lettuce, or a deep fried appetizer, and restaurant soups tend to e way too salty for my taste. Kid’s & seniors portions work great, and many restaurants these days are putting GOOD stuff on those menus, just smaller servings.
Add to that the glass of beer or wine I’m probably going to order (if available) and the dessert for Mr saje, and I don’t think the place will do too badly off us. Plus if I don’t get hassled about the occasional foray onto the kids menu, I’m more likely to come back and recommend the place to others.
Besides, sometimes we go out to eat for really good food, and sometimes we go out to eat because we just want someone else to cook, serve, and clean up. In that scenario, a corndog and a beer can be heaven!
A restaurant three minutes’ walk from our house has only one item on their kids’ menu: a cheese quesadilla. Its cost? Nada.
Since discovering their kids’ menu, our family eats there about twice a month, far more than we ever ate there before. They get a lot more of our money.
The cheese quesadilla is pretty small. Those of you who think restaurants should let anyone order off the kids’ menu if they have a small appetite, paying the normal kids’ price, do you think you’re entitled to eat for free at this restaurant? If not, what’s the relevant difference?
No, you’re not required to worry about profit margins and overhead. That’s the restaurant’s lookout, not yours. Another restaurant’s lookout is who gets to order which meals. If they say something is on the children’s menu, and you’re not a child, it’s none of your business about profit margins, portion size, or whatever: they’ve told you that this is not something for you to order. Pushing the wait staff to make an exception, even politely, is rude, as it puts the wait staff in an uncomfortable position: do they piss off their manager by acceding to a request that will cost their company money, or do they piss off the customer in a way that will cost themselves a decent tip?
If you really want something from the kids’ menu, a polite way to phrase the request would be like this: “I saw this chicken sandwich on the menu, but I’d really just have chicken fingers–can you make this as a substitution? I’ll pay the sandwich price.”
There is, of course, the situation where for a rare occasion you can’t afford a full-price meal. I totally sympathize, having been there a lot. On such occasions, I eat at a restaurant called Chez My Own Damn House. I only eat at restaurants when I can afford to pay the prices they’re asking.
I like the milk analogy. Of course, once you realize your mistake you need to quickly change your order to a tall glass of warm gin with a human hair in it.
[complete aside] I marvel at both the limitations and flexibility of the language. In a slightly different context, referring to a ‘nice restaurant’ would imply that there is no children’s menu. Compare the uses here (and responses, come to think of it) with the recent thread on whether you can expect a restaurant/chef to honor special requests. Both threads’ use of the term is equally valid but (generally) refer to different things. I love language.[/CA]
Depends on the restaurant. When I was waiting tables at Cracker Barrel, their kids menu specifically mentioned that adults could order off it. And at my current job, the listing “kid’s meal” on the menu is just a way of pointing out to parents that we do indeed have appropriate portion sizes for children. Adults are perfectly welcome to order a half sandwich or a corn dog if they so desire (I often do myself, if I’m not brown bagging–I’m usually a)too boiling hot to eat much and b) sick of the very sight of the more frequently ordered items by break time). There’s more than one way to formulate a kids’ menu.
And I promise you we make more money off the tiny handful of adults who order off the kids’ menu than we would if we got our panties knotted up about them not being kids. Our menu is mostly salads and deli sandwiches; nobody wants to eat those things when they’ve been sitting around a few hours, so those people would pretty much never darken our door again if they had to order a full adult portion. We’d make more money on that one visit, but we’d lose out over the long haul. Much better for everyone if we make less money on them each visit but they come in 2-3 times a week and tell their friends how awesome we are.
What’s a person who’s had bariatric surgery supposed to do?
Regardless of appetite or budget, they simply can’t eat more than something like 2-4 ounces of food at a time. Are they doomed to a life of only eating at places with laminated picture menus?
You seem to be interpreting “Is an adult allowed to order off the children’s menu?” as “pushing the waitstaff to make an exception”. I just don’t see that: of course I would never argue past that point, but a simple question is not pressure. It’s not my job to figure out what the upcharge or whatever should be, or which sandwich I should sub in for the price. The waiter can answer with “yes”, “no”, or “yes, but you get charged for X”. Then it’s my job to accept or decline without fuss.
Both are fair points. If a kids’ menu makes it clear that it’s not just for kids (or if it’s at a place like McDonald’s where that’s just not how it works), no problem. And if a restaurant decides it’s worth it to let you eat a kids’ meal, that’s also fine. No expectations on either side, of course, and no putting some poor waitron in a no-win situation, but it’s not like I think there’s something unworthy about eating from a kid’s menu.
As for bariatric surgery, however, just as the restaurant’s profit margin isn’t your concern, your dietary restrictions aren’t theirs. You’ll need to find a solution: share a meal with someone? Doggie bags? Throw away a lot of food? Appetizers only? Ask politely for an exception? That’s your concern, not theirs.
Manda Jo, point taken: a polite request is okay, and I was probably overstating the case before. How you said it sounds just right.