Tell me you don’t have kids without telling me you don’t have kids.
My kids can pick off the kids menu or eat off the adult menu. Hey, leftovers if it’s portion size you’re worried about.
Half the time my kids eat the safe option, half something different. At an ethnic restaurant, they will pick something in one of the entrees they like. There hasn’t been a time yet where something suitable wasn’t found. At a more “American” restaurant, they often will pick the kids hamburger or chicken strips because, well, they do like them.
They used to be much more adventurous when they were growing up, but they settled into their tastes (which still change very often). Having a kids menu is a bit of a fail-safe for us the rare time we eat out. But it’s just as annoying for me at home, who has to cook, because to be assuredly successful, I have to cook one of five things: pizza (I make it myself, dough and all), tacos, hamburgers, pasta (though one likes her pasta plain with parmagianna-reggiano cheese, but don’t try to pass off fake parmesan on her) and pork cutlets. Oh, and they like beef and broccoli, I guess. But cooking all the stuff over and over bores me to tears, so I often find myself cooking two meals, one for the kids, and one for the adults. I was pleasantly surprised that last night my younger one ate orecchetti with italian sausage and weeds (some lamb’s quarters unintentionally growing in the garden.) The older one went for just plain (no butter even!) orecchetti.
This is a long way of saying, thank God they put some stuff 95% of kids will eat on the menu.
Saves parents stress of finding something the kid will eat, and it’s usually cheaper to boot.
Yikes, there have been a lot of posts since o wow this and didn’t hit “send”. I hope it’s still relevant:
We had kids in nyc. My experience is that while 5 year olds are picky eaters, 2 year olds will eat pretty much anything you put in front of them. My hypothesis is that 5 year old are picky eaters so our hunter-gatherer ancestors wouldn’t all poison themselves when they started wandering away from adult supervision.
But anyway, we ordered a glass of milk and a plate of fries for the kids, and gave them some of our food. At the Indian place, we just got some extra rice and dal, and maybe a mango lassi.
But i see no reason to restrict other people’s choices. If parents want to go to restaurants with bland options for kids, not my problem.
@kenobi_65 answered in more detail and with more professional insight than I would manage, but again I pointed out that most places with a kid’s menu were very much low effort, low cost, low spoilage options. IE making the lowest effort for the biggest possible payoff/risk abatement.
Anecdotally, the places I visit will absolutely change up their options for the adult menu, chasing both fads and actual trends (the brilliance is figuring out which is which!), and in just the last half-dozen years, the number of vegetarian, vegan, and lower calorie options (or even sections of the menu) have ballooned out. But I can’t ever recall seeing one make many if any changes to the kids menu.
Covid also had a role in the Darwinistic winnowing of restaurants, and of narrowing menu selections in many places to focus on profits and strengths while purging infrequently ordered options, though there are places that have bucked that trend as well.
Another option I’ve noted (@chela mentioned this as well) is when I’m eating out, I see a lot of people ordering 2-3 different appetizers and assembling a meal. And it’s great for kids in some cases, because those often favor saltier or sweeter options that have good kid appeal. And I think that’s another part of why appetizer costs have ballooned out as well. All anecdotal of course, but I remember now about twenty years ago (god I feel old typing this) there was this cheap Chinese place I liked, and the four of us visiting wanted to order 8 different appetizers to share, and they refused to do so. Now when an appetizer is often 2/3 or more the cost of an entree, I suspect attitudes would be different.
In addition to those with genuine food aversions, there are kids who shun certain foods (anchovies, Lima beans, Brussels sprouts) because they’ve internalized from books/TV/movies/friends/etc. that they’re supposed to dislike them - and, perhaps, that they’ll be considered weird and uncool if they don’t.
Many years ago, my sister, who lives in San Diego, took our parents to a sushi place. Dad wasn’t much of a foodie, so he did order a steak (probably well done on top of it) and our mom did order sushi but ate it with a knife and fork, because she doesn’t know how to use chopsticks and wasn’t comfortable eating with her fingers in public.
I recently saw something on Facebook (sorry, couldn’t find a direct link) where the kids’ menu said things like:
I recall a bunch of us, after a conference day, went out to eat. One of us wasn’t that hungry, and instead of the Humungo-Burger and fries, the Chicken Parm with veg and mashed, or the Pepper Steak with a baked potato, the smaller portion of the chicken fingers and fries on the kids’ menu would suit him just fine. But it was one of those that said, “For our little friends 12 and under.” What to do?
He asked. Yes, the waitress said, if you want something on the kids’ menu, we’ll make that happen. And they did. He got a kid’s portion, which he was satisfied with, and he paid the kids’ menu price.
Maybe what should happen is to rename the “Kids’ Menu” to something like, “For our friends of all ages.” No matter how adventurous my palate is now, sometimes it’s nice to have the simple and comfortable foods I had as a kid.
It’s also nice when you don’t want an adult-sized burger, just a kids-sized one (which I find adequate). I know you can always take half of it home with you, but sometimes you don’t want to carry a doggie bag around. Not everyone wants 1000 calories for dinner.
Thing is, it’s as often as not a control thing on the part of the kid, rather than a specifically narrow palate or extreme pickiness. Food is something they can control via being ‘picky’, and so they do, mandating chicken nuggets, quesadillas, or whatever.
Later on, many will get out of it on their own as they grow into their independence; our 11 year old has recently quit being such a b-hole about this sort of thing, and both trying and admitting that things are actually good, even when he wouldn’t have even entertained the idea a year or two ago.
Restaurants want to sell food, so they’re not going to put themselves in the position of making potential patrons choose between fighting their kid or going somewhere else that has nuggets.
Not infrequently I am having dinner before a show (play/concert/whatever). They absolutely will not let me bring food in. I know this but it certainly makes me think about what I am ordering and what I think the kids are ordering before the show.
Most would argue “if they are hungry they will eat.” However, there is a small percentage of kids who will actually starve themselves so be sure to have careful follow-up with your CPCMG pediatrician if your child is not growing well.
I briefly worked at Denny’s in the mid 1980s. Don’t know if they still have the Senior Menu, with slightly smaller portions, for their patrons 55 and over, but more than once, customers said things like, “I’m 53; can I order this?” I told them that we wouldn’t card them for it.
I’ve certainly known parents who ordered the Adult Fast Food Meal for their children, and the kid’s meal for themselves, because it was what they wanted and they knew their kids would eat that bigger meal.
I pretty strongly disagree with this. The entire notion that a child is ‘choosing’ to be picky about the foods they eat just to create a conflict where they can rebel against parental authority is the kind of thing an adult believes because they can imagine themselves doing it for those reasons. Children do things to exert control over their own bodies (and sometimes others) all the time, from potty training and demanding to be read a particular book to refusing to accede to bedtime or throwing a tantrum when told ‘No’, but as noted above children often have a very different palette and general experience with the taste and texture of food than adults imagine.
As a former picky eater, I recall many instances of my mother making or ordering string beans and insisting that I eat them without fussing because she liked them and couldn’t imagine anyone else disliking them, and this was regardless that there were other vegetables that I would eat but in her mind were not the pinnacle of nutritional benefit as string beans. In that case, certainly, the “control thing” was entirely within her purview, and resulted in struggles and many nights of my setting at the table for hours with her periodically screaming at me for not eating the beans, or eating them and gagging because of the objectionable taste and squeaky texture. Needless to day, this did not result in a life-long love of string beans on my part even though I now enjoy many other vegetables when cooked correctly.
This. “Cooking correctly” is key. I wonder how many other people, like me, grew up in WASP families (think “Leave It To Beaver”) where boiling the crap out of frozen vegetables was the norm? No wonder vegetables were hated by kids in the 1960s; they were tasteless mush, and all we had was salt and pepper to make them taste better. None of that “garlic” stuff, or “hot sauce” or anything “foreign” like something called “oregano” (scary quotes intended; that was how my parents regarded such things—with trepidation); the most exotic we were allowed was ketchup. Meals were tasteless, and more tolerated than looked forward to.
Back to “cooking correctly,” I hated Brussels sprouts. Bitter, horrendous things, boiled from frozen until they became extra bitter. Until my ex-wife prepared them the way she liked them: fresh not frozen, baked, with garlic and seasonings. Then, they were delicious, and I actually asked for seconds.
Point is, that maybe a lot of us here are looking back on what we were given at home when we were kids. A kids’ menu at a restaurant was a treat—it had what we liked, without all that, “Yes, it’s vegetables [or whatever], but it’s good for you, sweetie” stuff. As a once-every-so-often treat, I think restaurants should keep it (though with the “For our friends of all ages” title that I mentioned above).
A lot of good points, and the first two answers by @kenobi_65 and @Kent_Clark I think pretty much sum it up.
In Prague, where I live now, a kid menu is common in restaurants and typically includes some staple offerings that mirror the general unimaginative Czech cuisine. The most popular item for kids is “fried cheese”, a block of Camembert-type cheese fired in batter like schnitzel, typically served with ketchup (or perhaps tartar sauce) and fries. A calorie bomb to be sure, but lots of kids here will say it’s their favorite dish.
That’s also a good point - I would just say it should work both ways. Just like it makes no sense to eliminate the kids’ menu, I would also object to kids being pushed toward it as opposed to the standard offerings. Sometimes, this may be done to attempt to cut corners. I remember years ago when I read this 1978 book, “Wings Across Time: The Story of Air Canada” and being incensed at this comment (reproduced from memory) about their meal service: “At one time, on a purely experimental basis, lunch boxes were served to children, complete with chocolate bars. But parents soon requested that full meals be served to their kids.” Well, duh. So you think you can get away with not serving a kid a hot meal? Think again, cheapskate.
In the past decade or so cultivars have been developed with less sulfur in them than in the past. Still don’t like them boiled though; roasted is the way to go,.
There seems to be a general assumption that the cost of the food as a raw material is important. For most restaurants, unless they are serving Wagyu beef or something, food is not high in their list of costs.
What you pay for is the ambience and the service. There is very little profit difference if you choose burgers or steaks, or a small portion. I once had a girlfriend who worked as a waitress in a mid-range restaurant. When they closed at around 2 pm, the staff were given a free meal. They could choose anything on the menu. The owner pointed out that they, the staff, cost a lot more than the food.
I would have thought that was common knowledge, but apparently not. There are always a few comments in discussions like these that seem to be based on the assumption that restaurants could afford to significantly lower their prices if they just served smaller portions, or that the reason kids’ menu prices are as low as they are is the portion size.
