Dining with 4 year old

[rebcamm]

I am trying to decide other than character meals, what restaurants are the best when dining with a 4 year old. DH and I like to eat at finer restaurants, but not sure if my inpatient toddler would do so well. Has anyone got any suggestions for noncharacter dining with a 4 year old? Has anyone taken their toddler to any of the signature restaurants? Theme parks or resorts it doesnt matter. Thanks for any help!

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

We took our then 2 & 5 year old grandchildren to plenty of character meals last year - as well as Coral Reef, Artist Point, the Yachtman and Narcoose's. While the children definitely appreciated the atmosphere more at the character meals, they were very pleasantly surprised & delighted with their steaks & "real food" at the finer places. The CM's were quite adept at making sure the children had something to keep them busy while we had minimal waits for our food. We did not feel out of place at all, and we (the grandparents) appreciated a halfway decent meal once in a while..... The children were well behaved - but I must say that if a CM noticed one or the other of them getting a bit antsy, they were right there to distract them with a new coloring page, a funny story, or something similar. I hope you decide to splurge once or twice and enjoy a nice meal with your family. I don't think you'll be sorry.

 

[DannysMom]

I am trying to decide other than character meals, what restaurants are the best when dining with a 4 year old. DH and I like to eat at finer restaurants, but not sure if my inpatient toddler would do so well. Has anyone got any suggestions for noncharacter dining with a 4 year old? Has anyone taken their toddler to any of the signature restaurants? Theme parks or resorts it doesnt matter. Thanks for any help!

I guess it really depends on the 4 year old in question. Do you regularly take your child out to eat? Does s/he know how to behave in a restaraunt & what is expected of them? Most all of the restaraunts in WDW are pretty kid friendly, with two notable exceptions (Bistro de Paris & Victoria & Albert's.)

I have a 5 year old who has been accompanying us to restaraunts since he was an infant. He is fine at most any place we want to go at WDW. Last trip, when he was 4, we had a nice meal at Narcoosees. You should be aware that signature dining experiences typically take at least an hour and a half or longer, so take that into consideration when making plans.

Also at 4, as long as your child is potty trained, they are old enough to go to one of the kids clubs for a few hours. So if you and your husband would prefer a leisurely dinner at a signature restaraunt, but think your child would prefer a few hours of video games, movies and crafts, with a more typical kids fare dinner, then just check out the signature restaraunts near the Kids Clubs. For example, after dropping a child at the Neverland Club at the Poly, all of the monorail resorts are pretty easy to get to. And Jiko at AKL is very close to Simba's Clubhouse. Have fun planning.

 

[QueueCT]

We took our just-turned-two year old girls to several signatures with no disasters (or even near disasters)! We made early reservations, either 5:30 or 6:00 so that the pace of the meal would be quicker and less chance of a sleep deprivation meltdown.

Over the course of the week we ate at Flying Fish, Jiko, and V&A (without the girls--best $100 babysitting bill ever). We also went to non-signature places with them. Meal time just wasn't a difficult event on this trip. You know your child best and that should be your guide. Is 90 minutes too long to sit still?

BTW, they eat just about anything so were happy to have fish kabobs at FF, peas and carrots at Jiko and plain wings at ESPN.

 

[JohnNYC]

If your 4 year old is used to sitting in restaurants, you should have no trouble most anywhere in Disney, as their service is quick with kids. Last year we took our boys, 3 and 5, to Narcoosee, Jiko, Flying Fish, and Tutto Italia - all nice places, yet not quiet, romantic restaurants at all. They all had very kid-friendly menus, especially dessert (they especially liked the chocolate puzzle at Flying Fish).

We had a few whiney moments, of course, but nothing remotely disturbing or anything. Oh, also we try to eat early at finer restaurants with the kids (5-6PM) - just seems proper and they are less likely to be tired and fidgity.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

I took my five boys when they were younger to a lot of the Disney resturants since they have been there many of times . The only ones we didn't do with them when they were young were the 2 tbs service Signature ones. But I do see young children at the 2 tbs service. The only 2 tbs ones they were at were the HDDR, Luau, & MBYBBOQ

 

[idatwilight]

I agree that it depends on the kid. I have two nieces whom I love, but they are HORRIBLE at restaurants to the point that I'm embarrassed for myself and feel bad for anyone having to eat around them. . . they did well at the buffets, where they could get up (under the guise of wanting more food) and where it was already kind of loud.

They did especially well at Boma. They're very picky eaters but were quite happy there.

I don't know where they got this from; I was a pretty bad kid behavior-wise, but (and my mother backs me up on this) I knew how to behave in a restaurant.

 

[buzz1fan]

We like to go to nice places to eat too, and I worry about our boys, they will be 25 months and 5 when we go. At this age, you never know what the day will bring on behavior. I think we may try and see what happens. Good luck in your decision.

 

[squirrel]

I really liked The Wave. It wasn't very crowded during the free dining and so we didn't have a wait to be seated and our food came out much quicker than the other places we dined at. The food was good too!

I know word is spreading about The Wave, so if you go hopefully it won't be so busy that you have a long wait.

 

[MickeyNicki]

When we took our then 3 year old she loved character breakfasts but any other TS place she did not do well at all. We took her (now 6) this past January and again she did great with the character breakfasts but not a happy kids with the sit down dinners