Fine Dining with Toddlers--Six Reviews

[spyhill]

We are the sorts of parents who vowed to keep living large after we had kids! To that end, we insisted on eating at top restaurants with our energetic DS (2 1/2) and quiet DD (7 mos.) during our recent six day trip to the Resorts. Not one time did we feel uncomfortable in any way about having little kids along.

Here's what we thought.

Restaurant Marrakesh: The chef was apparently recommended by a Moroccan king, and it shows. Service was delightful and the belly dancer with accompanying music entertained our son. We got one of the feasts for two--appetizers (particularly the seafood bastilla) and desserts (apple crepes with ice cream) were exquisite. Lemon chicken and lamb shank also good. Overall a perfect choice at Epcot.

California Grille: As good as everyone says. Also delightful service. A stunning setting (even without fireworks) and yet well populated with kids. The sushi is first-rate.

Flying Fish: Another stunning setting--and walking around the Boardwalk after dinner was a lot of fun for our son and us alike. Potato-wrapped snapper lived up to its billing. So did lava cake. Nice kids' menu.

Hollywood Brown Derby (lunch): To make the Playhouse Disney extravaganza, we rushed and got out in about 25 minutes. A beef filet cobb salad was sublime. Grapefruit cake also good. Kid-friendly.

Boma: The easiest of the six restaurants for kids. About as good as a buffet is going to get; a chicken and corn chowder was a cut above the rest, as was marinated flank steak. Clever enough food to hold your interest, with a nice selection for kids. Very loud and lively.

Jiko: I disagree with those who discourage taking kids here. There were plenty of them, and they all seemed to be doing well, though we did eat at 5:30. I give this restaurant an A-. The tenderloin with mac & cheese is as good as everyone says. Kids' PB&J is the most colorful food selection I've ever seen! The chocolate dessert tray is excellent; the cheesecake variation was sublime. South African wines were interesting, though we knew nothing about them at all.

I'd like to know if anyone has had other positive experiences (or negative ones) with toddlers at upscale Disney restaurants.

 

[BCV23]

Very much enjoyed your reviews. Although our "baby" is now 17, we enjoyed fine dining at WDW when ours were toddlers, too. The servers are wonderful with families....friendly, accomodating and they know how to pace the meal!

 

[Uncleromulus]

These are the kind of reviews those with children will appreciate. I know many seem hesitant about taking even well-behaved children to the resort restaurants. Nice to see they shouldn't be.

 

[Krissalee]

Thanks for the reviews. While I am child-free, I have been to all those restaurants and seen lots of children at each and every one of them. I've never seen or heard any problems at all with kids at the nicer restaurants. I'm glad you were able to experience these meals, and didn't feel afraid to bring your kids!

 

[crisi]

Thanks so much.

We elected to skip most of the fine dining with our 2 and 3 year old - in part not to inconvience the other diners with my children's toddler table manners and in part because I find nothing relaxing about sitting over a $30 entree constantly saying "Sit down!" "Use your fork!" "Inside voices!" (I do that quite well over a $10 burger - with less investment).

We did do Marrakesh and San Angel Inn and the kids handled it well. My daughter danced with the belly dancer - enchanting the whole room. One advantage to the San Angel Inn is that it is so dark even you can't see that your kids are eating with their fingers (and quesadillas are finger food anyway). And next trip when the kids will be 4 and 5, we are looking forward to more fine dining. We will be staying at the Boardwalk, and FF and Jiko are both on my lists of "wants"

 

[spyhill]

Yeah--I don't want to whitewash the experience--we did a lot of that too (though the baby didn't pose any problems so we just had to deal with one little monster!). We were so determined to eat at those restaurants, though, that we were willing to put up with some chaos. I hope you enjoy Jiko and FF--both fantastic!

 

[jmkst58]

I have been able to enjoy a lot of restaurants at WDW with my 2 yo DD and have never had nor seen any problems. Of course, though....she is a girl and very well behaved. I guess that I better not jinx myself. I have a new bundle of joy due in June. I better keep my mouth shut. LOL

 

[spyhill]

If you can handled a 2-year-old, even a girl, then a baby will be a piece of cake!

 

[jmkst58]

whewwww......thanks....In case you can't tell....I'm about nervous about handling 2....

 

[ducklite]

I've encountered some very well behaved children and some absolute MONSTERS in my WDW dining experiences.

Here are some bad ones:

I think one of the worst was at the Yachtsmans Steakhosue one night. Two girls, probably 3 and 6, running through the restaurant chasing each other, shreiking at the top of their lungs. It's one of the few times I've seen a manager intercept and tell the parents that the children HAD to sit down and settle down, or he'd be happy to wrap their meal. I was tempted to stick my foot out as they ran past... (And NO, I would NEVER have actually done that!)

I can't even recall where (maybe Alfredo's?), but we were eating at a nice place one night and the two kids started throwing food at each other. We ignored it (OK, shot some VERY dirty looks at the parents) until DH got hit in the back of the head with some bread. He's much more patient than I am, but he turned around and asked the parents nicely to get the kids to settle down and stop throwing food. They said something rude to him and then when the server came by, they asked to have their food wrapped and left. Geez, like they couldn't have thought of that ten minutes earlier when their kdis began to get out of control?? Duh.

We also were subjected to a "perfect angel" who was "so adorable" banging on glasses and plates with utensils at Jiko one night. After about ten minutes of it the parents did get their food wrapped and left, but it went on FAR too long IMHO. BTW--the mother found it adorable, the father didn't, and they ended up in a bit of a row over it, which is ultimately why they left, not because of the kid's behaviour.

I had a toddler actually walk up to my table at Restaurantasaurus and take food off my plate one time! YUCK!!!

We were also subjected to an absolute meltdown by a tired, overstimulated 4-5 year old at 50's PrimeTime. He actually sat there hitting his mother--I mean REALLY whacking her! They were in the table next to us, the type that share a long bench on one side, and in his kicking and thrashing he also managed to encroach into our table space and knock over a soda. Finally the grandfather had enough and hauled that brat out of there.

Yes, I've also seen some well behaved youngsters. Next time you're at WDW, at 7:00pm, look around. You can easily pick out the kids who have had a nap during the day and a snack, and are fresh and happy v. the kids who are tired, cranky, hungry, and over stimulated. The happy, fresh kids are never a problem. The other ones, well...

Anne

 

[Colexi's Mom]

Thanks for the wonderful review. We are going in May with DD who will turn 4 on the trip, and DS will be 15 months. Unfortunately for us, both of our kids are highly energetic and don't like to sit still, which is making me very nervous about dining at sit down restaurants at Disney. Although the 4 year old would do fine. We don't really go out a lot around home, but when we do, either myself or DH usually ends up walking one of them around the restaurant to keep them entertained. I'm trying to stay in the sit down restaurants in Disney with a lot of entertainment for them and distractions, hoping that will help. Plus I've seen a lot of reports on how quick the service usually is (your Brown Derby story adds to the list) so that is making me feel more at ease.

 

[spyhill]

I recognize our son in all of ducklite's stories--though only occasionally and, fortunately, not during our Disney trip!

The biggest advice I have is to go to the restaurants at 5 or 5:30, even if that's earlier than you think you want to eat. Even at the best restaurants, like Flying Fish and Jiko, almost everyone there at that time had kids, so you just feel comfortable. I also think many adults purposely go around 7:30 or 8 to avoid kids, which seems fair, so we tried to accommodate that and make everyone happy.

 

[jmkst58]

I agree with spyhill's suggestions. It should help over-tiredness/crankiness.

 

[jlieblaw]

We took our dd to a character meal at GF when she was 9 mos. old and she was great. When we went when she was 17 mos. old, we took her to the char. meal at Tony's. She was so excited about Pooh, etc. that she wouldn't eat and she cried because she couldn't understand why they weren't with her all the time. We rushed through that meal and got out as quick as possible so as not to bother other diners. We also went to Cal. Grill at CR one night. We made sure to do early ressies so we would hopefully be there with other families. As soon as I finished eating, I took her downstairs while my dh waited for the check. It's not that she's horrible, it's just that she's used to walking around in a restaurant because my family owns one. So, we created the problem but we certainly don't expect other diners to have to put up with it. We're hoping to get better results on our next trip, especially with characters or we won't even book a char. meal. Hopefully my dd was not one that bothered anyone else.

 

[crisi]

jmkst58

My girl is way worse than my boy - always has been. She was born with PMS.

Two changes things, but by the time your baby is old enough to start causing trouble, your daughter should be through the worst of whatever trouble she will cause (until the teenage years). Mine aren't even 13 months apart - one I'd take fine dining with two adults - even my daughter (as long as she wasn't overtired). Two still in diapers (the situation we were in on our last trip) is too much like gambling.

 

[lomillerin]

Edited

 

[Jordan's MOM]

We have seen more problems with older kids that small toddlers. Perhaps it's that I have a lot more tolerance for a small child. We were once ran smack into by three brother running head strong though CRT at dinner. A cm quicky went to find their parents. We have also had dinner disturbed by loud early teens eating alone. This has happened at character meals when these children are kinda in between being young enough or old enough to enjoy the characters!
We have taken DS with us to eat anywhere we went. We expected good behavior and got it most of the time. If he was loud or out of control we left. I think we only had to pack the food once.

Jordan's mom

 

[raidermatt]

I don't know lomillerin, most of the stories described here are examples of meal-time behavior our son knows is simply not tolerated. Yes, he has his moments like any child, but the important thing is they are only moments, we do not allow them to continue. If he bangs a fork on a plate (not a problem now that he is 4, but back when he was 2...), we immediately let him know that is not appropriate. It probably helps that we have the same expectations at home that we have in restaurants.

Consequently, he does quite well in restaurants compared to other children his age.

That said, poorly behaved children don't really bother me unless they are doing something overly disruptive to us, like some of the things ducklite describes. But honestly, I can't remember the last time anything like that happened to us, so we must either be lucky or have a high tolerance level. Or its just that most kids are pretty well behaved, which I think is probably true.

I agree that if one just doesn't want to be around kids, WDW is not the place to go. But I don't think anyone is really saying that they don't want to be around kids.

 

[Planogirl]

Our son tended to fall asleep in nicer restaurants if he was overly tired so I learned quickly to eat around 5 or 5:30. I enjoyed it myself because I was normally tired at that time too and the restaurants also seem to be less crowded.

I have seen some of the behavior ducklite describes and I would never stand for it personally. I know that all kids lose it from time to time and I can understand that but kids running around restaurants or throwing food is going too far IMO. Good manners are good manners wherever one happens to be and it's a shame that some PARENTS don't have them.

 

[crisi]

lomillerian, I think you are being too hard on us. Most of the people who have posted to this thread are parents themselves.

Personally, I would be mortified to take my kids to one of the top tier Disney restaurants and have them misbehave - only to discover the couple at the table next to us paid a sitter to spend the evening without their own children!

I expect kids in most Disney restaurants. I expect kids in the top tier of Disney restaurants to be well behaved. You cannot always control a toddler - and one that goes off often (like my daughter) it might be wiser to skip the fancy stuff for the Whispering Canyons on Disney - or at least be prepared to have your food wrapped.