Jiko and kids

[**pixiedust**]

I have a 6 and an almost 4 year old and we are staying at AKL in May 06. They are well behaved and good eaters, but they are still kids, and I am wondering if it is OK to bring them to Jiko. I do not want to spoil anyone elses special meal by having kids in the dining room if it is more of an adult only atmosphere. What do you think?

 

[laughinplace199]

We ate at Jiko on 12/9 (the last night of our trip) with our 6 & 4 year old children. It was our second time eating there (the first time they were 5 & 3). It is our favorite restaurant. There were plenty of kids there that night.

We had a 5:30 ADR and we were seated right away. The dinner lasted about two hours, but the kids did great. I bought a new Disney coloring book and a box of crayons to keep them occupied since by the end of the week they were pretty bored with coloring the same Lizzie Maguire kids menu that all of the restuarants seem to have. I had bought some little plastic Mickey and Minnue figures, but never needed to pull them out of my bag of tricks.

If you have an early ADR, you should be fine. When we were leaving we saw a boy sleeping (lying across a few chairs) at his table. I'm guessing their ADR must have been for a time that was a tad too late for him!

Enjoy!

 

[**pixiedust**]

Thank you so much for posting this! I would definetly do an early ADR as I would not subject anyone to my four year old - wonderful as she is - at 9 at night. I'm so excited! Thanks again!!!

 

[ducklite]

As long as they can tolerate a meal that can take over 90 minutes by staying in their seat and engaging in quiet conversation or coloring or playing with quiet toys, sure.

Be prepared to leave immediately if they get antsy or begin a meltdown, and have a back up meal plan and simply cancel if it's just one of those days. Thanks for being respectful of fellow diners

Jiko has a dress code which asks for business casual, so plan accordingly.

Anne

 

[Peter Pirate]

Aw, Anne and I are going to disagree again...

Jiko doesn't look like it would be kid friendly but the staff, as at all WDW locations, is very good with them and tries to accomodate. It is a great restaurant and I've noticed that families with kids seem to get quicker service (we certainly have) and no meal has ever taken longer than an hour for us.

As for the dress code...It means virtually nothing, IMO, so just don't wear holy shorts, tank tops or bathing suits and you'll be fine. Although I was "guilty" of eating there with the dreaded muscle shirt two visits ago (about 3 months), as it was what I was wearing for the drive up and forgot to change. Not a word was said.

I agree though that ALL families should be prepared to make a hasty retreat or fallback should the kiddies slide into Disney overload.

 

[dmslush]

When we ate there in July, there were several families with small children. They were all very well behaved and didn't bother anyone around them at all.

 

[lookingforward]

We ate there with our then 3 year old daughter, 9 and 12 year old sons. We had a booth that was really roomy and private. We would have exited with our daughter if needed but she did great. The waiters were really great with the kids and the boys loved the cuisine. The good thing about your plans are that you will be staying at the resort. That way, if your little one gets antzy towards the end you can ask for your dessert to go! Enjoy your trip, you will love the AKL and Jikos.

 

[crisi]

We ate there with our six and seven year old. The kids menu is disappointing (Flying Fish had an excellent grilled chicken breast on their kids menu - this was mac n cheese and grilled cheese). With the kids we were seated in the "side room" and - I don't know if it was the kids - were treated coldly by the waiter (who was lousy and brought out the wrong food, didn't ask us if we wanted refills on our drinks, and rushed us).

Our kids were well behaved and we ate their at opening.

 

[chi_girl]

I have to disagree with the previous poster. We went on our previous visit with a DD4 and DD1. We were treated very kindly by the waiters, and found the kids menu to be better, with much more selection, then most Disney restaurants. DD4 had Carrot sticks with Peanut butter and Salmon, if I remember correctly. I felt it was her most healthy meal of the entire trip.

If you children can sit through a meal relatively quietly (basically not screaming and running through the restaurant) you should be fine.

 

[Stitches]

One of my very best Disney memories was at Jiko with my then 8 year old daughter. As we walked in the hostess provided DD with a black and white coloring sheet and two crayons, one black and one red. DD voiced displeasure at the color choices, "You can't color very well with a black crayon". The hostess explained that this was all they had and kindly suggested these were Mickey's colors. But a few minutes later she was back with a set of crayons in all the colors of the rainbow (probably from the gift shop).
The service was exceptional and the food was wonderful. After our meal the server came by, asked for my daughter by name, and said he had a call for her. He brought a phone to the table. It was Goofy! My daughter was thrilled and so was I!
Wishing you similar wonderful experiences!

 

[crisi]

I have to disagree with the previous poster. We went on our previous visit with a DD4 and DD1. We were treated very kindly by the waiters, and found the kids menu to be better, with much more selection, then most Disney restaurants. DD4 had Carrot sticks with Peanut butter and Salmon, if I remember correctly. I felt it was her most healthy meal of the entire trip.

If you children can sit through a meal relatively quietly (basically not screaming and running through the restaurant) you should be fine.

I suspect this is one of those meals where I had the "off" experience and most people had more true experiences. But I feel I need to share it since Peter Pirate said the staff is "very good with kids." That may be true in general, but that was not our experience. I felt out of place with kids here. We were also the only people with kids I noticed in the restaurant - though, as I said, we were in a side room, and only one other couple was seated in there with us. The main portion of the restaurant was relatively empty throughout our meal.

By the way, this wasn't aggregious. My husband noticed the waiter wasn't personable and brought out the wrong food, but he didn't notice "attitude." And my husband LOVED his steak. So we are likely to be back - in fact, he will be in Orlando without us (me or the kids) this Spring and has reservations at Jiko. The kids may be teenagers before they make it back - but that is more of a "so many restaurants, so little time" than "never again."

The kids menu posted on allearsnet looks really good - I'd have no complaints with that one and that was more in line with what we were expecting after having the kids menu at Flying Fish earlier in the week. But, that wasn't the kids menu we had - which didn't have either the chicken or the salmon on it. Wish it had been - though my big complaint wasn't the quality of the kids food - it was the attitude and competence of our waiter.

We had the opposite experience at Flying Fish earlier in the week, where the waiter went out of his way to engage the kids. He cut their meat for them, helped them pick dessert, talked to them - even brought the real glasses instead of kids cups commenting on their ages and how grown up they were. A good waiter can really make you think bringing your kids was a great idea. A bad one can make you think you made a big mistake. And since they started by putting us in a side room (when you are a couple, a quiet side room is romantic. When you have kids, my immediate thought with a side room in an empty restaurant is "did my kids sprout horns while I wasn't looking.")....

(I also misordered absolutely everything and didn't REALLY enjoy anything I had - no, wait, the flatbread was incredible. But my entree was wrong for me, dessert was wrong for me, and even the Cosmopolitan I had was their "bar" version - and I should have stuck with a straight Cosmo. The food was probably objectively great, other people have had the same dishes and rave. But I didn't enjoy them nearly as much as I'd antcipated.)

 

[Uncleromulus]

Had dinner at Jiko any # of times now, and always plenty of kids of all ages (and ,unfortunately, all behaviors) on hand.

 

[nbodyhome]

I think I've seen as many meltdowns from adults as I have children at Disney! But I think that taking a child out for a few minutes in any restaurant is a good idea if they are having a tantrum (not just Jiko). If your kids our fine at other restaurants, they should be fine there. The restaurants at Disney (except V and A) are for everyone - not just adults. You may find it more comfortable earlier in the evening, as there are often more families at that time (as opposed to say, after 9).

Denise

 

[ducklite]

I think I've seen as many meltdowns from adults as I have children at Disney! But I think that taking a child out for a few minutes in any restaurant is a good idea if they are having a tantrum (not just Jiko). If your kids our fine at other restaurants, they should be fine there. The restaurants at Disney (except V and A) are for everyone - not just adults. You may find it more comfortable earlier in the evening, as there are often more families at that time (as opposed to say, after 9).

Denise

This is true, although I want to add Bistro is not kid friendly--no childs menu, and I want to think no high chairs.

We took my neice and nephew to Jiko, it proved to be a bit much for the four year old neice, sinple solution, we took turns walking her around the pool area and looking at animals while dinner was finished. On the other hand, my two year old neice handled it beautifully. All kids are different, and all kids have good and bad days. The key is knowing your kids and being respectful of those around you.

Anne

 

[Peter Pirate]

Crisi, yours is a valid point. I have had a not so good experience or two at Jiko in the past but the greats far outweigh the so-so's...Still there is ALWAYS going to be the off occasion. As for FF, this is probably our favorite WDW spot but even they have breakdowns occasionally. It's also a much louder place so kids noise blends a little more. But two weeks ago we had the pleasure of being near a family whose kid (4ish) found it necessary to scream at the top of his lungs every minute or so and run circles around the table. These parents earned the scorn of evey other diner that night (by doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING) and parents of good children everywhere had their reputations tarnished by age association, I'm afraid.

 

[**pixiedust**]

Thanks everyone for all the replies and advice. What we will do is make an early ADR for Jiko. DH and I really want to go there, but we have always been very concsious of where we bring the kids. I have to say that they are well behaved, but I still feel that no matter how well behaved they are, that anything can happen at any moment and there are some places that I just wouldn't bring them (such as V and A). There is nothing worse than paying top dollar for a meal and having to listen to a toddler meltdown - we've had it happen to us when we were dining without the kids in a nice place.

I love my kids but I realize that everyone else may not have the same affinity for them that I do

Thanks all!

 

[Abra Cat]

We ate at Jiko on 12/9 (the last night of our trip) with our 6 & 4 year old children. It was our second time eating there (the first time they were 5 & 3). It is our favorite restaurant. There were plenty of kids there that night.

Hey, we were there that night, too. Our reservation was for 7, but they were able to seat us closer to 6:30. We sat near the door-- you probably passed us one your way out. Our kids (8, 6, and 2) were mostly well behaved, although the 2 year old was getting antsy near the end (until dessert arrived, though). We were ready to rush him out if he got out of hand. We were there about an hour and a half, appetizers through dessert, and definitely saw lots of kids, none badly behaved that I noticed.

I don't know if it was the kids - were treated coldly by the waiter (who was lousy and brought out the wrong food, didn't ask us if we wanted refills on our drinks, and rushed us).

We weren't thrilled by the service, either. Our server was very efficient (although now that I think about it, she never offered drink refills, either), but not personable. Our order was right (and delicious!), but she'd check on us and then rush away without the normal "chit-chat" you typically have with a server. She probably wasn't thrilled to work a table with kids.

 

[crisi]

We weren't thrilled by the service, either. Our server was very efficient (although now that I think about it, she never offered drink refills, either), but not personable. Our order was right (and delicious!), but she'd check on us and then rush away without the normal "chit-chat" you typically have with a server. She probably wasn't thrilled to work a table with kids.

Its hard to say whether it was kids or if we just got stuck with Mr. Sourpuss-I'm-Not-Paying-Attention. Since I'm sensitive to having my kids in a nice place, I tend to say "wasn't thrilled to work with kids" but I really wasn't paying attention to how he treated the table with just adults.

Peter, you are right. Part of my uncomfortableness had to do with the quiet and subdued atmophere. The dark wood, the wine bottle decorations. Compared to Flying Fish, which has the open kitchen and bright decor, Jiko just seemed much less "kid friendly." Jiko reminded me of Artist's Point in that respect - the restaurant may be great for kids, but the DECOR seems to want adults - and adults who are dressed up, on their best behavior and going to engage in sophiticated and witty banter - to sit there.

 

[MEM]

One of my very best Disney memories was at Jiko with my then 8 year old daughter. As we walked in the hostess provided DD with a black and white coloring sheet and two crayons, one black and one red. DD voiced displeasure at the color choices, "You can't color very well with a black crayon". The hostess explained that this was all they had and kindly suggested these were Mickey's colors. But a few minutes later she was back with a set of crayons in all the colors of the rainbow (probably from the gift shop).
The service was exceptional and the food was wonderful. After our meal the server came by, asked for my daughter by name, and said he had a call for her. He brought a phone to the table. It was Goofy! My daughter was thrilled and so was I!
Wishing you similar wonderful experiences!

We had a very similar experience at Jiko - our server made DD then 8 feel like quite a young lady. He also brought special desserts for DS then 9 and DD that were not on the menu. He made my kids feel welcome without patronizing them. They received similar treatment at Teppanyaki.

 

[LeftCoaster]

We had a great experience with my 4 & 6 year old nieces this past October. dinner lasted over 2 hours and they were perfectly fine suring the meal. That day, we didn't do the parks so, they were well rested. (We had been up in Gainesville visiting family for the day). We took a little time before dinner to tour the savannahs and pool area. Also, our server, Shellie, was just absolutely amazing with er service and her interaction with the girls. She got a huge tip and a letter to Disney from us.