Tiffins for Kids?

[Kbosch]

Our ADR day is Monday and most of our top choices are popular places ('Ohana, Be Our Guest, etc.) so I'm trying to come up with "Plan B" if/when we don't get any of those. I was looking at the Festival of the Lion King Package with Tiffins. I'm trying to fit in one or two "nice" meals for my mom, stepdad and sister, but we will also be there with my 3 kids all under the age of 6. How is Tiffins for kids? I know they have a kids menu but I've also read that this is a good date night place so I don't want to disrupt anyone's dinner. Thanks!

 

[NYCgrrl]

Our ADR day is Monday and most of our top choices are popular places ('Ohana, Be Our Guest, etc.) so I'm trying to come up with "Plan B" if/when we don't get any of those. I was looking at the Festival of the Lion Package with Tiffins. I'm trying to fit in one or two "nice" meals for my mom, stepdad and sister, but we will also be there with my 3 kids all under the age of 6. How is Tiffins for kids? I know they have a kids menu but I've also read that this is a good date night place so I don't want to disrupt anyone's dinner. Thanks!

Most any of the signature restaurants are accommodating to younger children if nothing else because the owners would love the LOs of now to come tomorrow.
That being said I've seen small children at Tiffins and brought older ones there as well. Nice food and atmosphere with different dining spaces to meet many needs.
I'd give it a try for multi generational eating.

 

[soniam]

It's one of our son's favorites, but he gets the adult steak.

 

[holden]

Other than maybe Victoria & Alberts (older children are allowed) and Trader Sam's (after 8:00pm no kids allowed), I can't think of any place that wouldn't welcome kids.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

We went with our fancy restaurant savvy daughter and not exactly restaurant savvy godson (both age 5) last year. The boy needed a good walk outside with his mom to cure squirmies at one point. Our girl was fine. Neither ate particularly much of their meal, but that's not all that unexpected. We and our godson's parents had good food and drinks, and were happy. Ultimately, I think that's the goal.

 

[Cramden]

You know your kids better than anyone else. I'm guessing if they were the type who's heads spun around and they projectile vomited you wouldn't be bringing them on vacation. If they're normal kids prone to the occasional age appropriate behaviors nobody will even notice they were there.

Go and have fun. Tiffin's is a fantastic Restaurant. They might be lacking the usual Mickey Pasta and Chicken Fingers but they do have several options that should suite your little ones.

 

[icesk8abc]

We had our almost 2 and newly 4 year old at Tiffins last September. We were in the room with all the animal sculptures on the wall which kept them fairly occupied between courses playing I Spy/Can you find_____. They got a little antsy toward the end, but it was almost 2 hours so that's to be expected. We brought in some color sheets and crayons as well which helped. The staff was very understanding and it wasn't very crowded (5:00 dinner) which helped as well.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

We have eaten at Tiffins 3 times and each time our girls love it. First time they were 3 and 5 and ate off the kids menu. I can’t remember exactly what they had but no complaints. This last trip they were 5 and 7. They got the adult filet, rare of course, and loved it!

 

[sponica]

My 20 month old loved it, after she woke up from her stroller nap. Granted we went for lunch, the restaurant was practically empty.

At the end of the day it's a restaurant IN A THEME PARK. Nobody should be upset at the vision of kids. The same rules for kids apply as other restaurants, don't be running around like crazed aliens. Don't scream at the top of your lungs. (there's a difference between omg i'm so excited loud, and loud for the sake of being loud).

 

[gharter]

Have seen lots of kids at Tiffins. As long as you have things to keep them occupied while you are eating, you should be good. Of course, that holds true no matter where you eat.

 

[ScoutsMom21]

My philosophy is that children don't learn how to behave in nice restaurants if they never experience them. We've brought our kids to the fancier restaurants at WDW since they were 5 years old (the age of their first Disney trip). We've always found the servers to be wonderfully accommodating and prepared to help the kids enjoy their dining experience. But most importantly, we've learned to come to any restaurant prepared to keep the kiddos occupied. As some examples, our kids have always been crazy about the card game Uno, so I never travel without it. I always have Uno in my purse. It's saved the day many a time. "Spot it" is another travel friendly game that I sometimes have on me, though they've outgrown it in more recent years. We're also very careful about how much snacking we allow in the parks in the hour or two leading up to our dinner reservations. I want the kids HUNGRY so that butts stay in seats and they're focused on the meal. Now that they're older (5th graders), my husband and I also keep a few books loaded on Kindle apps on our phones so they can read when they're bored. Last trip we let them travel with our old pocket digital cameras so they could take their own pictures of our adventures. They had a BLAST looking over their pictures each day at dinner. Honestly, we had a lot of great conversations over our meal about our favorite moments of the day thanks to their picture taking, so that's a fun tradition we'll encourage for years to come.

 

[gharter]

My philosophy is that children don't learn how to behave in nice restaurants if they never experience them. We've brought our kids to the fancier restaurants at WDW since they were 5 years old (the age of their first Disney trip). We've always found the servers to be wonderfully accommodating and prepared to help the kids enjoy their dining experience. But most importantly, we've learned to come to any restaurant prepared to keep the kiddos occupied. As some examples, our kids have always been crazy about the card game Uno, so I never travel without it. I always have Uno in my purse. It's saved the day many a time. "Spot it" is another travel friendly game that I sometimes have on me, though they've outgrown it in more recent years. We're also very careful about how much snacking we allow in the parks in the hour or two leading up to our dinner reservations. I want the kids HUNGRY so that butts stay in seats and they're focused on the meal. Now that they're older (5th graders), my husband and I also keep a few books loaded on Kindle apps on our phones so they can read when they're bored. Last trip we let them travel with our old pocket digital cameras so they could take their own pictures of our adventures. They had a BLAST looking over their pictures each day at dinner. Honestly, we had a lot of great conversations over our meal about our favorite moments of the day thanks to their picture taking, so that's a fun tradition we'll encourage for years to come.

Sounds like our philosphy when our kids were young. We never had a problem with them at any restaurant and they started around age 3 at WDW. As always, being prepared with activities for them is important.

 

[rg35]

We have been twice with our triplets at both 7 and 8 years old and had two enjoyable meals there.

All kids are different though. Ours are exposed to a wide variety of home cooked meals at home and don't fall into the "only eat chicken nuggets" demographic...so it's impossible to predict whether or not any of our experiences will be representative of yours.

 

[angelmav]

Ours has eaten in Michelin star restaurants in Europe, and will be 7 when we eat at Tiffins, but she is a slow eater who likes it quiet. I am more worried about eating someplace hectic. Bottom line, know what your kid can handle ahead of time.

 

[mikeyg1479]

Its not themed in any way for kids, but I'll say our server was super nice and attentive to our kids (about 3 and 8 at the time). Was nervous about dining at such at a nice place with boisterous kids, but there were other families dining too with little ones in our area, and couldn't have been made to feel more welcome

 

[Jennifer777]

To piggyback off the original question, I'm taking two 11 year old girls next month and would love to do the Festival of the Lion King package as well, but both girls are not adventurous eaters at all. It looks like they are too old for the kids meal at Tiffins under normal circumstances, but since this package requires them to pay adult prices anyway, will they just allow them to order food from the kids menu? Has anyone had any luck with special orders? These kids would be happy with a bowl of mac and cheese and fruit.

 

[MsMagical]

To piggyback off the original question, I'm taking two 11 year old girls next month and would love to do the Festival of the Lion King package as well, but both girls are not adventurous eaters at all. It looks like they are too old for the kids meal at Tiffins under normal circumstances, but since this package requires them to pay adult prices anyway, will they just allow them to order food from the kids menu? Has anyone had any luck with special orders? These kids would be happy with a bowl of mac and cheese and fruit.

The short answer to this is - most likely. Our experience at Tiffins is that they are very accomodating. And, I've never been turned down when I ordered a kids meal for myself (I sometimes prefer the smaller portions). Obviously, the package is a bit of a different situation but I'm sure they could figure out a good option for your girls.

 

[NYCgrrl]

To piggyback off the original question, I'm taking two 11 year old girls next month and would love to do the Festival of the Lion King package as well, but both girls are not adventurous eaters at all. It looks like they are too old for the kids meal at Tiffins under normal circumstances, but since this package requires them to pay adult prices anyway, will they just allow them to order food from the kids menu? Has anyone had any luck with special orders? These kids would be happy with a bowl of mac and cheese and fruit.

As long as mac and cheese and fresh fruit is on the menu I can't imagine why they wouldn't serve it to your young ladies. Same for them eating from the kids' menu. Would be a win win for both sides. Your children would eat what they like and the restaurant would make an enormous profit.

As for a special order from say the allergy menu if this is your only TS restaurant that could work but might become problematic if if you've plans for other sit down meals.

 

[elsbit]

I disagree that the theming is not kid friendly. There are lighted animals on the walls, butterflies, and animal totem poles. Lots of interesting things to look at. I have taken my kids there and have seen plenty of other kids there. The one thing you can count on is Disney restaurants will always have kid friendly food! I totally recommend it!

 

[sponica]

I disagree that the theming is not kid friendly. There are lighted animals on the walls, butterflies, and animal totem poles. Lots of interesting things to look at. I have taken my kids there and have seen plenty of other kids there. The one thing you can count on is Disney restaurants will always have kid friendly food! I totally recommend it!

My daughter loved looking at the lions on the walls and inhaling the bread service my MIL refused to eat....