Eating out at a pub or restaurant with family can be a luxury, with the chance to take a night off from the stove and indulge in your favorite cuisines. However, eating out with both the kids and the adults in your family does not always run smoothly. There are many problems that can occur, especially if you have a fussy eater or a hyperactive toddler on your hands.
Luckily, here are some of the best tips that you can try to ensure that your dinner out goes well and that you have the chance to sample the delicacies on offer.
Choose the Right Restaurant
The first step to eating out stress-free is to choose the right restaurant for you and your family’s appetites. If you have kids, some cafes cater specifically for children, with bright pastel environments, toy areas, and lots of available highchairs to keep kids happy. Rather than choose chains which kids might not frequent often, and which might be too busy for you and your family to enjoy yourselves, you should also consider looking at the independent restaurants in your area. These can often cater specifically to your needs, whether that be menu changes or a high chair.
Find a Varied Menu
To ensure that everyone is happy with the restaurant that you have chosen, you should also make sure that its menu appeals to everyone in your family, especially if you are choosing foreign cuisines with unusual flavorings. You should make sure that the restaurant in question has a varied menu from which everyone can pick something that they like. You can often find menus online to peruse before you head out to the restaurant itself. Pubs and restaurants also often have special menus for children or exclusive menus for different occasions, with pubs in Chichester providing a range of menus that include Sunday roasts and vegetarian options.
Provide Entertainment
To stop teenagers from becoming fixated on their phones or kids from getting bored, why not consider entertainment for the younger members of your family while you eat? While many pubs and restaurants provide activities such as coloring and puzzles for younger children, it is also possible to bring your own entertainment in the form of good restaurant games. You should also make sure that every member of the family is engaged in the conversation, which can both help to make eating out a chance to get to know each other, as well as keep your minds off your hunger while you wait for the food to arrive.
Pick the Right Time
Picking the right time for both the adults and the kids in your party to eat is also important. For instance, when you have kids with you, it is vital that you stick to their routine as much as possible, such as eating around naps or bedtime, and ensuring that they do not stay up too late or become tired. However, picking the right time is also important for adults, and you should check that the time is suitable for everyone, so that no-one needs to rush their food for prior commitments that are in conflict with the meal.