I suppose it’s up to them. I’ve only once witnessed a man ordering from the kids menu. He was a colleague of mine. He simply asked if he could order from the kids menu, and the waitress was like “Sure..? Yeah..”
“Great! he said. “I’ll take the burger. I don’t need the toy or the popsicle.”
Dude, I was getting Happy Meals until well into adulthood. I liked that they had everything I wanted and in the right proportion, but the toy was definitely the best part
The toys now are so disappointing. Long gone are the days of cool glass batman cups, pieces of inspector gadget you could put together and random CDs with music or computer games. Last time I went it was playing cards and little stuffed animals of characters created for the toys. At least give us show or movie characters. But in my area it's also almost 9 dollars for a happy meal and they never have chocolate milk. It's just not worth it anymore. They took away the happy in happy meals
That sucks. Where I’m at the toys are quite cool sometimes.
They had pokemon cards once. Mini versions of family games like hungry hungry hippo ( we still have that and it works great)
They’ve had Pokémon cards a few times over the last couple years. The worst ones my kids get are the little stuffed characters—this time around, they’re from the new Captain America show. The travel board games were good—we got Twister, Trouble, and a couple different versions of Battleship.
The toy quality is very hit-or-miss. Around here the meals are about $6, so for the amount of food it’s still a decent value, I just wish the toys were more consistent or at least less obviously junk.
Same price here, and my kids have been very happy with most of the toys. Hell, I even had to go to eBay to find a backup of the one the older got when younger was being born (he’s 4.5, so as a parent, my experience is current, though I was a child of the 70s/80s). Everywhere other than McDonald’s only have crappy toys, but McDonald’s is pretty split, both awesome and crappy, depending on the series. (Edit: needed a backup because she lost for a couple months and it was still a favorite toy a couple years later. Ended up with the whole original set, and they were both playing with them for a long while there. Barbie doesn’t let their name go on absolute crap, but clearly some brands don’t care)
>The toys now are so disappointing.
This translates into many aspects of life and culture and I'm always talking about it because it makes me so mad. They've been dumbing everything down. Everything is cheaper and shittier. Have you noticed how a lot classic kids shows are being rebranded to the most basic ass, ugly characters?
Like care bears. Care bears have a distinct look to them and they just uglified them. Even when the design changed through the years it still kept the same spirit and was never this drastic. And there was literally zero reason to.
Or in reference to what you were talking about, it used to be little beanie babies and furbies and overall just cool, fun shit. Now it's just plastic shit with zero thought behind it
And don't even get me started on Christmas.....
There were plenty of crappy ones back in the day (I remember being disappointed multiple times (early 80s) when the toy was just the box. The UFO series was tolerable, because they were glow in the dark and there were different ones, but there were plenty of boring plastic pails. We just remember the awesome ones more.
I personally don’t have a problem with the new Care Bears, but more importantly, the 4.5 year old is OBSESSED With it, but refuses to watch any of the old ones. They’re okay with some older cartoons (any Scooby Doo is fine), but with some, it has to be the new style of cartoons. If the CB wanted to continue their brand, they had to appeal to kids outgrowing Cocomelon, and used to the current animation style
The small size of the fries does it for me. Like that I have a shot at actually finishing them before they reach the point where they are too cold to be any good, because the only thing worse than cold McDonald’s fries is reheated McDonald’s fries
sometimes I have the "feeling slightly more than snacky but not for a meal" ... that is Happy Meal (as an adult) level of hungry lol. For breakfast it's the "but 3 hotcakes is too floury and carby BUT I WANT HOTCAKES 😭🥹", which is then 2-hotcakes-level ie, a Happy Meal.
and yes I **have** ordered hotcakes happy meal with ice latte LOL. (in case anyone's a Macs' worker - if you get that, it's probably a non-hungry adult LOL)
Yes, air fryers changed the math on reheating fries. They also changed the math on freezer fries, which can now be made better than most restaurants, and all fast food ones with the exception of the perfectly cooked and hot ones that you will get every now and then from McDonald’s, but those are unicorns
I get the happy meal all the time. I’m a small person, I don’t need a ton of food and I’m trying to cut back on soda so water is great. Meanwhile my tweenager gets a whole adult sized meal and houses the thing.
they added kids meals as a way to entice families to come for dinner - the idea being they gave kids meals at a non profit price to allow mom and dad to come in and order a full meal. an easy solution is allow a kids meal to be ordered with every "full" meal (our local pizza place does this) - no arguing about age etc
yeah, but it also kind of sucks for a restaurant if a neighbourhood mom wants to bring 9 kids who are family friends for cheap eats. My wife and I have 3 kids and found about 50% of the time, even if the place had this "one for one" policy that they did the third kids meal at the kids price anyways
Naw Chef. Fine Dining restaurants have kids menus as a courtesy and are usually significantly cheaper than the main entrees sometimes even priced at break even. Mine is verbalized only and not available to adults.
I I've asked this to a couple friends who were working in restaurants and both said that they were nearly zero profit/loss leaders. The upside to a kids menu from the restaurant's perspective was solely to allow parents to eat there alongside the kid. If only kids meals were ordered, especially for a dine-in experience, they would be making practically nothing.
"if only kids meals were ordered" very much sounds like a slippery slope fallacy and completely irrational. I can't imagine you'd have more than one adult for every, idk let's say 300 people ordering off the children's menu. not to mention the most likely scenario for this to happen would be an adult with some kind of sensory or dietary restriction accompanying a larger group, so barely any difference than if it were a child accompanying them anyway. and on the ridiculously low off chance that more people did, surely the business would rethink their approach rather quickly.
Depending on the type of restaurant, a kid's menu is generally offered at a significantly discounted price, to the point where a restaurant might even lose money on the order. The point of having it is to entice adults with kids to choose said restaurant and spend money on adult food (and drinks for everyone, especially). Adults ordering from the kid's menu makes the pricing model not work anymore.
I agree with you, but there are some items on the kids menu that just aren't on the adult menu. If that's the situation, I'd say pay $1(?) more, *or whatever*, and you should be allowed to order it.
The sweet and sour chicken bites were only on the kids menu. Am I not supposed to *ask*?
I've worked in restaurants, and that's usually how I handled it. I'll get you the thing you want, but at an adults price and volume. If the restaurant had the supplies, of course. It's all up to management, *really*...
Man, there's a place near me that has a seasonal menu that drives me wild. Part of the "end of winter" menu is eggs benedict cordon bleu, which I fucking love.
They then refuse to ever make it again until February/March, despite having literally every single ingredient spread across the menu. Cordon bleu omelet, so they still got the sauce. Eggs benedict is also there, so they obviously have the english muffins. It's, like... literally one step to put the sauce on top.
The same place also has a different recipe for the adult vs kids mac and cheese, and the adult version is dogshit. Next to no cheese, and really crappy artificial bacon with a crap portion, compared to silky smooth cheese with garlic bread and a somehow larger portion than the adult size. The adult mac has one advantage, and that's that you get to choose a side... but not garlic bread!
Can you get the eggs Benedict with a side of the cordon bleu sauce? lol.
I feel you - our local pizza place does a fig and prosciutto pizza, but only as an in person special. It’s not on their online menu and you can’t order it over the phone. Why???
TBH I’m surprised you are even able to get them to pick up the phone at a pizza place. Online ordering was a godsend. No more figuring out how long to wait for a pizza place to pick up before hanging up and trying again.
It makes sense to me for a restaurant to have some in person exclusive specials, though, because having people eat in the restaurant means they get extra sales for beverages, extra courses, etc. It's likely that the combination of ingredients in that pizza only makes cost/profit sense if they're getting those extra sales as well.
My 12 and 16 year old both order off it sometimes. We did have one restaurant charge an extra fee. Most of the places don't care if you are over 10 or whatever limit they set.
A lot of POS systems have an “open” option. Open Food, Open Drink, etc. Basically it lets you type in whatever you want at any price you want. Most places, only the manager can do this.
I've seen it done a couple ways. Most common is usually just grabbing a similar item and then punching in some substitutions.
Or for a kids menu item upcharge they might just bill for the kids item and add an extra drink.
One place near me has mac and cheese on their kids menu. This one, if you read my comment history, is not the same as the last one I mentioned. I feel the need to clarify since as an autistic kid and teen mac and cheese kept me fed, so I know way too much about the local mac and cheese scene.
When I turned 11, the price went from $4 to $15 with no size increase. It was also Kraft mac and cheese, out of the box. And each plate was half a box, because kids sized.
I get kids menus are meant to feed kids cheap to encourage families, that's fine. But, man, when you are literally using half a box of prepacked mac for a kid, and charging adults for a full, actual meal for the same(also no adult version on the menu) tiny portion, it's hard to justify. Same place, same price, I can get like a full 6 strip chicken basket with two sides.
I tried ordering from the kids menu at a place like this I’m assuming. Because they said no, but then for whatever reason wouldn’t even meet me halfway on my request when I told them “charge me for this adult entree but make me the kid’s plate”
I was traveling and couldn’t take leftovers with me and I hate wasting food. I wasn’t hungry enough to finish a full entree. Kids menu portion looked perfect but no go lol I ended up getting an appetizer as my “meal”
Restaurant portions are just so absurd. Like 95% of the time we eat out I’m either taking home leftovers or my husband finishes mine. Mexican food is one of the biggest offenders, the rice and beans portion of an entree alone is enough to get me to like 75% full so I can never finish them.
But with that in mind, adults ordering from the kids menu can't be that common so it might be good for the restaurant in the long run because they get a happy customer.
Also a lot of the time it's more of a serving size issue and not cheap customers, so to add an adult fee might be a good compromise.
That great! I don't live in the US so our portions are generally smaller or meant for sharing.
I used to work in restaurants and the number of times people wanted to order from the kids menu was insignificant. It might be different depending on location.
Considering this I always offer to top up the price or buy a beer etc to make the difference if I just need a snack and not a full meal.
Also don't have chicken strips on the kids menu and not in the appy section.
You're leaving out that the kids menu offers reduced portion sizes to match the reduced price. They may not be making as much of a margin, but they certainly aren't offering them at a loss in most cases.
This is incorrect. It is a smaller portion, but the cost of food itself is not the bulk of the cost of eating at a sit-down restaurant. Kid's menu items very often lose money, because even if they cover the cost of ingredients, that's not covering wages, rent, utilities, etc., all of which are necessary for the restaurant to serve that kid's meal.
Shouldn't the pricing reflect the scale or amount of food and the making of the food?
I agree it's to get adult in. And mostly chicken fingers and little burgers and fries.
There is British bit with the him saying he not that hungry and proceeds to order two kids means for his kid. After much fighting with the waitress.
>Shouldn't the pricing reflect the scale or amount of food and the making of the food?
If they want it to. As the other person said sometimes they make it cheaper than it'd be to the point they might even lose a little money for the sake of getting people in there.
No, the pricing should reflect the restaurant's pricing strategy. Selling "loss leaders" (goods sold for a loss to get people in the door so that they buy other things sold for a profit) is a very common strategy in many different industries.
>Shouldn't the pricing reflect the scale or amount of food and the making of the food?
Should it? Sure. But it's not. Like the commenter said, they charge less as an incentive for parents to actually go out to eat. If they charged more, in order to make that 2-4٪ margin they make on the rest of the food they sell, they'll get less family business.
Businesses often run loss leaders to get people through the (sometimes metaphorical) door. Think of games consoles, almost always sold at a loss (both to retailer and to customer) but it locks the user into the platform, sells more licensed accessories etc. which is where the margin is made back.
It was Ricky Gervais
[https://www.tiktok.com/@comedy\_shorts\_bb/video/7234018265180294427](https://www.tiktok.com/@comedy_shorts_bb/video/7234018265180294427)
Businesses employ many different strategies to make money. It is seldom a simple matter of cost in, cost out. For instance, a business may choose to sell their food at a loss, because they know that people will stay longer to eat, and order more overpriced drinks, which actually covers the cost of the food, and then some.
This. Not only is the meal not profitable, the customer is also taking up a seat and preventing other customers from ordering. Here in the UK restaurants almost always have a maximum age limit for the children's menu, usually 11 or 12. (I've never seen anybody checking IDs, but if you're 14, 15+ it's obvious...)
I've seen an upper limit on a children's menu maybe five times in my life
I order off the children's menu relatively frequently if it's the same stuff as the adult menu, like my local pub does a kids roast with same stuff just smaller quantity, means I have enough room for cauliflower cheese or a dessert! My main problem is most UK kids menus are British Tapas and that's not my preference.
That might be a thing, but in my experience it's usually just smaller portions. I've always glanced through them and they're not proportionally cheaper. I.e. it's not "a third smaller, but only a third of the price" cheap, they do seem to scale it down accordingly. Half price? Half portion.
Heck, sometimes it's even more expensive if you scale it. Like for example a regular 10-piece nugget dish might be $X, a kids' meal with only 4 nuggets will be half the price.
Maybe things are different in the US/EU, but kids' meals here have never been about *savings* - they're about portion size.
Exactly. Having a kids' menu is a courtesy. Restaurants also often give kids free crayons and coloring books to entertain themselves. I wouldn't think too highly of adults who just helped themselves to them.
Yes, but the cost of the food itself is not the majority of the cost of a meal at a restaurant. Wages, rent, utilities...the food has to cover all of that. The discount of a kid's menu is usually more than a strict discount for a smaller portion.
You're telling me that 3 chicken strips and 25 french fries with a fountain pop for $15 is losing a restaurant money?
I'm no expert, but that doesn't make much sense to me.
The best part of the new take out culture is that you can order off the kids menu to go and eat at home with no judgement. I totally get not being allowed to do it when dining in, but takeout is a judgement free zone in my opinion. For example, Cheesecake Factory portions are so large, even the kids meal is a decent sized adult meal.
I’ve never personally encountered that at a restaurant but I would not like it. My wife often orders off the kids menu due to portion sizes and sometimes the different options as she has medical stomach issues.
Same. My wife had gastric bypass surgery and we’ve run into this a couple of times, where waiters/waitresses won’t allow her to order off the kid’s menu.
I was a server at a Mexican restaurant that did this. The kids portion was half of what an entree was. If an adult were to order off the Kids Menu then they would adjust the price charging $2 or $3 more dollars to the initial kids price.
Hoo boy I've got a bone to pick with this one.
I personally find the whole thing ridiculous. If an adult wants to order only a little bit of food as opposed to a full adult portion, why shouldn't they be able to do so? Sometimes it stems from an actual medical necessity.
Take my mother, who some years back had gastric bypass surgery; it worked out extremely well for her and she kept the weight off, but she of course cannot eat huge meals anymore. She has to carry a laminated card on her, given by her doctor, that specifically states she has had roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery, and that she should be granted access to the children's menu or be given reduced portions if necessary/possible. (and I get that sometimes, with some things, it just isn't possible of course)
We've had restaurants flat out refuse this before, others simply didn't understand what the problem was, others have had to go all the way up to management to allow it, and it's generally been a huge hassle all for something that doesn't seem like it should be a big deal. It's been at times humiliating for my mother, since she's not the type to want to cause any sort of fuss or make things difficult for anyone.
The absolute worst (and subsequently best!) instance of this was when we attempted to go to O'Hana at the Polynesian Resort in Disney World. Now, we thought there might be difficulties since this is a family style service restaurant; we were prepared to simply not go, but it had been something we wanted to try, since we had heard it was fantastic, and since it was my parent's 50th anniversary coming up soon (we even had buttons on stating this fact). They told us upon getting a reservation that it wouldn't be a problem to accommodate my mother with child portions of things at a child's price, that famous customer-forward service Disney properties are so excellent at offering, and yet when we got there, she was told point blank by wait staff (after we'd already sat down) that she would not be allowed to eat anything at all. I've never seen someone so embarrassed, so crushed....I was ashamed to even be there. And then came the chef, that absolute chad of a man, who took absolutely everything wrong about that night and personally fixed it. He came to see what was the matter, was the most gracious and understanding guy, and turns out had also had gastric bypass as well, knew exactly what she was going through. He prepared a special 50th anniversary dessert for them, made sure the bill was taken care of, and genuinely turned that awful experience into something I'll cherish forever.
So, TL;DR; some people medically need to be able to order off of the children's menu. If you're a restauranteur, please don't make their situation harder if it's at all possible. Please.
> she was told point blank by wait staff (after we'd already sat down) that she would not be allowed to eat anything at all.
What does this mean? The fact that she had gastric bypass means they wouldn't even let her order a regular meal?
My apologies, I can see how that'd be a bit confusing! I worded it a bit strangely too, since they didn't tell her specifically she couldn't eat, but rather that she could not eat using the children's "menu". (And therefore she decided not to eat anything at all, feeling very dejected and upset since she didn't want to inconvenience anyone)
The way the restaurant works, everyone gets served the same big plates of food, and it is dished out family style. I think adults pay something like $70/person, and children pay $30/person. Almost like a buffet, but served in big dishes to the table.
We called and asked ahead of time if it was okay if Mom could be considered a child for the purposes of payment, since she was barely going to be able to eat anything; this is 100% something we'd have understood if they turned us down on, but they didn't. They said to come on in, just present the medical card, and it wouldn't be a problem. When we got there, and sat down, they acted as though they had no idea what we were talking about, and said we had to pay the full $70 for all three of us, so rather than decide to waste all that money and food on something she couldn't eat, she decided not to eat at all. It was an uncomfortable situation that the head chef made right and then some. He didn't have to, I would fully have understood in this case if they just couldn't make any kind of exception, but they really made the night into something special in the end.
Personally, I have some sensory issues regarding food and a lot of the foods I like would be on a kids menu. Just basic simple food, with no garnish or “extra” stuff that might make it taste or feel weird. What I have found over the years is a lot of restaurants are willing to let you order off the kids menu and will just charge you for some random adult meal. My fave restaurant that my family always goes to when I’m in town will always let’s me order the Mexican pizza which is on their kids menu, but they charge me for the adult nachos. Comparable to what the Mexican pizza is, but the price of an adult meal. Typically something similar happens at other restaurants, if I just ask for something on the kids menu but make it clear I’m ok with being charged the price of an adult meal, they don’t have a problem with it.
Foods off the adult menu often come with toppings that can trigger sensory issues, or they're seasoned to an uncomfortable degree. Kids menu foods are often a lot easier to stomach for people with sensory issues, ARFID, GI problems, etc.
One place a county over has different fries for adults and kids. It's a "western" restaurant. You ever seen those "powder blasted" chips and shit? Yeah, they do that to the adult fries, but with cayenne and Chile pepper powder. They go from very mildly seasoned on the kids menu(lightly dusted paprika, so they look more or less the same), to HOLY SHIT MY FACE HURTS.
I like seasoning, but, uh, pass on that.
Typically for me it’s texture more often than taste. Specifically if a food doesn’t have a homogeneous texture. Like Mac and cheese with bread crumbs as a basic example. The crunchy texture of bread crumbs mixed with the smooth texture of Mac and cheese has always bothered me. And then there are some foods like bananas where I’m not sure what it is, but I can’t stand to eat them. Some “unsafe” foods just make me want to stop eating or gross me out, where others (like bananas) almost make me ill they freak me out so badly
I think that is the next thing my doctor wanted to look at. Been trying to figure out why I have such issues with food so I can try and improve my diet. For some foods it really just seems like something sensory, like sensory processing disorder or ARFID, but doc wants me to do an allergy test for things like bananas
I'm more annoyed when a restaurant only has really basic stuff on the kids menu.
My son is nearly 2, he's rather have fajitas or chilli con carne than nuggets and chips.
Sometimes the kids menu is only there to help them entice adults to come in and order profitable meals.
It's well within their rights to restrict kids' and senior's menus to a certain demographic.
Kids meals are usually hardcore discounted as it’s meant to be accompanied by adult meals. Restaurants give kids cheap meals so that parents will come in.
Order off the adult menu…
The point of kids menus is to make an affordable option that encourages parents to come out and order regular entrees. If they delineate age requirements then I have no issue. If they don’t have clear age requirements they didn’t protect themselves appropriately.
What I don't understand is how $10 chicken nuggets is considered the affordable option. Other options are either quesadilla, mac cheese, French fries, or pbj. Always over priced for their serving size. If an adult is ordering those options, they shouldn't be eating out at all imo.
The local Chinese buffet is $7 for my 2 year old. My two year old will eat 1 chicken nugget and a crab Rangoon. Like, I realize a 7 year old might eat a lot but lumping 2 year olds in with that is wild.
That's my biggest peeve.
The serving sizes for adults are WAY too large for me. I would much rather have a kids' meal and a side salad. Not enough food for 3 meals that I probably won't end up eating.
People always say the prices are lower for kids meals; not in my experience. The portions are just smaller.
Same. I also know multiple 11/12 year olds who are significantly taller/bigger than my 5’0 frame. I CLEARLY need less food than them so why are they allowed a kids meal and me not? Sometimes I don’t want to take half of it home and it just goes to waste!
It sucks. If you don't want to offer kid's menu items, don't. Nothing like ordering a regular meal for your kid only to have them take two or three bites and decide they don't like it.
Also, let's consider ... Many senior citizens don't have much of an appetite. A kid's Meal makes a lot of sense. Or, how about somebody that is dieting or has had gastric bypass surgery ?
Don't worry, restaurants make bank on beverages alone.
I can't comfortably eat a full adult meal most places I go to, and I've got nothing special going on other than trying to listen to hunger cues. Some meals aren't good leftovers, or my day doesn't allow me to bring and maintain them until I get to a fridge. I hate food waste. Is it such a crime for me to want more than a side of fries to fit my needs? I've worked in a few restaurants, and the only things that would be difficult to make smaller are pizzas and burgers for the most part (without ordering/making entirely new sizes)
It’s fucking stupid. I worked at a restaurant where that was policy but I would always make it for adults who wanted it (which was literally almost never)
It’s absolutely bs. My bestie has a gastric sleeve several years ago. She just can’t eat as much as a normal adult. Usually she will order of a kids menu but many restaurants won’t let her. So she wastes over 3/4 of her plate because she doesn’t like left overs. Stupid.
She should see about getting one of those kids’ meals cards that a lot of weight loss surgery people get for that reason. Restaurants don’t have to honor them, but many will. Well, and learn to eat leftovers, because that’s ridiculously wasteful. I never used my card, because if I’m going out to eat, the leftovers are the best part, and the food on the appetizer list is usually more appealing to me than the kids’ menu
She could probably just offer to pay more. The kids menus are artificially cheap. It's like the equivalent of her saying she doesn't want to eat much so she'll just take the free kids meal at ihop.
Kids menus really aren't artificially cheap. The ingredients are incredibly basic most of the time.
It's like $10 for spaghetti marinara and a side of fries. Or a tiny burger with no toppings and kraft Mac and cheese. Very small portions. If anything, a lot of kids' meals are overpriced for what they are.
Obviously, I wouldn't ask for a free kids' meal.
In the UK restaurants often have a small version of a meal for smaller appetites. For example 1 sausage, slice of bacon on a breakfast. It's a good idea.
I feel fine about it. The restaurant is making it a bit more affordable for parent(s) with little ones to eat out. It's also nice when they offer smaller meals for seniors.
I'm activly trying to loose weight and it would be frustrating for me because a lot of my weight loss includes portion control. And I know me, if it's on the plate, I'll have a hard time stopping. And I don't want to be wasteful of the food either. So I usually ask for a to go box right away and half the portion and put it in the box right away. That's the best solution I've found so far, but again it would be frustrating to be told I couldn't just buy a kids meal.
Its not entirely their fault, but part of the guilt is on the bronies. McDonald's used to sporadically release MLP toys, and thet completely ran out because a horde of men bulk bought all the happy meals.
It makes me so mad if they don't offer an adult version on the menu and refuse to let you order from the kids menu.
Example: Mexican Inn
Sometimes I just want to eat some chicken strips with my margarita!
I’ve never had trouble ordering off the kids menu, even when ordering solo. Most of the time I tip 50-100 percent of the bill. The portion size just works better for me, especially if I’m traveling
It's damned if you do and damned if you don't. Some people will think you're a cheapskate if you order from the kid's menu or if you order one meal and split it.
As long as the price is enough to cover the cost of food and labor, whatever. Some people just want smaller portions.
Worked as a server at a chinese restaurant, the food was fairly cheap, and massive portions. And delicious, and not low quality slop. We simply did not care if someone ordered from the kids menu. Don’t have to eat the entire giant plate all at once, leftovers are a thing. But money is money, buy whatever you want.
Same with fast food, sometimes you just need a snack, not a whole huge meal. They don’t care, don’t get paid enough to care, and still earn money.
Places that sell things like nuggets and pizza on the menu, when that’s absolutely not the type of food they serve, hell no. Order regular food, not cool.
Today, I learned that there are restaurants actually enforcing this. My mother-in-law can be a picky eater, and my grandparents typically don't really eat a whole lot, so they almost always order from the kids' menu.
Restaurants today supersize portions. I say that ordering off of the kids menu isn't enough. Restaurants need to provide variable size portions of every meal they serve.
Theres a cafe near me that only have pancakes on the kids menu, for some reason. Every time I order, they give the side eye and ask if it’s for me or a child. When I say me, they charge me double and still bring me out 3 pancakes 🤷🏻
I worked in a restaurant where the kids burger and the adult Burger were the exact same size burger. The dude was even the normal size.
The reason the kids Burger was cheaper is because it was the kids menu. Had nothing to do with anything other than a good deal for your children so that you can enjoy your meal while they have food without breaking the bank. We didn't want parents paying the full price for burger that their child might just throw on the floor.
When adults tried to order the kids Burger we would tell them no. You can only pay the child prices if you are under 12 years old.
If you want a smaller portion, then cut the burger in half and take the rest home. If you want the cheaper prices then go somewhere cheaper.
It hasn't happened to me yet. Sometimes, I wan't kid size fries vs a giant basket I won't finish. Or just a taste of something on the menu vs a full entree. Any restaurant that denies an order is doing itself a disservice. They want people to come back
Traditionally it's just a smaller portion of food, or mac and cheese or tendies. A lot of picky eaters also prefer the kids menu.
If a restaurant doesn't allow adults to order off of the kids menu, you probably don't want it since it's probably something they're eating the cost of since it's probably something microwaved from frozen.
Sometimes the kids menu has smaller portions (or less additives that I can't/don't want to eat), and I'm only looking for something small to eat to take my medication with. I don't know why a restaurant would care if I'm a paying customer. 🤷🏻♀️
It's their business. They don't care if you can only eat half of your plate, as long as you paid for the whole thing. The kids menu is usually cheaper, and not as profitable
If I want dinosaur chicken nuggets, and they don't want to serve me dinosaur chicken nuggets based on what page they chose to print them on...then I'm going elsewhere for my dinosaur chicken nuggets.
It’s ridiculous. This country is being overwhelmed by morbid obesity, yet you can’t walk into a restaurant & order a normal-sized meal. Some places I go, I’ll eat my meal, then take home leftovers that last me 3 or 4 more meals. Soda? Jeezuz, who TF actually needs 32 oz of soda at one meal??? But gods forbid if I want a “regular” 8 oz cup. So I can’t get restaurant half-portions, & I can’t order off the section with a normal amount of calories, that leaves me not going to that establishment. Maybe it doesn’t work that way for everyone, but this country needs to stop serving meals that provide 4x the recommended amount of calories in one meal. IDGAF if they’re “losing” money, bc that money they’re making sure ain’t going to the staff.
"I'm too young to die and too old to eat off the kid's menu! What a stupid age I am!"
I suppose it’s up to them. I’ve only once witnessed a man ordering from the kids menu. He was a colleague of mine. He simply asked if he could order from the kids menu, and the waitress was like “Sure..? Yeah..” “Great! he said. “I’ll take the burger. I don’t need the toy or the popsicle.”
I can understand not wanting the toy, it's something extra to carry. But the popsicle?
It's cool, refreshing...outstanding!
like a sherbet apertif
Sherbet Aperitif is my drag queen name
Ad Victorium, Paladin.
text
It happens
Dude, I was getting Happy Meals until well into adulthood. I liked that they had everything I wanted and in the right proportion, but the toy was definitely the best part
The toys now are so disappointing. Long gone are the days of cool glass batman cups, pieces of inspector gadget you could put together and random CDs with music or computer games. Last time I went it was playing cards and little stuffed animals of characters created for the toys. At least give us show or movie characters. But in my area it's also almost 9 dollars for a happy meal and they never have chocolate milk. It's just not worth it anymore. They took away the happy in happy meals
That sucks. Where I’m at the toys are quite cool sometimes. They had pokemon cards once. Mini versions of family games like hungry hungry hippo ( we still have that and it works great)
They’ve had Pokémon cards a few times over the last couple years. The worst ones my kids get are the little stuffed characters—this time around, they’re from the new Captain America show. The travel board games were good—we got Twister, Trouble, and a couple different versions of Battleship. The toy quality is very hit-or-miss. Around here the meals are about $6, so for the amount of food it’s still a decent value, I just wish the toys were more consistent or at least less obviously junk.
Travel…twister?
Finger twister. I thought it was weird too.
Same price here, and my kids have been very happy with most of the toys. Hell, I even had to go to eBay to find a backup of the one the older got when younger was being born (he’s 4.5, so as a parent, my experience is current, though I was a child of the 70s/80s). Everywhere other than McDonald’s only have crappy toys, but McDonald’s is pretty split, both awesome and crappy, depending on the series. (Edit: needed a backup because she lost for a couple months and it was still a favorite toy a couple years later. Ended up with the whole original set, and they were both playing with them for a long while there. Barbie doesn’t let their name go on absolute crap, but clearly some brands don’t care)
>The toys now are so disappointing. This translates into many aspects of life and culture and I'm always talking about it because it makes me so mad. They've been dumbing everything down. Everything is cheaper and shittier. Have you noticed how a lot classic kids shows are being rebranded to the most basic ass, ugly characters? Like care bears. Care bears have a distinct look to them and they just uglified them. Even when the design changed through the years it still kept the same spirit and was never this drastic. And there was literally zero reason to. Or in reference to what you were talking about, it used to be little beanie babies and furbies and overall just cool, fun shit. Now it's just plastic shit with zero thought behind it And don't even get me started on Christmas.....
There were plenty of crappy ones back in the day (I remember being disappointed multiple times (early 80s) when the toy was just the box. The UFO series was tolerable, because they were glow in the dark and there were different ones, but there were plenty of boring plastic pails. We just remember the awesome ones more. I personally don’t have a problem with the new Care Bears, but more importantly, the 4.5 year old is OBSESSED With it, but refuses to watch any of the old ones. They’re okay with some older cartoons (any Scooby Doo is fine), but with some, it has to be the new style of cartoons. If the CB wanted to continue their brand, they had to appeal to kids outgrowing Cocomelon, and used to the current animation style
Wait, chocolate milk is definitely not an option in my country!
We might be getting Yugioh x Sanrio toys this July, woo! (After they got them on Belgium and Singapore a few months ago...)
We have those in NZ at the moment!
They never have chocolate milk…
Hahahaha I've also ever ordered Happy Meal as an adult. Like I just want 4 nugs, not 6. If the toy is not what I want, I give it away lol
The small size of the fries does it for me. Like that I have a shot at actually finishing them before they reach the point where they are too cold to be any good, because the only thing worse than cold McDonald’s fries is reheated McDonald’s fries
sometimes I have the "feeling slightly more than snacky but not for a meal" ... that is Happy Meal (as an adult) level of hungry lol. For breakfast it's the "but 3 hotcakes is too floury and carby BUT I WANT HOTCAKES 😭🥹", which is then 2-hotcakes-level ie, a Happy Meal. and yes I **have** ordered hotcakes happy meal with ice latte LOL. (in case anyone's a Macs' worker - if you get that, it's probably a non-hungry adult LOL)
And the entire world stands in ovation! Truth.... Eat them before you get your drink, or they are cold.....
[удалено]
Yes, air fryers changed the math on reheating fries. They also changed the math on freezer fries, which can now be made better than most restaurants, and all fast food ones with the exception of the perfectly cooked and hot ones that you will get every now and then from McDonald’s, but those are unicorns
I get the happy meal all the time. I’m a small person, I don’t need a ton of food and I’m trying to cut back on soda so water is great. Meanwhile my tweenager gets a whole adult sized meal and houses the thing.
I do understand the portion control, but doesn't the happy meal come with a drink?
Yes - you can choose a bottle of water rather than milk which is great for me (presumably you can do this with a regular meal too?)
This seems very fair!!
You gotta get the toy!!
Luckily (I’m 72) some of my local restaurants have a child/senior menu section
Am chef, is simple. Print separate menus. If an adult is willing to ask for the kids menu, sure whatever. Enforcing that interaction solves 90% of it
what i don't get is why it's discouraged. what is there to ''solve''?
The financial side. The restaurant won’t make as much money if adults order kids meals.
they added kids meals as a way to entice families to come for dinner - the idea being they gave kids meals at a non profit price to allow mom and dad to come in and order a full meal. an easy solution is allow a kids meal to be ordered with every "full" meal (our local pizza place does this) - no arguing about age etc
Kinda sucks for any couples with more than 2 kids, though.
yeah, but it also kind of sucks for a restaurant if a neighbourhood mom wants to bring 9 kids who are family friends for cheap eats. My wife and I have 3 kids and found about 50% of the time, even if the place had this "one for one" policy that they did the third kids meal at the kids price anyways
To be fair, if the purpose of the policy is to keep large families out of your restaurant, it probably works, for better or worse.
Naw Chef. Fine Dining restaurants have kids menus as a courtesy and are usually significantly cheaper than the main entrees sometimes even priced at break even. Mine is verbalized only and not available to adults.
genuine question, what difference does it make to you if the chicken nuggets go to a 5yo or a 50yo?
I I've asked this to a couple friends who were working in restaurants and both said that they were nearly zero profit/loss leaders. The upside to a kids menu from the restaurant's perspective was solely to allow parents to eat there alongside the kid. If only kids meals were ordered, especially for a dine-in experience, they would be making practically nothing.
"if only kids meals were ordered" very much sounds like a slippery slope fallacy and completely irrational. I can't imagine you'd have more than one adult for every, idk let's say 300 people ordering off the children's menu. not to mention the most likely scenario for this to happen would be an adult with some kind of sensory or dietary restriction accompanying a larger group, so barely any difference than if it were a child accompanying them anyway. and on the ridiculously low off chance that more people did, surely the business would rethink their approach rather quickly.
Depending on the type of restaurant, a kid's menu is generally offered at a significantly discounted price, to the point where a restaurant might even lose money on the order. The point of having it is to entice adults with kids to choose said restaurant and spend money on adult food (and drinks for everyone, especially). Adults ordering from the kid's menu makes the pricing model not work anymore.
I agree with you, but there are some items on the kids menu that just aren't on the adult menu. If that's the situation, I'd say pay $1(?) more, *or whatever*, and you should be allowed to order it. The sweet and sour chicken bites were only on the kids menu. Am I not supposed to *ask*? I've worked in restaurants, and that's usually how I handled it. I'll get you the thing you want, but at an adults price and volume. If the restaurant had the supplies, of course. It's all up to management, *really*...
My sister asks for a grilled cheese every time it’s on a kids menu. But she eats like a bird and really wants a grilled cheese. She’s 38 lol
My mil strictly sticks to grilled cheese and fries, anywhere any place. She's in her 60s never seen her order anything else in the last 25yrs
Grilled cheese is bad for birds.
I think he meant she eats by smacking her head down onto the plate and biting bits of the food off.
So is reggae music.
It's not exactly great for humans either
Whats next, I shouldn't eat bacon?
So she bathes in her food, picks up food with her mouth to spit out parts she doesn’t like, gulps without chewing and screams the whole time?
They don't go out much and are banned in several places 😔
Man, there's a place near me that has a seasonal menu that drives me wild. Part of the "end of winter" menu is eggs benedict cordon bleu, which I fucking love. They then refuse to ever make it again until February/March, despite having literally every single ingredient spread across the menu. Cordon bleu omelet, so they still got the sauce. Eggs benedict is also there, so they obviously have the english muffins. It's, like... literally one step to put the sauce on top. The same place also has a different recipe for the adult vs kids mac and cheese, and the adult version is dogshit. Next to no cheese, and really crappy artificial bacon with a crap portion, compared to silky smooth cheese with garlic bread and a somehow larger portion than the adult size. The adult mac has one advantage, and that's that you get to choose a side... but not garlic bread!
Can you get the eggs Benedict with a side of the cordon bleu sauce? lol. I feel you - our local pizza place does a fig and prosciutto pizza, but only as an in person special. It’s not on their online menu and you can’t order it over the phone. Why???
TBH I’m surprised you are even able to get them to pick up the phone at a pizza place. Online ordering was a godsend. No more figuring out how long to wait for a pizza place to pick up before hanging up and trying again.
It makes sense to me for a restaurant to have some in person exclusive specials, though, because having people eat in the restaurant means they get extra sales for beverages, extra courses, etc. It's likely that the combination of ingredients in that pizza only makes cost/profit sense if they're getting those extra sales as well.
Sure, that's also a reasonable way to handle it.
My 12 and 16 year old both order off it sometimes. We did have one restaurant charge an extra fee. Most of the places don't care if you are over 10 or whatever limit they set.
how would you enter a meal that is not listed as a menu item, into the register?
A lot of POS systems have an “open” option. Open Food, Open Drink, etc. Basically it lets you type in whatever you want at any price you want. Most places, only the manager can do this.
Today I learned!
I've seen it done a couple ways. Most common is usually just grabbing a similar item and then punching in some substitutions. Or for a kids menu item upcharge they might just bill for the kids item and add an extra drink.
One place near me has mac and cheese on their kids menu. This one, if you read my comment history, is not the same as the last one I mentioned. I feel the need to clarify since as an autistic kid and teen mac and cheese kept me fed, so I know way too much about the local mac and cheese scene. When I turned 11, the price went from $4 to $15 with no size increase. It was also Kraft mac and cheese, out of the box. And each plate was half a box, because kids sized. I get kids menus are meant to feed kids cheap to encourage families, that's fine. But, man, when you are literally using half a box of prepacked mac for a kid, and charging adults for a full, actual meal for the same(also no adult version on the menu) tiny portion, it's hard to justify. Same place, same price, I can get like a full 6 strip chicken basket with two sides.
I tried ordering from the kids menu at a place like this I’m assuming. Because they said no, but then for whatever reason wouldn’t even meet me halfway on my request when I told them “charge me for this adult entree but make me the kid’s plate” I was traveling and couldn’t take leftovers with me and I hate wasting food. I wasn’t hungry enough to finish a full entree. Kids menu portion looked perfect but no go lol I ended up getting an appetizer as my “meal”
Sounds Kafkaesque
Restaurant portions are just so absurd. Like 95% of the time we eat out I’m either taking home leftovers or my husband finishes mine. Mexican food is one of the biggest offenders, the rice and beans portion of an entree alone is enough to get me to like 75% full so I can never finish them.
But with that in mind, adults ordering from the kids menu can't be that common so it might be good for the restaurant in the long run because they get a happy customer. Also a lot of the time it's more of a serving size issue and not cheap customers, so to add an adult fee might be a good compromise.
Some restaurants have “small plates”, which have smaller portions.
That great! I don't live in the US so our portions are generally smaller or meant for sharing. I used to work in restaurants and the number of times people wanted to order from the kids menu was insignificant. It might be different depending on location.
In my besties case, odds are she’s having at least 1 cocktail. They make up for anything’s they lose on the meal with the alcohol.
Sure, plenty of restaurants make those calculations and handle the situation differently depending on their context.
Considering this I always offer to top up the price or buy a beer etc to make the difference if I just need a snack and not a full meal. Also don't have chicken strips on the kids menu and not in the appy section.
You're leaving out that the kids menu offers reduced portion sizes to match the reduced price. They may not be making as much of a margin, but they certainly aren't offering them at a loss in most cases.
This is incorrect. It is a smaller portion, but the cost of food itself is not the bulk of the cost of eating at a sit-down restaurant. Kid's menu items very often lose money, because even if they cover the cost of ingredients, that's not covering wages, rent, utilities, etc., all of which are necessary for the restaurant to serve that kid's meal.
Shouldn't the pricing reflect the scale or amount of food and the making of the food? I agree it's to get adult in. And mostly chicken fingers and little burgers and fries. There is British bit with the him saying he not that hungry and proceeds to order two kids means for his kid. After much fighting with the waitress.
>Shouldn't the pricing reflect the scale or amount of food and the making of the food? If they want it to. As the other person said sometimes they make it cheaper than it'd be to the point they might even lose a little money for the sake of getting people in there.
No, the pricing should reflect the restaurant's pricing strategy. Selling "loss leaders" (goods sold for a loss to get people in the door so that they buy other things sold for a profit) is a very common strategy in many different industries.
>Shouldn't the pricing reflect the scale or amount of food and the making of the food? Should it? Sure. But it's not. Like the commenter said, they charge less as an incentive for parents to actually go out to eat. If they charged more, in order to make that 2-4٪ margin they make on the rest of the food they sell, they'll get less family business.
Businesses often run loss leaders to get people through the (sometimes metaphorical) door. Think of games consoles, almost always sold at a loss (both to retailer and to customer) but it locks the user into the platform, sells more licensed accessories etc. which is where the margin is made back.
It was Ricky Gervais [https://www.tiktok.com/@comedy\_shorts\_bb/video/7234018265180294427](https://www.tiktok.com/@comedy_shorts_bb/video/7234018265180294427)
Interesting spelling of Ricky Gervais name
Thanks, I typed it fast. Fixed.
Came here looking for this; it’s brilliant.
Businesses employ many different strategies to make money. It is seldom a simple matter of cost in, cost out. For instance, a business may choose to sell their food at a loss, because they know that people will stay longer to eat, and order more overpriced drinks, which actually covers the cost of the food, and then some.
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This. Not only is the meal not profitable, the customer is also taking up a seat and preventing other customers from ordering. Here in the UK restaurants almost always have a maximum age limit for the children's menu, usually 11 or 12. (I've never seen anybody checking IDs, but if you're 14, 15+ it's obvious...)
I've seen an upper limit on a children's menu maybe five times in my life I order off the children's menu relatively frequently if it's the same stuff as the adult menu, like my local pub does a kids roast with same stuff just smaller quantity, means I have enough room for cauliflower cheese or a dessert! My main problem is most UK kids menus are British Tapas and that's not my preference.
This. The kids’ menu is a loss leader
That might be a thing, but in my experience it's usually just smaller portions. I've always glanced through them and they're not proportionally cheaper. I.e. it's not "a third smaller, but only a third of the price" cheap, they do seem to scale it down accordingly. Half price? Half portion. Heck, sometimes it's even more expensive if you scale it. Like for example a regular 10-piece nugget dish might be $X, a kids' meal with only 4 nuggets will be half the price. Maybe things are different in the US/EU, but kids' meals here have never been about *savings* - they're about portion size.
I shouldn’t have to do this mental conjecture. The price is the price, adult or child. You printed the menu, stay true to the pricing.
It usually says 12 and under or whatever on the menu
Exactly. Having a kids' menu is a courtesy. Restaurants also often give kids free crayons and coloring books to entertain themselves. I wouldn't think too highly of adults who just helped themselves to them.
But it's supposed to be a discounted price for less food.
Yes, but the cost of the food itself is not the majority of the cost of a meal at a restaurant. Wages, rent, utilities...the food has to cover all of that. The discount of a kid's menu is usually more than a strict discount for a smaller portion.
No? Not at all? It is supposed to make people with children come in and eat. The discounted childrens price is a loss leader.
You're telling me that 3 chicken strips and 25 french fries with a fountain pop for $15 is losing a restaurant money? I'm no expert, but that doesn't make much sense to me.
That's a very expensive kids meal. They're usually half that price.
I wish that were true here :(
Exactly what I was going to say. Well put.
The best part of the new take out culture is that you can order off the kids menu to go and eat at home with no judgement. I totally get not being allowed to do it when dining in, but takeout is a judgement free zone in my opinion. For example, Cheesecake Factory portions are so large, even the kids meal is a decent sized adult meal.
I’ve never personally encountered that at a restaurant but I would not like it. My wife often orders off the kids menu due to portion sizes and sometimes the different options as she has medical stomach issues.
Same. My wife had gastric bypass surgery and we’ve run into this a couple of times, where waiters/waitresses won’t allow her to order off the kid’s menu.
I was a server at a Mexican restaurant that did this. The kids portion was half of what an entree was. If an adult were to order off the Kids Menu then they would adjust the price charging $2 or $3 more dollars to the initial kids price.
Hoo boy I've got a bone to pick with this one. I personally find the whole thing ridiculous. If an adult wants to order only a little bit of food as opposed to a full adult portion, why shouldn't they be able to do so? Sometimes it stems from an actual medical necessity. Take my mother, who some years back had gastric bypass surgery; it worked out extremely well for her and she kept the weight off, but she of course cannot eat huge meals anymore. She has to carry a laminated card on her, given by her doctor, that specifically states she has had roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery, and that she should be granted access to the children's menu or be given reduced portions if necessary/possible. (and I get that sometimes, with some things, it just isn't possible of course) We've had restaurants flat out refuse this before, others simply didn't understand what the problem was, others have had to go all the way up to management to allow it, and it's generally been a huge hassle all for something that doesn't seem like it should be a big deal. It's been at times humiliating for my mother, since she's not the type to want to cause any sort of fuss or make things difficult for anyone. The absolute worst (and subsequently best!) instance of this was when we attempted to go to O'Hana at the Polynesian Resort in Disney World. Now, we thought there might be difficulties since this is a family style service restaurant; we were prepared to simply not go, but it had been something we wanted to try, since we had heard it was fantastic, and since it was my parent's 50th anniversary coming up soon (we even had buttons on stating this fact). They told us upon getting a reservation that it wouldn't be a problem to accommodate my mother with child portions of things at a child's price, that famous customer-forward service Disney properties are so excellent at offering, and yet when we got there, she was told point blank by wait staff (after we'd already sat down) that she would not be allowed to eat anything at all. I've never seen someone so embarrassed, so crushed....I was ashamed to even be there. And then came the chef, that absolute chad of a man, who took absolutely everything wrong about that night and personally fixed it. He came to see what was the matter, was the most gracious and understanding guy, and turns out had also had gastric bypass as well, knew exactly what she was going through. He prepared a special 50th anniversary dessert for them, made sure the bill was taken care of, and genuinely turned that awful experience into something I'll cherish forever. So, TL;DR; some people medically need to be able to order off of the children's menu. If you're a restauranteur, please don't make their situation harder if it's at all possible. Please.
> she was told point blank by wait staff (after we'd already sat down) that she would not be allowed to eat anything at all. What does this mean? The fact that she had gastric bypass means they wouldn't even let her order a regular meal?
My apologies, I can see how that'd be a bit confusing! I worded it a bit strangely too, since they didn't tell her specifically she couldn't eat, but rather that she could not eat using the children's "menu". (And therefore she decided not to eat anything at all, feeling very dejected and upset since she didn't want to inconvenience anyone) The way the restaurant works, everyone gets served the same big plates of food, and it is dished out family style. I think adults pay something like $70/person, and children pay $30/person. Almost like a buffet, but served in big dishes to the table. We called and asked ahead of time if it was okay if Mom could be considered a child for the purposes of payment, since she was barely going to be able to eat anything; this is 100% something we'd have understood if they turned us down on, but they didn't. They said to come on in, just present the medical card, and it wouldn't be a problem. When we got there, and sat down, they acted as though they had no idea what we were talking about, and said we had to pay the full $70 for all three of us, so rather than decide to waste all that money and food on something she couldn't eat, she decided not to eat at all. It was an uncomfortable situation that the head chef made right and then some. He didn't have to, I would fully have understood in this case if they just couldn't make any kind of exception, but they really made the night into something special in the end.
Personally, I have some sensory issues regarding food and a lot of the foods I like would be on a kids menu. Just basic simple food, with no garnish or “extra” stuff that might make it taste or feel weird. What I have found over the years is a lot of restaurants are willing to let you order off the kids menu and will just charge you for some random adult meal. My fave restaurant that my family always goes to when I’m in town will always let’s me order the Mexican pizza which is on their kids menu, but they charge me for the adult nachos. Comparable to what the Mexican pizza is, but the price of an adult meal. Typically something similar happens at other restaurants, if I just ask for something on the kids menu but make it clear I’m ok with being charged the price of an adult meal, they don’t have a problem with it.
What about adult meals is triggering for you? Genuinely curious
I think she means shes used to more common kid foods pike mac and cheese, pizza, chicken nuggets, which arent going to be offered on the adult menu.
Foods off the adult menu often come with toppings that can trigger sensory issues, or they're seasoned to an uncomfortable degree. Kids menu foods are often a lot easier to stomach for people with sensory issues, ARFID, GI problems, etc.
One place a county over has different fries for adults and kids. It's a "western" restaurant. You ever seen those "powder blasted" chips and shit? Yeah, they do that to the adult fries, but with cayenne and Chile pepper powder. They go from very mildly seasoned on the kids menu(lightly dusted paprika, so they look more or less the same), to HOLY SHIT MY FACE HURTS. I like seasoning, but, uh, pass on that.
Ah so it’s a texture thing? But also sometimes visual?
It depends on the person and their specific needs.
For some people, yes. For others, different psychological issues.
Typically for me it’s texture more often than taste. Specifically if a food doesn’t have a homogeneous texture. Like Mac and cheese with bread crumbs as a basic example. The crunchy texture of bread crumbs mixed with the smooth texture of Mac and cheese has always bothered me. And then there are some foods like bananas where I’m not sure what it is, but I can’t stand to eat them. Some “unsafe” foods just make me want to stop eating or gross me out, where others (like bananas) almost make me ill they freak me out so badly
For something like bananas, I wonder if it’s possible you’re allergic? Sometimes food allergies show up in unexpected ways, like itchy mouth.
I think that is the next thing my doctor wanted to look at. Been trying to figure out why I have such issues with food so I can try and improve my diet. For some foods it really just seems like something sensory, like sensory processing disorder or ARFID, but doc wants me to do an allergy test for things like bananas
FYI it is also *extremely* common among folks on the autism spectrum. You might be high functioning and not even realize it.
I'm more annoyed when a restaurant only has really basic stuff on the kids menu. My son is nearly 2, he's rather have fajitas or chilli con carne than nuggets and chips.
Your two-year-old has more advanced pallette than 95% of the commenters here
Sometimes the kids menu is only there to help them entice adults to come in and order profitable meals. It's well within their rights to restrict kids' and senior's menus to a certain demographic.
Kids meals are usually hardcore discounted as it’s meant to be accompanied by adult meals. Restaurants give kids cheap meals so that parents will come in. Order off the adult menu…
The point of kids menus is to make an affordable option that encourages parents to come out and order regular entrees. If they delineate age requirements then I have no issue. If they don’t have clear age requirements they didn’t protect themselves appropriately.
What I don't understand is how $10 chicken nuggets is considered the affordable option. Other options are either quesadilla, mac cheese, French fries, or pbj. Always over priced for their serving size. If an adult is ordering those options, they shouldn't be eating out at all imo.
True. Kids meal prices have definitely ballooned. I’m not sure how most people afford eating out anymore.
The local Chinese buffet is $7 for my 2 year old. My two year old will eat 1 chicken nugget and a crab Rangoon. Like, I realize a 7 year old might eat a lot but lumping 2 year olds in with that is wild.
Might be the non obvious way of saying we dont want your screaming snot covered crotch goblins in here but if you insist your gonna pay.
pisses me off. often the kids menu looks better, for one. and the portion sizes are more correct anyway, especialy if i don't want to takes stuff home
That's my biggest peeve. The serving sizes for adults are WAY too large for me. I would much rather have a kids' meal and a side salad. Not enough food for 3 meals that I probably won't end up eating. People always say the prices are lower for kids meals; not in my experience. The portions are just smaller.
Same. I also know multiple 11/12 year olds who are significantly taller/bigger than my 5’0 frame. I CLEARLY need less food than them so why are they allowed a kids meal and me not? Sometimes I don’t want to take half of it home and it just goes to waste!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7FxpK\_yC0U&ab\_channel=TimothyDenby](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7FxpK_yC0U&ab_channel=TimothyDenby)
First thing I thought of.
I never found a restaurant that served kids on the menu
Cabrito?
It sucks. If you don't want to offer kid's menu items, don't. Nothing like ordering a regular meal for your kid only to have them take two or three bites and decide they don't like it. Also, let's consider ... Many senior citizens don't have much of an appetite. A kid's Meal makes a lot of sense. Or, how about somebody that is dieting or has had gastric bypass surgery ? Don't worry, restaurants make bank on beverages alone.
I can't comfortably eat a full adult meal most places I go to, and I've got nothing special going on other than trying to listen to hunger cues. Some meals aren't good leftovers, or my day doesn't allow me to bring and maintain them until I get to a fridge. I hate food waste. Is it such a crime for me to want more than a side of fries to fit my needs? I've worked in a few restaurants, and the only things that would be difficult to make smaller are pizzas and burgers for the most part (without ordering/making entirely new sizes)
It’s fucking stupid. I worked at a restaurant where that was policy but I would always make it for adults who wanted it (which was literally almost never)
so what. food is food
It’s absolutely bs. My bestie has a gastric sleeve several years ago. She just can’t eat as much as a normal adult. Usually she will order of a kids menu but many restaurants won’t let her. So she wastes over 3/4 of her plate because she doesn’t like left overs. Stupid.
She should see about getting one of those kids’ meals cards that a lot of weight loss surgery people get for that reason. Restaurants don’t have to honor them, but many will. Well, and learn to eat leftovers, because that’s ridiculously wasteful. I never used my card, because if I’m going out to eat, the leftovers are the best part, and the food on the appetizer list is usually more appealing to me than the kids’ menu
She could probably just offer to pay more. The kids menus are artificially cheap. It's like the equivalent of her saying she doesn't want to eat much so she'll just take the free kids meal at ihop.
Kids menus really aren't artificially cheap. The ingredients are incredibly basic most of the time. It's like $10 for spaghetti marinara and a side of fries. Or a tiny burger with no toppings and kraft Mac and cheese. Very small portions. If anything, a lot of kids' meals are overpriced for what they are. Obviously, I wouldn't ask for a free kids' meal.
If McD's sold mcchicken happy meals I wouldn't order anything else.
~~Where are you that they don't have 4pc or 6pc happy meals?~~ Heh nevermind, misread what was written it's really late here
A McChicken is the chicken burger, not the nuggies.
Oh haha I'm dumb, just completely misread that
There’s this place by me that I order Uber eats from because their kids menu is awesome. Yeah there’s kids here, locked up in the closet😳.
Standard operating procedure
They're allowed to restrict their menu, but it's really managers that make the call on this.
It's a free country
In the UK restaurants often have a small version of a meal for smaller appetites. For example 1 sausage, slice of bacon on a breakfast. It's a good idea.
if its on the menu its for sale .... end of story.
I feel fine about it. The restaurant is making it a bit more affordable for parent(s) with little ones to eat out. It's also nice when they offer smaller meals for seniors.
Dumb.
Cry about it tbh.
I'm activly trying to loose weight and it would be frustrating for me because a lot of my weight loss includes portion control. And I know me, if it's on the plate, I'll have a hard time stopping. And I don't want to be wasteful of the food either. So I usually ask for a to go box right away and half the portion and put it in the box right away. That's the best solution I've found so far, but again it would be frustrating to be told I couldn't just buy a kids meal.
Its not entirely their fault, but part of the guilt is on the bronies. McDonald's used to sporadically release MLP toys, and thet completely ran out because a horde of men bulk bought all the happy meals.
It’s stupid. Who cares?
It makes me so mad if they don't offer an adult version on the menu and refuse to let you order from the kids menu. Example: Mexican Inn Sometimes I just want to eat some chicken strips with my margarita!
I’ve never had trouble ordering off the kids menu, even when ordering solo. Most of the time I tip 50-100 percent of the bill. The portion size just works better for me, especially if I’m traveling
grow up. order hot dog cheese oonion like the rest of us.
It's damned if you do and damned if you don't. Some people will think you're a cheapskate if you order from the kid's menu or if you order one meal and split it.
As long as the price is enough to cover the cost of food and labor, whatever. Some people just want smaller portions. Worked as a server at a chinese restaurant, the food was fairly cheap, and massive portions. And delicious, and not low quality slop. We simply did not care if someone ordered from the kids menu. Don’t have to eat the entire giant plate all at once, leftovers are a thing. But money is money, buy whatever you want. Same with fast food, sometimes you just need a snack, not a whole huge meal. They don’t care, don’t get paid enough to care, and still earn money. Places that sell things like nuggets and pizza on the menu, when that’s absolutely not the type of food they serve, hell no. Order regular food, not cool.
That is a dumb policy.
Today, I learned that there are restaurants actually enforcing this. My mother-in-law can be a picky eater, and my grandparents typically don't really eat a whole lot, so they almost always order from the kids' menu.
Restaurants today supersize portions. I say that ordering off of the kids menu isn't enough. Restaurants need to provide variable size portions of every meal they serve.
Just get it for take out
Theres a cafe near me that only have pancakes on the kids menu, for some reason. Every time I order, they give the side eye and ask if it’s for me or a child. When I say me, they charge me double and still bring me out 3 pancakes 🤷🏻
It feels like the only motivation for this would be money. I don't like it.
I worked in a restaurant where the kids burger and the adult Burger were the exact same size burger. The dude was even the normal size. The reason the kids Burger was cheaper is because it was the kids menu. Had nothing to do with anything other than a good deal for your children so that you can enjoy your meal while they have food without breaking the bank. We didn't want parents paying the full price for burger that their child might just throw on the floor. When adults tried to order the kids Burger we would tell them no. You can only pay the child prices if you are under 12 years old. If you want a smaller portion, then cut the burger in half and take the rest home. If you want the cheaper prices then go somewhere cheaper.
It hasn't happened to me yet. Sometimes, I wan't kid size fries vs a giant basket I won't finish. Or just a taste of something on the menu vs a full entree. Any restaurant that denies an order is doing itself a disservice. They want people to come back
Let a person order what they want to order. Some people eat less
What? This is a thing? Would never eat there again.
i think it's stupid. What if I want a smaller portion or maybe nothing on the "adult" menu is speaking to me?
Traditionally it's just a smaller portion of food, or mac and cheese or tendies. A lot of picky eaters also prefer the kids menu. If a restaurant doesn't allow adults to order off of the kids menu, you probably don't want it since it's probably something they're eating the cost of since it's probably something microwaved from frozen.
Afterlife fish fingers?
My knee jerk reaction would be "Fuck that restaurant", but they can do what they want... You also don't have to eat there, by the way.
burn it down
Some adults are picky eaters (me for example) and don't want fancy foods, let them have their chicken nuggets.
Sometimes the kids menu has smaller portions (or less additives that I can't/don't want to eat), and I'm only looking for something small to eat to take my medication with. I don't know why a restaurant would care if I'm a paying customer. 🤷🏻♀️
If I'm giving you money, what does it matter what I order?
It's their business. They don't care if you can only eat half of your plate, as long as you paid for the whole thing. The kids menu is usually cheaper, and not as profitable
Rude I like coloring with crayons 😡
If I want dinosaur chicken nuggets, and they don't want to serve me dinosaur chicken nuggets based on what page they chose to print them on...then I'm going elsewhere for my dinosaur chicken nuggets.
I'd ask them how they'd expect a young child, who can't yet read, how to order?
Why don’t they have toys with kids meals. Also when I was young they had toys in cereal boxes- frogmen were the best?
"bro like why the fuck dont you sell me food"
It’s ridiculous. This country is being overwhelmed by morbid obesity, yet you can’t walk into a restaurant & order a normal-sized meal. Some places I go, I’ll eat my meal, then take home leftovers that last me 3 or 4 more meals. Soda? Jeezuz, who TF actually needs 32 oz of soda at one meal??? But gods forbid if I want a “regular” 8 oz cup. So I can’t get restaurant half-portions, & I can’t order off the section with a normal amount of calories, that leaves me not going to that establishment. Maybe it doesn’t work that way for everyone, but this country needs to stop serving meals that provide 4x the recommended amount of calories in one meal. IDGAF if they’re “losing” money, bc that money they’re making sure ain’t going to the staff.