sounds fair to me. although to be fair to the wait staff, they don't know you from Adam when you walk in, but even so they should give you the benefit of the doubt.

Taking an 8 month old baby to a very high end restaurant - why? Enjoy the adult time and hire a babysitter.

My daughters learned proper restaurant manners in Chinatown. My daughters are Chinese and the expectations are that children in restaurants are expected to be seen and not heard. Also, being American, I always felt that the older Chinese women were judging my child-rearing so I didn't dare let them get out of line lest I get a hate stare from the Chinese etiquette police.

jpschust wrote:Here's my open pact with restaurants: I'll bring my daughter to whatever restaurant I want (including very high end restaurants). I'll tip extremely well. I'll take her out when she cries (she's 8 months old) and I'll clean up after her. In exchange, I expect you not to scoff at me when bringing her in the front door (especially after I've asked your staff far in advance if it's ok/appropriate for me to bring my 8 month old to the restaurant), I expect you to not give me shit for service, and I expect my food to be at the same quality as everyone else. I recognize you may not have a high chair- that's fine- but recognize that we may need an extra seat at the table.

By the way, the more you interact with my child and us in a non-patronizing way, the far more your tip is going to go up- it's certainly not a pre-requisite, but I prefer that you treat my child as a member of the group dining (to an appropriate extent) than as an object to be ignored or hated.

Kind of puzzled, why do you want to take an 8 month old baby to a high end restaurant? Your high expectations could go amuck at any second, the second the baby cries. When you say you take her outside, that does not imply leaving? There is an understanding that patrons of any restaurant should have a pleasant time, fine dining or not, and babies crying are not on this list. Your open pact with restaurants does not seem logical based on the other patrons dining there. Family restaurants, we all get child melt-downs, and are not surprised by them, fine dining a little hard to justify disrupting the peaceful ambience.

Cinnamon Girl wrote:Kind of puzzled, why do you want to take an 8 month old baby to a high end restaurant? Your high expectations could go amuck at any second, the second the baby cries. When you say you take her outside, that does not imply leaving? There is an understanding that patrons of any restaurant should have a pleasant time, fine dining or not, and babies crying are not on this list. Your open pact with restaurants does not seem logical based on the other patrons dining there. Family restaurants, we all get child melt-downs, and are not surprised by them, fine dining a little hard to justify disrupting the peaceful ambience.

Carrying the concept to its logical conclusion, in addition to tipping the waitstaff extra for the inconvenience of his children, one must also drop a $20 bill on every diner's table on the way out. It's a very American concept to think that money will justify the rudeness.

I took my baby to Les Nomades but he tried to work the room, so Jovan Trboyevic threw him out.

jpschust wrote:Here's my open pact with restaurants: I'll bring my daughter to whatever restaurant I want (including very high end restaurants). I'll tip extremely well. I'll take her out when she cries (she's 8 months old) and I'll clean up after her. In exchange, I expect you not to scoff at me when bringing her in the front door (especially after I've asked your staff far in advance if it's ok/appropriate for me to bring my 8 month old to the restaurant), I expect you to not give me shit for service, and I expect my food to be at the same quality as everyone else. I recognize you may not have a high chair- that's fine- but recognize that we may need an extra seat at the table.

By the way, the more you interact with my child and us in a non-patronizing way, the far more your tip is going to go up- it's certainly not a pre-requisite, but I prefer that you treat my child as a member of the group dining (to an appropriate extent) than as an object to be ignored or hated.

I'm with you. Sometimes stuff happens. Babysitter doesn't show....you're out of town and are invited to a dinner. whatever. there are valid reasons why one might bring a baby to a high end restaurant.

I have a 17 month old who is at a restaurant at least 3 times a week and places have ranged from Manny's to Takashi and everything in between. I think it is extremely difficult to make general rules about where is and is not appropriate for children to go as every child is different. If you regularly take your child out and your child regularly enjoys going out (and is not disruptive to the other guests), enjoy the time with your family at a restaurant! Plus, it is never to early to hone their culinary taste buds! That being said, you always do need an escape plan if things go downhill and do need to be prepared that you might have to step outside and skip dessert. It is certainly not fair for your child to ruin/disrupt other's dining experience. My big criteria for nixing a restaurant with child is if the restaurant is really quiet - one needs a little volume to cover up the random squeals as young children have no volume control

ecs wrote:I have a 17 month old who is at a restaurant at least 3 times a week and places have ranged from Manny's to Takashi and everything in between. I think it is extremely difficult to make general rules about where is and is not appropriate for children to go as every child is different. If you regularly take your child out and your child regularly enjoys going out (and is not disruptive to the other guests), enjoy the time with your family at a restaurant! Plus, it is never to early to hone their culinary taste buds! That being said, you always do need an escape plan if things go downhill and do need to be prepared that you might have to step outside and skip dessert. It is certainly not fair for your child to ruin/disrupt other's dining experience. My big criteria for nixing a restaurant with child is if the restaurant is really quiet - one needs a little volume to cover up the random squeals as young children have no volume control

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