Parents call for revamp of kids menus

New research from restaurant booking platform, Bookatable.co.uk, reveals that the majority of British parents (78 per cent) believe there are a lack of food options offered to their children at restaurants, with the same unhealthy options like chicken nuggets and pizza continuing to appear on most children’s menus.

According to the findings, 59 per cent of British parents said they thought the food offered to kids in restaurants is unhealthy, dull and needs to be re-imagined.

Instead, 69 per cent felt restaurants put all of their focus into creating enticing adult menus with less effort put into their children’s food offering, which 70 per cent believe should encourage kids to try new ingredients they have never tried before and healthier foods.

While over half of parents that took part in the survey (57 per cent) believe restaurant food for children has improved over the years, many still believe the industry has some way to go to making the restaurant experience ‘inclusive’ to children. 

Asked how they thought restaurants could help make their kids be more adventurous and healthy when dining out, a fifth of respondents (21 per cent) said they would like to have more control over portion sizes. 31 per cent claimed that they want chefs to create dedicated children’s tasting menus to encourage them to eat a greater variety of food types, and 21 per cent said they’d like restaurants to provide pictures of meals so that kids could choose their own healthy option.

In a bid to re-imagine children’s dining this summer, Bookatable.co.uk has partnered with Marcus Wareing’s latest London restaurant, Tredwell’s to create a special Kids Tasting Menu aiming to expand the palates of little ones with grown up flavours.

At Tredwell’s, the six-course ‘Junior Taste’ menu includes uncommon children’s menu dishes such as pulled pork sliders, harissa glazed aubergine, courgette and pea dumplings and virtuous chocolate brownies. The menu has been put to the test by a team of junior reviewers aged 2 – 11 years who tried the dishes and gave their thumbs up. The results proved that although children are wary of new flavours, they are open to eating more adventurous and ‘grown-up’ dishes when presented in the right way.

Chantelle Nicholson, Group Operations Director for Marcus Wareing Restaurants said, “We have always tried to be creative with our children’s offering and steered away from the normal chicken and chips style of food. We welcome kids of all ages at Tredwell's and aim for our menu to be fresh and different."

As children’s food writer and expert Fiona Faulkner, who is backing the campaign, adds, “One of the keys to avoiding fussy eating in kids is to expose them to a broad variety of food and flavours as early as possible, and as consistently as you can. In this respect many parents, myself included, will welcome this move - for re-thinking what a kids menu should look like. Ideally a
Five foods British children have never tried

Avocado (39%)
Coconut (37%)
Apricots (30%)
Green beans (16%)
Red meat (10%)

Children's menus should only really differ from the adults in terms of portion-size and price-point, and it should look and feel as appetising to an adult as it does a child; after all, why should certain flavours, vegetables and dishes be perceived as adults-only?”

Despite British parents blaming lacklustre children’s menus for the lack of dining diversity for their kids, the stats showed that parents may indeed be partly responsible themselves due to feeding their children a limited diet at home. Almost half of respondents (49 per cent) admitted there are a considerable number of food items offered in restaurants that they don’t serve to their children at home, while 71 per cent of respondents claimed they gave their kids sugar confectionary between 2-4 times a week, and an additional 64 per cent admitted to giving their children chips at least twice a week. 

Joe Steele, CEO of Bookatable.co.uk, comments: “There is no doubt that improvements need to be made to children’s diets across the country – whether that is in or outside the home. Whilst children’s restaurant menus have come a long way over the years, there is still some way to go. All too often, the usual suspects pop up on kids menus like chicken nuggets and pizzas and the more they eat them, the more they are likely to choose what they know instead of trying new healthier foods.

“Most restaurants across the UK cater towards this market because these types of dishes help the parents keep their children happy when dining out but our research shows that children are genuinely open to trying more food types – they just need a gentle nudge in the right direction and the opportunity to be more adventurous with their food choices.

“Having partnered with Tredwell’s to reimagine the children’s menu to offer more food diversity and now working with some of the country’s top chain restaurants to develop their menus, we really believe this could be the start of a more adventurous era of children’s dining.”

The Bookatable ‘Culinary Kids campaign’ has also got the backing of some of the country’s top chain restaurants including Busaba Eathai and Las Iguanas who are developing their children’s offering. For more information on family dining, Bookatable has created a section on its website dedicated to family-friendly restaurants and family dining inspiration http://www.bookatable.co.uk/child-friendly-restaurants.