How to make your restaurant child-friendly

An obvious benefit of having a child-friendly restaurant is that it means more money can be made than an exclusive “adults only” restaurant.

It also makes your restaurant the first-option for families looking for a place to have a Sunday lunch.

Today, it takes a bit more than colouring-in sets to keep children busy.

After all, there’s an app for that. Make your restaurant child-friendly in the following ways and you can expect a positive spike in business statistics.

Performance entertainment

Which child doesn’t enjoy life-size versions of their favourite characters, singing their favourite songs and telling their favourite jokes? Okay, so some kids (and adults) aren’t too fond of clowns, but they’re overrated anyway.

If you want to solely be a family or child-friendly restaurant then you need to come up with a magical, fantasy or Disney-show inspired theme to carry across all aspects of your restaurant from your menu to your dressed up waitrons. It will definitely pique the interest of the little ones and if you can get your staff to spontaneously break out in song between servings (much like they do in the movies), you’ll have families coming for more.

Performance entertainment in the restaurant business is booming and it doesn’t have to be all around music and fairytale characters, dancing and interactive cultural performances will also work. If you can get your diners singing, dancing or clapping along, you’re doing it right.

Monitored play area

The trustful indoor or outdoor play area is what every parent wants in a child-friendly restaurant. Especially when it’s physically impossible for their five-year-old to sit still. And you cannot go wrong with jungle gyms, tyre swings, slides and obstacle course-like play areas.

If you have an outdoor space then a jungle gym is the way to go. And if you want it to truly be child-friendly, you’ll have it permanently monitored by a staff member or have CCTV cameras that have a live feed on TV screens that parents can view from their table’s seats. Safety is a concern when it comes to jungle gyms but it’s also the best way for kids to get rid of all their energy and work up an appetite for the food their parents are paying for.

The more interactive games and structures in your play area, the better. Children these days spend enough time with tablet, phone and TV screens at home.

At-table activities

Some of the older children might feel too old or too tall for the play areas and end up sitting at the table with the adults. In these situations, you should offer some at-table activities that they can do with everyone else at the table.

For example, you could have restaurant-branded Jenga blocks, Uno or even a Picture This type card game where you have to try and guess what the image is based on a macro photograph of an object. There are many games you could play at the table that both kids and adults will enjoy.

A fun kids menu

A child-friendly restaurant isn’t at all child-friendly if there isn’t a fun kids menu. First of all, you need to offer healthy and delicious food (even if you need to disguise it with a small side helping of baked, not fried, chips). You also need to offer a variety of meals beyond the burger, pizza and chicken nuggets that most places do.

Be creative when it comes to the kids’ menu. Make it an exclusive menu separate from what the adults get and the kids will feel just as important as their parents. Have pictures of the food as well, so it’s easier for those who can’t read to point at what they want to eat (that way they also can’t be surprised at how the food comes and proceed to no longer want it).

Baby-friendly

Your young customers won’t all be excitable, running-around and talkable children with their parents. There’s also the chance you’ll have some babies crawling or being carried through your restaurant doors.

With that in mind, you need to be baby-friendly too. And that entails high stools or baby chairs that can be attached to the table, freeing up parents’ arms when it comes to eating their food while it’s still warm. It can also include baby-friendly toys such as wooden blocks and things that make noises. Although, you’d need to keep those relatively clean as babies are always putting toys in their mouths and drooling over everything.

Extra friendly staff

And, of course, your restaurant is only as friendly as your staff. Everyone needs to be on board and in character (if that’s the theme of your restaurant). They need to be as welcoming with the kids as they are with the adults and be extra friendly. You want this to be the children’s favourite restaurant as well as the parents’.