Wednesday, January 9, 2008

The mouse says get the f*%k out

It may be the happiest place on Earth, but if you're headed down to Orlando to visit Walt Disney World with your infant-10 year old, and you've got a reservation for Victoria & Albert's in the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, you might want to reschedule at one of Disney's 97 other restaurants.



Why? Because in an attempt to create a more adult atmosphere, children 10 and under aren't allowed in the restaurant, which offers a seven course pre-fixe menu that starts at $125.

This really won't change much, as according to a USA Today article, only about three familes a month bring their kids into the restaurant.

The real question is, will this create a trend? Would you (assuming you had kids), bring them to a seven course, $125 a meal restaurant?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/dining/30kids.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin

This pretty nicely sums up my thoughts on adult/child segregation in the food world.

In an ideal world, the question of children's behavior wouldn't come into it, and I'll admit that some little kids aren't behaviorally prepared to eat in "nice" restaurants (never mind the fact that I don't believe any restaurant in Disney World could be of the caliber to block access to anyone), but thats the fault of the parents of those ill-behaved kids. And in an ideal world, parents would have the maturity to decide if their kid is ready or not. But clearly that's a pipe dream.

Disney World freaks me out anyway.

Lisa said...

are you trying to be the perez hilton of food bloggers???

The Ex said...

Never, EVAR, would I take my kids to a 7 course pre-fixe $125 dinner. So really no problem for me and most people with brains.

Um... Yum! said...

I wouldn't take my kids (if/when I have them) to an expensive restaurant because that's just too much money to spend on someone who probably couldn't even get through the third course (but then again, these are my imaginary kids, so they probably could eat everything and demand dessert). I think that if any parent brought some loud, ill-behaved brat to any nice restaurant, even say the Olive Garden, the whole family should be asked to leave. Same with movies. I mean, people don't want babies and talkative kids (and talkative adults) in rated R movies, so it's the same for nice restaurants.

We Are Not Martha said...

Um, I wouldn't take my child to a $125 meal, unless I was extremely rich, my child had incredibly good taste, and a huuuge appetite. And wanted the dinner for his/her Christmas/birthday gift. Then and only then would I consider it.

Anonymous said...

I was in Orlando last week and, though I didn't visit this joint, I did visit Todd English's bluezoo and blogged about it over at my spot, http://foodrockz.com. It was New Years Eve and there were plenty of kids . . . so it was pretty loud . . . which isn't really my scene. But I was there with my two young nephews, so I had no business complaining about kids. The thing I was pleasantly surprised about was that, though it's a rather upscale eatery, they had a children's menu that was reasonably priced and contained food that actually appealed to my nephews. A good time was had by all. And I get the impression that most of the fancy Disney restaurants have children's menus. We had a reservation for another reportedly excellent Disney restaurant for later in the week, Narcoossee's, but a medical emergency forced us to cancel. But, all in all, Disney seems like a pretty good spot for foodie parents to get a good meal and take their kids along for the experience. I wouldn't want to see all those kids in my favorite DC restaurants . . . but it is Disney, after all.