Dining out with Kids :: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good :: Vinh Vinh on Victoria St :: Richmond

Everyone has their dining up’s and downs, and lately we’ve been getting the best of both worlds.  Yay for us! When the kids are good, oh my they are sooo good and when they are bad, it’s bad!

Let’s step back a few Friday’s nights ago….

Mr Bambini had a craving for Vietnamese food, so called me in the afternoon to prepare the troops. I’m now super organised when it comes to dining out with the kids. Our bag is packed with sippy cups, the kiddy chopsticks, extra wipes, a few toys and a fully charged Iphone filled with games. 

This particular Friday night the kids were angels. We all snacked on spring rolls with Vietnamese mint, sipped on our apple juice, munched out on prawn crackers, dunked home-made dim sims in soy sauce and demolished a whole plate of delicious Vietnamese coleslaw.

The kids sat still, ate everything on their plate, asked for permission to check out the fish tank and ate all of their ice-cream. Mr Bambini and l chatted about our day without a fuss and we were all out the door by 7pm. It was heaven!

The Bad and the Ugly! :: Matsumoto on Lygon St Brunswick East

The following week l think we got a bit cocky and decided we’d do another dinner. “The kids were so perfect last week let’s do it again” piped Mr Bambini. {Note :: We usually do breakfast and lunches here at Hey Bambini, dinner out needs to be a well prepared affair for us since our kids still have strict bed-time routines. Just saying.}

We LOVE our local Japanese restaurant and frequent it often with the kids.

The experience on this particular occasion was a complete dining disaster! As soon as we sat down Mr 2 didn’t want to sit in his booster seat. He didn’t want to sit on my lap. He wanted to run around the restaurant instead. Well not on my watch! Between restraining him and trying to eat my sushi Mr 2 had kicked over one chair which hit another diner’s table and also somehow managed to land his size two foot in our tempura prawns sending it flying across the table. Yummy! Not even the bribe of ice cream was going to settle him down. In fact he refused to eat. Yep my Two year old knocked back ice-cream. I guess now you can gauge what kind of “mood” we were dealing with. Mr 3 on the other hand was an angel. He ate, chatted with us and played with his cars. We ate and left in the all record time of about 40 minutes. Mr 2 went straight to bed and l went straight to a bottle of wine.

I guess what l’m trying to say even though our kids are exposed to eating out on a regular basis and while l can have all the right tools sometimes it’s doesn’t go in our favour. Who on earth can control the unpredictable mood of a toddler! But it all makes for a good belly laugh for me and Mr Bambini once we get home and pop them to bed. What else can you do really?! This week we’re going to be “dining in” at home me thinks.

Vinh Vinh :: High Chairs :: Booster Seats :: Small Ice Cream Serves and a fantastic colourful fish tank to keep wee ones amused

Matsumoto :: High Chairs :: Booster seats :: Some Toys & Books :: Children’s Chopsticks available for purchase :: Bookings MOST essential if you’re bringing the pram.