Fine Dining

Finally met up with Amy last night for dinner after such a long time. It’s nice catching up with her, talking about work and relationships. And she’s definitely my BFF. Even though i haven’t seen her for such a long time, the connections is there. We went to IMM’s Wan Zai Cafe to have our dinner. Chat over dinner is great as well! After which we went to Daiso for buy some stuffs, and walk over to JEC to continue our chats. And while waiting for her, i bought 2, which i think is interesting, books for leisure reading. LOLS. Yeah, I wanna improve my langauge. So reading is the best?

Anways, I read a column in Newpaper yesterday about parents bringing children to FINE DINING RESTAURANTS.

What’s Fine Dining to you?

Quote from Wikipedia:

Fine dining
Fine dining restaurants are full service restaurants with specific dedicated meal courses. Décor of such restaurants feature higher quality materials with an eye towards the “atmosphere” desired by the restaurateur. The wait staff is usually highly trained and often wears more formal attire, while kitchen staff are more formally trained, usually with a more traditional hierarchical staffing structure. The menu generally features higher quality ingredients with more elaborate preparation. Orders are individually prepared with attention to detail and presented on the plate with artistry.

Fine dining restaurants usually have a full bar with separate bar staff. Many fine dining establishments will have a full wine list created and chosen by dedicated sommelier.

I do understand that parents want their kids to have greater exposure on almost everything, but certain things are just not meant for kids. The reasons that I can think of Fine Dining Restaurants not allowing children (at all or below certain age like 6 years old or 12 years old) into their restaurants is because:

1) They can’t sit still
2) They can be very noisy and perhaps cry out of the blue
3) They tend to pick up the cutlery and make noise that will eventually disturb the rest of the customers in the restaurant, who want only quiet environment.
4) They tend to have crayons, color pencils and draw everywhere they see
5) Lastly, I personally think that the food in the fine dining restaurant, doesn’t suit the appetite of little kids who wants hamburges, frech fries and happy meal toys.

I can’t imagine your kid who is only 3 years old, and is having problem cutting up the nicely prepared medium rare steak and end up holding the steak in their little tiny hands. And the parents couldn’t concentrate on eating because they have feed their kids first, and by the time they could start on the food, the nicely prepared and expensive steak would have gone cold. And yucks, you spent so much money just to have cold food in a nicely done fine dining restaurant?

Ok, let’s say your kid who is 10 years old, knows how to cut the nicely done steak by themselves. But they made a mess on the table, dropping the food everywhere and was making a lot of noise during dining. The parents have to stop whatever they are doing and clean up the mess. Unsightly.

Some parents say it’s unfair and they call this discrimination. Think again if fine dining is what your little kids needs.

To me, fine dining is an adult thing. Because the people who are dining there are either businessmen, or people who wants to experience what is fine dining or the high class people. You don’t wanna waste so much money on a lunch/dinner talking to your client and just when you are about to close a deal, tada~ a kid who is next to your table cries real loud and the incapable parents are unable to pacify them. And when you looked at your very shocked client, you know you might not be able to close this deal after all. BUT, not all clients are that bad lah. Think on the bright side always.

But I seriously think that parents needs to know what a kid really need when they are still a KID. I don’t think holding knife on one hand and fork on another hand is what they want. Every kids want to have Happy Meal in Macdonald’s, holding the hamburger in their little tiny hands and run around in the fast food restaurant because there is a mini playground for them. They can have the so-called exposure when they are slightly older, like say 18 years old when they know how to behave, and doesn’t not scold vulgarities in the fine dining restaurant. Etiquette is very important. Imagine you are in a nicely done fine dining restaurant, and some ah bengs/ ah lian walked in (in proper attire), but their actions are so . . . kopithiam style, you will start thinking “Damn, am i at the correct restaurant?”.

It’s not like I don’t like childrens. I do love them, but children being children, and kids being kids, they don’t like restrictions in places like this. Will you be able to enjoy the ambience created by the restaurant with your kids around? I highly doubt so loh. I can’t even enjoy myself in cafes like The Coffee Club when a baby cries out suddenly, and some hyper kids running about because they are simply too noisy for me to continue my conversations with my friends. Although, such cafes are informal and doesn’t ban kids. But i seriously think that parents need to tame their kids in such places because they might get hurt and at the same time knock onto any waiter/waitress who are sending food to their table or create inconvenience for the people around them. BUT, not all customers hates little kids and blamed it on the parents. So think on the brighter side too.

I feel that “no one looks after the children” is just an excuse for laziness. Why? They don’t have relatives who have kids and is available to look after their kids meh? The kids doesn’t have grandparents who love to take them out on weekends? They don’t have friendly neighbors who loves kids and is trustable and is able to take care of their kids? If they want to have fine dining, they can plan in advance. Make plans. Find a nanny or baby sitter for their kids. After all, you just need some advance planning. Nothing is impossible these days.

Discrimination or not, you decide.