Eating Out.... with Children

Last Saturday night, Ethan thought it would be a great idea to go and look for a local pub for dinner. We had heard so much of how England has a pub on every corner, and how many of them were family friendly. So, we started walking....

• We found some pubs, but they looked a lot like bars, and there certainly weren't any other kids in there.
  
• We found restaurants for Italian, Japanese, Indian, Chinese, and American food. But, we were really looking to try English food.
• We saw a lot of restaurants that looked fancy. That wasn't going to happen.
  
• We found McDonalds and Pizza Hut. No way.
• We found a seafood restaurant, and went inside, but there was a wait.
• We finally found a pub that looked like it would work, but there was a sign outside that said, "Children Welcome until 6pm."
  
• We finally gave up, and went back to the apartment to heat up some frozen dinners.

We were a little frustrated, to say the least. We later found out that the British don't typically eat out with their children because it can be so expensive. Also, many families feed their children very early, and put them to bed early.

Well, we found out the other day that we get a certain amount of money to spend each day on food and lodging... but we only get it if we spend it! So, we went out with fresh determination the next night. We decided to order take-out (they call it "take-away") from a seafood place called Graveley's. We ordered a few things off the menu, including fish and chips, and a tuna meal. My order seemed to confuse the man on the line; they typically only do take-away for fish and chips. He seemed hesitant about putting the tuna order in a take-away box, and said he made no guarantees. I told him I would take my chances.

Well, the fish and chips were awesome. The "fish" is Haddock, and it wasn't too fishy, as I thought it might be. The tuna was good, but the fish and chips took the prize!

We've eaten out at two other places since then. Damn Yankees is a place for American food and very kid-friendly. We had burgers, steak, nachos, and milkshakes! We also ate at an Italian place called Est Est Est. It looked fancy from the outside, but they welcomed us and the kids, even giving Tim and Maddie their own chef hats. The kids got to make their own pizzas, I had a pasta with salmon and cream sauce, and Ethan had lamb.

I found a list that someone had given me with family-friendly restaurants in the area. So, we'll try to hit as many of them as we can while we are still on this per-diem pay. (That ends when we move in to our house, which won't be until Febrary 19th).

Look for Ethan's blog next about the beer he's tried in the pub.