Four-year-old girl reviews the world’s best restaurant, The French Laundry, where soup tastes like ‘Tinker Bell Popsicles’, truffles are ‘black diamonds’ and servings are 'too small
My kids (5/7yo) love to do long tasting menus. We did one a couple days ago and they were the _belles of the ball._We started them very early and make sure to engage them with the restaurants. The staff tend to enjoy working with curious youngsters.
I’m not. It’s hard to get a reservation at TFL and it might be a bucket list dinner for many people. It’s not fair to expect a 4 year old to sit still and behave well for 5 hours. Best case, they are on their best behavior, don’t get much out of it, and you spend $300+ for a child to eat a meal that isn’t their preference just as a flex. Worst case, it’s disruptive to the other diners.
My 4 year old daughter has had exposure to a wide variety of food in various settings; can distinguish various cuts of beef, eyeball BMS level on wagyu and has sampled more DRC and Rousseau than the vast majority of posters here but I wouldn’t want to bring her to TFL until I felt like she’d actually appreciate it, probably more like age 10-12.
Mine never had a problem either. Never caused a scene and had great interactions with staff and chefs. Lots of kitchen tours as well. We set expectations for behavior and enforced them. Also didn’t start dinner at 9pm. We’d go to the earliest seating so we were done before their normal bedtime. But, I don’t think a 5 hour meal is fun for anyone including me…
Totally agree on that age range. My 8 yo daughter has been getting “prepped” since she was 6, started off by, every weekend, throwing a dart on a globe and together cooking staples from those countries. starting at 7 ive taken her to French Bistros, Korean, Laotian, Japanese sushi spots to get her familiar with different foods. Even as a toddler and to this day i never allowed the restaurant staff give her a “kids menu” . with wines she has a fun time picking out notes that her nose can pick up. Looking forward to the day i can take her on a daddy daughter date at some decent Michelin spots.