dining and whining : by amy

My epicurean adventures were pretty good during my pre-baby life.  VIP at Strip House.  Late night eats in K-town or Palisades Park.  Spontaneous drives to Philly for a cheesesteak.  Paris.

Then, I got pregnant.  Spontaneous eats were still good (for evenings when I wasn't passed out by 8pm), but so long, Starbucks.  Smell ya later, sushi.  Au revoir, charcuterie and champagne.
(OK, so all of these things are probably fine during pregnancy if you have just a bit, but I didn't risk it.)

After 9 months and 38 pounds, baby was born and I was on the breastfeeding diet, which meant no/low caffeine and alcohol.  It also meant we started a library of take-out menus.  As many of you know, new parents become the top customers of local take-out/delivery joints.  Revenues of downtown Metuchen restaurants peaked in Q4 2011 thanks to us.

When we did go out to eat, it was rarely very enjoyable and never spontaneous.  I wasn't terribly comfortable nursing in public, but was able to do so when necessary.  It was a combination of getting and keeping Logan in the right position while not flashing everyone.  I've seen moms do it so effortlessly even without a Brest Friend or a Boppy.  I must have really weak arms or my boobs don't hang down for baby's easy-access since they aren't big enough.  Anyway, between that and getting somewhere in between Logan's napping or my pumping schedules, going out to eat just seemed like more of a nuisance.  Once Logan was exclusively on formula (~8 months), I was able to comfortably eat out and expand my dining horizons...on a limited basis.  "Limited basis" is the operative phrase here. 

Case in point: On Saturday night, we went to Momofuku Noodle Bar in NYC for my sister-in-law's birthday.  The last time I had been here was circa 2007 after Jean's graduation from grad school.  I remembered the space being very small and narrow, even for NYC.  Since then, the restaurant moved to a larger space though not by much.  I had a "feeling" about this one, so we called in advance to see if they had a high chair or booster chair.  This was the first restaurant we had ever been to where they had neither!  (And no apologies either.)  They also only had back-less wooden stools.  Can it get any more toddler-unfriendly than that?  I had to take my "mom hat" off for a second and put on my "child-less demographic hat"-- it is not a legal requirement for restaurants to accommodate small children.  They clearly do not want patrons with small children b/c the place is practically a freaking fire hazard to begin with so why muck it up even more with small children running around?  Makes sense.  (OK, putting back on my "mom hat.")  Up yours, David Chang!

(just kidding!  yourporkbunsaresoamazing)

So, we came prepared with the right equipment, but also prepared to not really eat as we would probably be taking turns wrangling with our toddler.  I left the big UppaBaby Vista stroller at home, brought our UppaBaby G-Luxe umbrella stroller and packed our travel-friendly Eddie Bauer folding sit n' go booster chair (both referenced here).  They were surprisingly friendly about me leaving the stroller (folded or not) at the front.  We had reservations since we were eating their fried chicken feast, which meant we had an actual table as opposed to bar seating.  Fortunately, one of the stools happened to be against the wall, so we strapped our sit n' go booster chair on that stool and leaned Logan against the wall, like this:

"Um, this is awkward.  Hence, my awkward face."

Awkward, but it worked.  Logan feasted on pork buns, vegetable ramen and chicken.  The table next to us ended up bringing an infant, maybe 3-4 months old (obviously too small for any type of seat).  The mom was one of those moms that nursed so effortlessly!  She was there with a group of maybe 4-5 guys and 1 other woman, and she just whipped it out, holding the baby with one arm while eating a pork bun in the other.  I hated, envied and admired her all at once.

Needless to say, we won't be going there again until Logan can sit up and sit still in a chair by himself.  All of the chain restaurants, while not terribly exciting (c'est la vie), are typically pretty kid-friendly.  In fact, Legal Sea Foods was voted #1 kid-friendly restaurant by Parents magazine.  They let us bring our entire stroller in and roll it up to our table.  Our other favorite local kid-friendly joints are So Kong Dong Tofu House (Korean tofu stew joint in Edison, NJ), Le Peep (Edison, NJ), Wholefoods (Union and Princeton, NJ), Wegmans (Woodbridge, NJ), Ichi Umi (Edison, NJ), and DoKeBi (our favorite Korean casual joint in Leonia, NJ).

What are your favorite kid-friendly restaurants?