Hi everyone
I have read quite a few posts recently about eating in restaurants with children/buggies. I feel I must share with you what happened to us when we were in PP in August with our 2 children.
Our favourite place to eat is the
Hostal Bahia. I think the view from their terrace is just wonderful. We booked a table one Saturday evening and I was really looking forward to it. When we arrived I notice that quite a few 'reserved' tables had been pushed together into two very long tables, one of which was next to where we were sitting. The rest of the terrace soon filled up and we ordered our food and sat chatting with our children enjoying absolutely everything.
Then a huge group of adults (around 14 of them) arrived - each couple seemed to have at least 2 children each - the youngest was in a buggy and the oldest looked younger than our children who are 7 and 8. It was clear that they were heading for the reserved tables, one of which was next to us. I couldn't believe it when they all sat down. Adults on one long table (half of whom had their backs to the children) and all the children (including the one in the buggy) at the other table next to us. I have never seen such a terrible scene in a restaurant. The adults completely ignored the children who were behaving just as you might expect about 15 unaccompanied children to behave. The terrace looked like a bombsite in minutes. I have no idea how the waiters kept so cool. Needless to say our evening was somewhat spoilt and we didn't bother with coffees etc afterwards. We couldn't wait to get away!
PP is of course a family place and in summer it is full of families and groups. However, I think it was rude, thoughtless and selfish for all those adults to enjoy a lovely grown up meal, whilst we looked after (or should I say, suffered) their children.
I have often been out with family groups where the children sit at one end of the table or maybe the older ones sit at their own table but I would never, ever leave a huge group of pre-schoolers to fend for themselves and annoy everyone else in the restaurant.
Rant over!!!