Adult ordering off the kids menu!

[mykds36]

Do all the restaurants in the parks allow this or is it a hit or miss kind of thing (some do sometimes, only at breakfast, or lunch, other places never allow it) or is it well known which places stick to the age rules on their menus? If so which places are those? I know my mom would probably prefer the smaller portions and will be on a budget.

Thanks,

 

[mom2rtk]

Counter service won't be a problem. Table service probably won't let you, but might vary by server. Some places will let you order items from the kids' menu, but give you twice the portion for twice the price.

 

[mich311e]

As PP said counter services is fine. I ate the kids meal bean burrito at Rancho Del Zocalo!

 

[bumbershoot]

As PP said counter services is fine. I ate the kids meal bean burrito at Rancho Del Zocalo!

I used to do that until they changed. Did they change back from the whole wheat burrito and the side of white rice with peas?

 

[theluckyrabbit]

If you indicate clearly at TS places that you are willing to pay the grown up price for a child's entree, most CMs are fine with it. Sometimes a CM won't even charge extra.

 

[disneyxica20]

i do it all the time at the counter service places. one time we were eating breakfast at flo's and i ordered the fruit plate and the cast member told me to get the kids' plate- you get the same amount of food and it costs the same, but the kid's plate includes a drink.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Counter service and quick serve, no issue what so ever. Table service will vary place by place. At Carthay Circle you can order a kids item but will be charged an adult price...it is pretty lame.

 

[tdhickey]

No issue other than Blue Bayou and Carthay, honestly the quality of some of the kids meals are pretty poor though.

 

[lovebug33]

No issue other than Blue Bayou and Carthay, honestly the quality of some of the kids meals are pretty poor though.

That's what I hate about Disneyland. The adult meals are good and the kids meals are gross. It was really hard to find a good meal for my girls to eat except at Ariel's Grotto.

 

[SMD]

Are there kids meals for breakfast at all the CS places? I've never really been a big fan of park breakfast options and would rather eat before I enter. I know Flo's used to have a kids breakfast option before it stopped and restarted breakfast, but it was just 1 item. TLT never did until the Star Wars overlay. As I recall, Cozy Cones, Jolly Holiday, Pacific Wharf and the former Taste Pilots have all had some kind of breakfast in the past and no kids meal. The good news is that for breakfast there are plenty of places to order just a pastry or small item.

 

[tanyaegangibson]

...honestly the quality of some of the kids meals are pretty poor though.

I agree. Aside from the salmon (small portion, but nicely grilled) at a few places or a hamburger at Carnation, my kids don't like the kids meals--which is problematic if we're doing something like a PtN or WOC dinner, since I'm not going to pay the adult fixed price for an 8-year-old!

It's not that my kids have advanced palates or anything--they don't like a lot of "grown-up" preparations of food, though we do make them eat them at home if we cooked them--but they do like to eat a variety of things over vacation (not burgers or pizza for every meal), and don't like fried foods any more than they like bland ones (chicken breast with nothing done to it at Blue Bayou!) offered to them.

If it's not a fixed-price dinner and it's just the two kids and me, we try to figure out a meal that I can split with DS8 or one that DD11 is willing to share with DS8. The kitchen is always willing to change the sides, too, if the kids are sharing with each other--for instance, plain-ish vegetables instead of non-kid-friendly vegetables that have "stuff" on them.

(The lack of interesting kid options isn't just a problem at Disney. We encounter the same thing at restaurants in Monterey when we visit, where the regular menus have, for instance, a lot of fish and seafood and other such choices, but the children's menu offers just pizza, pasta with marinara, burgers, grilled cheese, mac-n-cheese, and chicken nuggets. To quote DS8, "Ew, nothing with 'nugget' in the name! Aren't we in a fancy restaurant?")

 

[mich311e]

I used to do that until they changed. Did they change back from the whole wheat burrito and the side of white rice with peas?

I don't recall if it was a whole wheat tortilla or not. Or if the rice was white. It was night and I was starving, lol, my husband ordered it for me.

 

[tdhickey]

That's what I hate about Disneyland. The adult meals are good and the kids meals are gross. It was really hard to find a good meal for my girls to eat except at Ariel's Grotto.

We started splitting meals with my 8 year old daughter, often two meals for three. My 5 year son however, would eat that bland kids macaroni everyday of his life if we let him!

 

[Kindermouse]

I can't say for "real adults", but my son is too old to eat from the kids menu at 13. However he isn't by any means an adult. Even with his little mustache he still looks like a kid and has obvious eating issues since he is extremely thin (weighed in 2 months ago at 86 pounds) He also is very particular about eating away from home and at Disney he will eat very few things (has no problem with junk like churros and dole whips funnily). We have not had an issue ordering off the kids menus. Sometimes we are charged the adult rate and sometimes not but we have never been denied food that they have available even when it's table service or prixe fixe. that being said we bring most of our food from home. It simplifies and saves money

 

[lovebug33]

We started splitting meals with my 8 year old daughter, often two meals for three. My 5 year son however, would eat that bland kids macaroni everyday of his life if we let him!

We did that, too, but it is more expensive to buy an adult meal and split it between the two girls because then you have to factor in the cost of a drink.

 

[SMD]

We did that, too, but it is more expensive to buy an adult meal and split it between the two girls because then you have to factor in the cost of a drink.

Well, you don't have to order a drink. All of the TS places will still serve water for free. Many of the kids meals, even at twice the price, used to be much cheaper than an adult meal. They did narrow that gap with the most recent food price increase in the last month or so.

They also fixed a little bit of the pricing issue I had at Cafe Orleans. The other sandwiches, which are half the size of the monte cristo cost the same and would come with a side of fries. So if you go with a group and don't want to share a monte cristo (or can't, for dietary reasons) you end up basically paying twice as much, plus there's already fries on your plate and of course you want to share the pomme frites too. Now they still cost the same but you get a choice of chips or fruit, so at least it's not quite like you're paying twice for chips. But I still think that the monte cristo should cost at least slightly more than the much smaller entrees.

But generally, if you're dining TS at DLR you're already spending more than you would for comparable food and experience anywhere else. If a drink or dessert or some extra is essential to the experience but out of the budget, then the experience isn't in the budget.

 

[tdhickey]

We did that, too, but it is more expensive to buy an adult meal and split it between the two girls because then you have to factor in the cost of a drink.

True, we found the food quality difference was worth it though

 

[lovebug33]

We did that, too, but it is more expensive to buy an adult meal and split it between the two girls because then you have to factor in the cost of a drink.

We actually do because we have selective eaters who will only drink milk .

 

[smartlabelprint]

C

We actually do because we have selective eaters who will only drink milk .

ant you bring your own?

 

[purple figment]

We actually do because we have selective eaters who will only drink milk .

How old are your kids? Could they split a milk between them? Or could they just drink water with the meal?