We have been taking our 3-year old, Claire, to restaurants for years now. We have our routine down, and we’ve adjusted it for her age. Now that she’s getting to be a little more independent, she likes to order for herself off the menu. This is extremely helpful when places have a Kids’ Menu, but some places we frequent do not. In those places, we make do.

Imagine my delight when a few of the Mile High Mamas were invited to check out a restaurant that we’ve frequented many times, because they now have a children’s menu. What restaurant is this?

PF Chang’s!

Amber, Gretchen, and I met at PF Chang’s with our children in tow to check out the new kid’s menu, and I couldn’t wait!

PF Chang’s is not a new experience for us. We’ve had some embarrassing, fun things happen there. Claire loves PF Chang’s because they have little kids’ cups with kitties on them, and their chopsticks with “training wheels” are super-easy for her to use.

In the past, we’ve just ordered “family style,” and we’ve been sure to include things Claire loves. She could eat her entire body-weight in brown rice if we’d let her; chicken fried-rice is a great go-to meal idea, and she really likes the Szechwan Asparagus. Yes, it’s spicy, but she loves it!

I was excited to see what she thought of the Kids’ Menu, because this will make our family meals that much easier!

Speaking of making the meal easier, just the existence of a children’s menu made things easier. There were things to color and pictures to see. The menu had different games and things for kids of varying ages. These things worked as a nice distraction while we were waiting for the food to arrive.

The actual portion sizes and prices of the kids’ meal options were fantastic. The meal options were:

• Kid’s Chicken – Served with Honey or Sweet & Sour dipping sauce – $4.95

• Kid’s Lo Mein – Egg noodles stir-fried with Chicken – $3.95

• Kid’s Chicken Fried Rice – without veggies – $2.95

• Baby Buddha’s Feast – Snap Peas, carrots & broccoli – served steamed or stir-fried – $2.95

As with most Kid’s Menus, these are for children 12 and under and come with a kid’s drink.

All of the options are great, depending on the child’s preferences, and there is good variety.  The biggest hit, or at least the ones that were polished off first, were the Kid’s Chicken. This isn’t a big shock since the chicken was battered, fried, and took on some form of “nugget,” and the honey dipping sauce was yummy. The egg noodles were good; Claire didn’t have to pick out any of the “weird things” in the fried rice, and the veggies were tender but not mushy.

As with any restaurant outing with kids, you never know what you’re going to get. I mean, there were only four children under the age of five, but in reality, the three adults were exponentially out-numbered. The odds of something happening were quite great, but what would it be?

We were getting settled after having placed our order and decided it would be the perfect opportunity to have the server take a group photo of us. One thing led to another, and Gretchen’s little Beatrix exploded into the most spectacular temper tantrum, the likes none of us have ever seen. In one smooth and skillful move, Gretchen scooped her up and away they went, out of the restaurant to cool down. The rest of us sat there stunned, trying to figure out what had gone wrong and what had just happened. But, that’s the thing with temper tantrums, they don’t make sense to the people on the outside, and that’s okay. As moms, you know that you just pick up the pieces and move on…sometimes quite literally.

Once the dust had settled, and the initial shock wore off, the antics started in again. Only this time, I take some of the responsibility. You see, Claire asked me if she could please have some chopsticks for her meal. She’s been using the children’s chopsticks for what seems like forever to me, and she knows that when we eat at PF Chang’s she gets to use chopsticks. So I had the server bring her and the other kids some chopsticks.

I mean, if you’re going to bring one child chopsticks, you can’t leave the others out, right?

Well, to my child, chopsticks are eating utensils, but to Amber’s little guy, Bode, they became weapons. His sister, Hadley, isn’t one to not defend herself, so the booth became the perfect fencing arena, and the sword-fight began.

En Garde!

First explosions, and now a sword-fight? Where were we, PF Chang’s or the set of some action-adventure movie!?

We finally got that situation under control and had quite the laugh when we got to the fortune cookie portion of the meal.

Bode’s fortune was so awesome that I took a photo of it. What does it say?

“Your example will inspire others.”

Indeed they will, Bode. Indeed they will.

So, if you haven’t had a chance to check out PF Chang’s new Kids’ Menu, you should! The prices are reasonable; the food is great, and the sword-fighting is optional.

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