Yesterday I walked in what used to be my favorite small restaurant in Uetikon am See. The food is very good, the service is quick but I always had a feeeling they are not fond of small children. But I kept going there because, despite sometimes I brought friends with kids, (and kids are kids, they are sometimes loud, they are not 100% clean) they never said anything. And I kept going, once a week at least, bringing friends (last time we were 12 people all brought by me). Two weeks ago we went in a day twice for lunch and for dinner having us spend 200+chf in a day. But I like the food and they don't complain about kids so I am happy and I keep going and also always recommending it to friends (mostly with kids). Yesterday,after my kids' meal took a long time to be served (I think they did it on purpose)and after our lunch, I was told that from now on I should only do take away with them because my little one often makes the floor dirty with rice and for them it's not worth cleaning up. (30 seconds with a brush). I also told him he should have a sign with 'Kleinkinder nicht erlaubt' (small children not allowed) and he told me that by law he is not allowed, however he is doing and saying so. What would you suggest I do? I have already mentioned it to all my Friends (many are asian and many were told about the place by me), I have written a Google review and a Facebook one. Is there a way I can contact a consumer right company to make a formal complaint? Not that I would ever want to go back but I don't think this Is acceptable (or even legal). They should have at least warned me before.

I wish more restaurants would ban small children. Plenty of meals that have been ruined by other peoples badly behaved kids.

So all these times you went, the kids left a mess all over the floor and they had to clean it up and now they say they don't want to do this any more?

You have every right to be angry, especially since you've brought in many customers for the restaurant and no one has ever had an issue with your children before. You've posted reviews about your situation so people are now aware that this is not a child-friendly restaurant.

However, as a customer, did you ever apologize for the mess left behind? Did you ever do anything to reduce the noise and mess caused by your children? Do you think your children ever disturbed the other guests dining?

Some restaurants cater to quiet diners and there may have been guests who complained about the "kindergarten" in the restaurant. If that were the case, the restaurant may lose more money in the long run as their reputation for being quiet, elegant dining has become compromised.

Being a good parent involves innumerous skills, including the ability to assess which venues are child-friendly and realising that just because one pays good money for the food, that is not an entitlement to allow children to upset other guests' dining experience.

Edit: Warning: You may need a thick skin for the replies as you probably won't get much sympathy from other posters.

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Faith isn't about everything turning out okay. Faith is about being okay no matter how things turn out.

Rubbish. Letting your kids run free and throw food all over the floor is completely unacceptable. The restaurant has tolerated them up until now but clearly has had enough.

Quite right. Expecting sympathy for this is like expecting a restaurant to allow uncontrolled children to run riot and make a mess all over the place. Not gonna happen.

I don't mind the small children, as long as the parents are in proper control of them.

Vote with your feet, tell your friends to avoid and go to Google and leave a review where you are fair but accurate that they don't like families.

Then move on.

The funny thing was that yesterday I did Indeed make sure my kids were quiet, I put on some Peppa Pig on my phone(very quiet too) and the only problem was the rice that my son left on the floor. When the lady came to clean i said Entschuldigung but obviously she did not understand. I even offered to give 10chf to clean but he said that it's not profitable for them to have to clean every time. My kids are not the laudest and actually yesterday they did not disturb any other client, only the owners were disturbed by the mess on the floor that I have anyway said I would pay for cleaning up. I was just shocked. I am sorry for the people who are so upset against children, at least against mine who yes make a mess on the floor but are overall not the worst laudest screamig kids. I do not let my kids do whatever they want, however if I dont let my toddler eat by himself he would Indeed scream his lungs out (hence the mess on the floor). Anyway, I guess I Will ask to close this thread as I know It will do more harm than good. Thanks. Anyway.

Don’t know which restaurant you went to but a quick google of Restaurants Uetikon throws up quite a few in the vicinity, many marked ‘child friendly’. Why not switch your venue?

I agree with others that rowdy kids are a nightmare in a restaurant, and I’m a parent myself. I tended to keep away from more ‘grown up’ restaurants until we’d passed the risk of rice throwing and shouty outburst stage.

Some ridiculous replies in here jumping to all manner of conclusions.
Its a shame the restaurant owner has decided they dont want kids in there but id suggest to just move on and forget about it rather than taking it personally.
Zurich is one of the few places where restaurants can turn customers away for discriminatory intolerances like this and still survive. The cleaning they have to do sounds like just an excuse to me so go where you are welcome.
Out of interest, in all the times you've been to this restaurant have you seen many other children in there?
Go where you are welcome

I think you are jumping to conclusions here. How do you know the kids were throwing the food on the floor? When small children eat their food by themselves, especially things like rice, some of the food will inevitably end up on the floor. I don't remember the times I had to clean food off the floor with paper napkins when eating out with my children. They also had a knack for knocking glasses off the table so the first thing I would do after sitting down to a restaurant was to move the glasses out of their way but there were times when we still ended up breaking some and restaurants never made a big deal about it.

Err, the OP said so? Deliberately throwing or accidentally dropping is irrelevant, the result is the same.

Thank you all for your inputs. Indeed I will move on and also move on from some comments that people do because they do not know the real problems in life and also jump to quick conclusions. I probably myself get worked up over unnecessary things! I was looking for help but It really seems that this forum Is mainly aimed at opening up polemics of all sorts.

Yeah you hit the nail on the head there.. You picked up the food from the floor

My kids pretty much always drop fries or pasta on the floor wether it's a posh resto or in MacDo .. But we pick it up. We dont leave the mess there on the floor..

Do you often think like this? Really?

Drunken adults throwing beer glasses across a room and a toddler accidentally knocking over a glass is relevant. The result is the same.

Crashing a car because you are drunk and crashing a car because someone drunk drove into you relevant. The result is the same.

Murdering someone and them dying of old age is irrelevant. The result is the same - they're dead.

- Unless they hire extra personal it does not cost them more money
- Their problem if they have a floor which would take a lot of time cleaning
- If your kids drops food it is polite to pick it up instead of leaving it
- Bring a blanket or ask for some paper to put under his chair if they drop above average

Anyway you asked what you should do.

Just forget about it and go elsewhere.

I suggest you think about the context - even with your ridiculous examples, from the purely limited point of view of someone clearing up afterwards, they're all pretty much equivalent, yes.

You'd hardly suggest that we don't take measures to improve general longevity or survivability in the event of a non-fault accident, would you? Why shouldn't the restaurant take measures to avoid having to clean up spilled food?

Smart restaurants go for a set-up where cleaning up is easy to do. Since dropped food is inherent to the business.

It does sound a bit passive aggressive of the place to just ban you. As a good customer, one would hope they might have gone for a polite "heads-up" along the lines of "we really appreciate your business but xyz kids a bit quieter/less messy/not have rice dishes"

But probably you would have decided to boycott the place then anyway as you do sound just a smidge entitled as regards acceptable "environmental impact" of your kids (intentional or not), especially as you also admit you sensed they were touchy about the kids.

PS Please get a keyboard with a Return key

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Maybe teach your kids how to behave properly and how to eat properly rather than trough style in front of the TV/Ipad/Whatever device ?

Having managed a site with four restaurants, and where kids accounted for a decent percentage of the customers, accidents happen. However, you can't get the hoover out or use a bleach mop to clean up a spillage whilst other diners are present. You also have a limited amount of time to turn the table around and make it presentable for the next customer.

I can see both sides of the issue, but I feel that the restaurant possibly just got to the end of their tether with a repeat customer who always causes them to have cleaning/turnover issues. If the restaurant has carpeted floors, rice is a bugger to clean up without a hoover.

Solutions would be steer clear of restaurants until a child has picked up better table manners, or carry a pack of wet wipes with you so that you can clean up any mess yourself. If the child gets bored and wants to watch cartoons, pack some earphones so that the other diners aren't disturbed by the cartoons. Or better still, ask other parents of children that are a similar age, how they manage restaurant situations with their kids. There are always people with little tips that you might not have thought of.

Just as an aside, I was in a shoe shop last week trying on 3 pairs of trainers. A woman and her daughter (about 7-9 yrs old) were on the same bank of seating and tried on over a dozen pairs of shoes. I put the shoes back in the boxes and back on the shelves whilst the woman left theirs quite literally littered all over the shop and walked out. I was absolutely gobsmacked by this behaviour. It takes a minute to clean up after yourself, teaches the child good manners, and makes the day just that little bit easier for the staff.