Fine dining with a baby

Yep, you read that correctly! 

Since our older children are staying with relatives for a few days, my husband and I thought it would be a great time for us to go out for dinner. We've been wanting to try a restaurant called Petite Mort which offers a degustation menu and also has vegetarian options. It's one of the very few Perth restaurants to be awarded 2 stars of excellence from the Western Australian Good Food Guide. But we'd have to bring our 6mth old baby. Were we crazy to even think about it? A few of our friends thought so! But I knew we had taken steps so that things would run as smoothly as possible, which I'll share in this post. 

1. Choose wisely.

We chose Petite Mort because of its vegetarian-friendly degustation menu but also because it is known for having a warm, friendly vibe. It's fine dining, yes, but it's all about the food, not the snobbery. If we had chosen a restaurant where people go to be seen, or one with a really snooty vibe, we may not have had as much success. Also, we chose to go on a weeknight and early in the evening (6pm sitting) for minimal stress and disruption. 

2. Make contact ahead of time.

To be honest, this is something I already do fairly often due to being vegetarian but I really recommend it if you're going to be throwing your hosts any kind of curveball- mobility issues, special dietary requirements or, yes, bringing small children. You can also ask questions about the best parking or bringing baby food into the restaurant. 

Calling or emailing ahead allows you both to spot any potential problems before they arise and means your host can help you have the best evening possible. For example, we were going to bring a highchair from home but the restaurant advised they had one available. They also provided us with a table near a window which was more entertaining for baby, and enough space for a highchair. 

If, when you call or email the restaurant, they advise directly or indirectly that it is not suitable for small children then I really think it's best to respect that. You don't want to go somewhere you're not welcome. 

3. Plan, plan, plan. Pack, pack, pack. 

I packed two bags for our dinner. It seems excessive, I know, but I wanted to make sure everything was taken care of so we could relax and enjoy our evening. 

My il tutto nappybag came into the restaurant with us and sat under the table. I made sure we had lots of dry and wet methods of cleaning up, quiet toys for bub and snacks for him (which you can see in the pic below). I also brought 4x sandwich bags in my pouch (always carries my hand sanitiser, tissues, asthma inhaler, lipbalm etc) for gathering all the rubbish (dirty wipes, dropped food etc) 

We took some baby cucumbers and a squeezy pouch of baby food with two spoons. Squeezing the baby food directly onto the tip of the spoon is a low-mess way of feeding baby) 

This bag stayed in the car which was parked just outside the restaurant. It contains all the things I'd need to change baby in the back of the car, plus Baby Nurofen (he's been teething) and I also threw in a spare bottle brush. I had a towel laid down in the back of the car.

4. Be a gracious guest. 

We might be paying customers but that doesn't make us more important than any other customers. Our goal was that our baby be a ghost, meaning other diners not even notice he was there. We decided ahead of time that if bub was upset, we'd take turns walking him outside. If the worst came to the worst, we would leave. Yes, we had paid for a full meal but so had other diners. 

As it turns out, he only cried once, when he accidentally bit his finger, and I scooped him up immediately and took him outside until he had calmed down. The meal (approx 10 courses each) was quite long, almost 3hrs, so by the end of it, bub was getting tired. He sings to himself when he gets tired so we had to take turns talking to him to stop him from singing "uhhh, uhhh, uhhh" at the top of his lungs, haha. 

I think it's important for children to learn how to behave in public and we've always taken the older two out to restaurants but this was next level. Overall, though, it was a great success.