La Banane

For whatever reason, this year, I can't help but notice that my son is getting sick right around any planned celebrations. We rescheduled our Paris trip because he was sick (celebrating my soster's birthday), we rescheduled my birthday dinner, we rescheduled my husband's birthday dinner, and my husband missed a wedding. For my husband's birthday, we decided to go to La Banane - about a week later.

Restaurant: La Banane
Location: Trinity Bellwoods
Meal: Dinner
Day: Sunday
Son's Age: 13 months

I wasn't sure how this was going to go because from what I had heard, La Banane is a fairly boujee French restaurant. They're actually known for their highly Instagram-friendly Ziggy Stardust disco egg dessert, but given that it's pretty expensive and way more chocolate than two people can conceivably finish, we passed on it.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
No surprise, but the setup isn't exactly designed for babies. To their credit, they actually seated us at a table that had a bench seat on one side and a chair and high chair on the other. The host said it was so we could have options of where my baby could sit.

If you have a pre-toddler like mine who does not like to sit still, this option is actually perfect for while we order and wait for food to arrive. Once there was something to eat, we moved him to the high chair. 

Points for having a high chair, but there is no room for a stroller if you have one, and the washroom is located in the basement. 

There definitely is no counter space for changing a diaper here either, so your best bet unfortunately would be to change the diaper on the ground. Luckily I did not have to do that, but it's pretty much your only option if you need to do a diaper change. 

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Service here was outstanding. The staff was extremely pleasant and accommodating, and some servers came by to coo at my baby, so I felt very welcome. Our server was also very helpful in answering questions about the menu and making recommendations, and the bread was served promptly as per my request. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Since we were celebrating, we decided to start with some drinks. I got a glass of Chardonnay while my husband opted for a specialty banana cocktail. 

The bread is actually soft pretzel sticks with mustard, which was a nice surprise. My son, continuing his love of all things bread, really enjoyed this. 

For the parents who are concerned, don't worry, I only let him eat the inside and avoided the salt. Moving onto the food, what better way is there to start a meal than with some freshly shucked oysters?

The east coast oysters were served with the traditional accompaniments of lemon, horseradish, hot sauce, and mignonette. We then ordered the albacore tuna with brown butter, doll, and capers. 

It doesn't look extraordinary but the flavours were perfectly complementary and the dish was so light and savoury. We thought we should probably get some vegetables, so we ordered the white asparagus, served with mussels. 

I was really hoping my son would eat this, but he's very hit-or-miss when it comes to vegetables. Nevertheless, it was a great dish, and I had never had white asparagus before and didn't realize it would taste so different from green asparagus. I must say, though, that the pièce de résistance was the eurobass en croûte. First, they present you with the cooked fish encrusted in pastry. 

Then they take it back to the kitchen to remove the top and serve it with yuzu beurre blanc and zucchini medallions. 

This is just such a delicious dish and you really need to try it. The fish is perfectly cooked and the sauce is rich without being overpowering. We also got a side of the pommes aligot, which is pretty much puréed potatoes with cheese. The side goes very wel with the fish and my son liked both, although he appreciated the cheesy potatoes more, obviously. Each dish was light, but overall the meal was so filling that we didn't have room for dessert!

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The food and service are impeccable so I recommend you come here if you would like some good French food. Accessibility leaves a bit to be desired but I think the rest of the experience makes up for it. As long as you come at a reasonable hour so that your baby doesn't interrupt any romantic dinners or anything like that, I don't see why you can't bring the whole family here!

Khao San Road

I'm a little surprised with myself that it took me so long to take my son to a Thai restaurant. I love Thai food so much that I went to Thailand for my honeymoon. Because of the food. Anyway, I finally managed to get some post-baby Thai food!

Restaurant: Khao San Road
Location: Trinity Bellwoods
Meal: Lunch
Day: Tuesday
Son's Age: 22 weeks

So I'm a little confused as to what was going on with this restaurant, to be honest. Khao San Road was located on Adelaide, but that location has closed. They have a sister restaurant called Nana in Trinity Bellwoods, and apparently Khao San Road is now operating out of there. You would never know from looking, though, because all the signage says Nana and there is no indication that it's anything else. There's also only the one menu so it's not like you can choose to order off a Khao San Road menu versus a Nana menu. Long story short: I'm not completely clear which restaurant I am reviewing.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️
I had to get my stroller over a step to enter the restaurant, and was surprised to discover that all seating was on stools, which meant that I would not be able to place the car seat on a chair. Luckily, I brought my son in a stroller, so the server gave me a table at the front so I wouldn't obstruct anyone.

The washrooms were in the back, and given the setup of the restaurant, there was no way I was getting my stroller there. Instead I brought my son into the washroom with me in his car seat.

The washroom lacks a changing table or any clear counter space to change my son. The upside is that it is large enough to bring a car seat in and place on the floor, so I didn't have to worry about abandoning my baby at the table - not that I would do that, of course. The washroom is also surprisingly on the same floor, not in the basement, so that makes it a bit easier to get to when I'm lugging around a heavy car seat.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Service level was different at the beginning of my visit versus later. While the host offered me the table by the front, I sat for a while without a menu or water. As a breastfeeding mom, I am pretty much perpetually thirsty, so water is kind of important. I waited for a while until the server came out and started taking people's orders. When she got to me, she asked me if I was ready to order, and I said I would like a menu and a glass of water. She quickly got me a menu and then continued on while I waited for water. A few minutes later she asked if I was ready to order, and immediately I said yes, and I would like to start with a glass of water. I placed my order, then watched as she took the next table's orders, then punched them in. I could see the water cups and pitchers and I was so tempted to serve myself at that point. Once I finally got my water, she was significantly more attentive, and my water glass was never empty afterward. My food also came quickly, but I never felt rushed. She also stopped by to interact with my son pretty regularly, which he loved. When I left, another server held the door open for me. To sum up, I started with abysmal service but once this was corrected, service was exceptional.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The restaurant has a lunch special which is a curry of the day. I always appreciate smaller portions for lunch, and the special for Tuesday was the red curry, so I chose to go with this.

I was a little worried because usually you can choose your level of spice, so I asked for Thai spicy. I was told that since it was a special, modifying the spice level was not an option. I was instead offered chilli sauce on the side. It turns out that the curry still has quite a kick! I still added the chilli sauce but I was pleasantly surprised, as the assumption is usually that the general public prefers the food to be quite mild. The curry itself was rich and flavourful, and the portion size was perfect for lunch. I would say it's as good as red curry you would find in Thailand. As a side note for breastfeeding mothers, though, I must tell you that my son typically does not react to changes in my diet, which honestly made me think that the whole concept of breast milk tasting like what I ate to be a lie. After I ate this and breastfed, though, I noticed that my baby had extremely bad gas that lasted all night so neither of us got a good night's sleep. Maybe it's the extra chilli sauce that did it, but I just wanted to give you a heads up.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The food is fantastic, but it's not particularly easy to bring your baby here. If you are really craving delicious Thai food, though, it might be worth the effort.

Pizzeria Libretto

I really like stroller fit, but when moms want to go out for lunch together after doing a workout, they typically want something healthy and it is unlikely that you are going to convince anyone to grab a pizza with you. Since I wanted pizza, I took the one date I knew wouldn't judge me for it: my baby.

Restaurant: Pizzeria Libretto

Location: Trinity Bellwoods

Meal: Lunch

Day: Tuesday

Son's Age: 18 weeks

This was my favourite pizza place before my son was born, and it was my first time taking him here, so I was pretty excited. I walked in to find that there were other families eating lunch with their kids, which means I didn't feel out of place bringing my baby. Also, the noise level is good so that a baby won't disturb anyone but you can still hear people, which is pretty much the optimal noise level for taking a baby out. 

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I just want to start out by saying that the internet informed me that this place is wheelchair accessible. I don't know how they think wheelchairs work, because getting into the restaurant involves one really massive step, and it was not easy for me to get the stroller up. Once I was there, I was able to park my stroller next to my table. 

I should point out that while my stroller was not in the way of any of the patrons, it was obviously in the way of any servers that had to go behind the bar, since I watched them all either side step or step over the stroller wheel. More on that later. The washroom was located down a set of stairs also, which again seemed to go against being "wheelchair accessible", so I wasn't very hopeful considering my baby actually needed a diaper change. Lo and behold, there was in fact a change table in the washroom!

There was actually quite a bit of space in the washroom too (albeit not completely necessary given that my stroller wouldn't make it down the stairs anyway). I decided to give the place four stars because, despite the difficulty with the stroller, they do provide a decent change table and high chairs if you need it, and they were able to accommodate my baby without any issues.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As I mentioned, it became painfully obvious that my stroller was not parked in the most convenient location for the servers. I want to commend them because no one said a word about it or gave any indication that they were upset (although I'm sure they were), so kudos to their professionalism. My server was extremely helpful in going through the lunch special with me (more on that later) and did not rush me. In fact, I felt like a valuable customer. He even checked to make sure there was in fact a change table in the washroom before I took my son, as I didn't want to lug my diaper bag and baby downstairs without the stroller if there was no place to actually change him. The only room for improvement is that I would have appreciated a little help entering and exiting the restaurant considering the giant step outside, but other than that, service was great. 

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Apparently on weekdays there is a fantastic lunch special that includes a salad and a dessert with the pizza. It is not even some lunch size pizza - it's a full size pizza. It's completely worth it. Before my food arrived, my server brought me some bread. 

I love that I was offered rosemary focaccia and whole wheat bread despite eating alone. Both are great, although I personally prefer the focaccia. For my starter, I had the caprese salad. 

To be fair, I love caprese salad, and it's so simple that as long as the ingredients are fresh, I'm happy. Libretto did not disappoint. Of course, the star of the show was the pizza, or more specifically, a duck confit pizza with Bosc pear. 

This photo does not do it justice. This is such a fantastic pizza. The pizzas in general are fantastic but this is so unique and scrumptious and fresh out of the wood oven the way a good pizza should be. If you're a fan of spicy food like me, you can add some chilli oil to kick it up a notch too. For dessert, I chose the espresso cinnamon gelato.

When I asked what flavours were available, my server monotonously listed off vanilla and chocolate, then excitedly said they also had espresso cinnamon. I feel that he strongly wanted me to choose this one, and I'm glad I did, because similar to the duck confit pizza, the flavour was so interesting and delightful. It was a perfect end to my insanely large meal.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The restaurant isn't exactly stroller friendly but if you park nearby, they are very accommodating to babies and small children and the food makes it more than worthwhile. 

Nadège

Another stroller fit class, another restaurant! This time I decided to enjoy a quiet lunch alone with the baby.

Restaurant: Nadège
Location: Trinity Bellwoods
Meal: Lunch
Day: Tuesday
Son's Age: 11 weeks

This was my first time sitting down here ever. Usually I grab a box of macarons and go on my way. I noticed that they have sandwiches though, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Accessibility: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I guess a lot of people think similarly to me about eating in, because based on what I could see, there was really only one table where I could viably park a stroller, and even then I felt like I was slightly blocking anyone who wanted to use the patio.

As I have previously come here for macarons, I know that their washroom is in the basement down a set of stairs. I can't remember how big it is, but as I mentioned, I was here alone with my son, so I didn't want to just leave my stroller upstairs and lug my baby downstairs, especially since I wasn't sure how much space there would be. This might be a different story if I had been here with someone. Between the single table available to park my stroller and the inaccessible washroom, I would say it's not impossible to bring baby, and at this particular visit I didn't have any trouble (especially since, luckily, he did not require a diaper change during my lunch), I'd say it's not convenient to bring a baby but it's doable.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nadège has counter service, so you order your food first and then they give you a number. You choose your own table and then someone brings your food to you. On that note, service was fine - I got what I ordered and they heated up my sandwich for me. There was nothing particularly outstanding - everyone was polite but nothing outstanding.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is a difficult place to rate. I ordered a turkey sandwich with cranberries and brie as well as a cappuccino.

The cappuccino was fine and the sandwich was fine. As with service, there was nothing particularly memorable to me about either of these items, so alone I would rate it 3 stars. I did also order a box of six macarons to go, though, and these are some of the best macarons in the city. If you have not tried their macarons, you need to get over here ASAP. I wasn't sure whether to include that as part of my visit, but my husband also likes the macarons and insisted that I take them into consideration. Between the lunch itself and the dessert I brought home, I give the food a rating of 4 stars.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

If you are actually coming for dessert, and especially if you are accompanied by a friend, it's fine to take your baby here; however, I would likely not come back here by myself. I should also note that my son was quiet and happy the whole time I was here - not sure how my experience would have been impacted if he had decided to be fussy, as there isn't a lot of noise to drown him out for any other patrons.

Fresh on Queen

So we are off to a rough start - I forgot that I had planned on creating this blog so I failed to take any pictures during my visit. This will not happen again! I like pictures of food. I'd steal photos from the internet, but, you know, that would be stealing.

Okay, so on to my review!

Restaurant: Fresh on Queen
Location: Trinity Bellwoods
Meal: Lunch
Day: Tuesday
Son's Age: 7 weeks

I came to Fresh after an exhilarating mommy and baby stroller fitness class in the park. Mommies - fresh air is key to feeling human again! Since I was feeling relatively healthy, I decided to join a fellow mommy to try Fresh, which is a vegan/vegetarian restaurant. It was a beautiful day, so we decided to eat lunch on the patio. My son had just been fed so I was hoping he would be relatively calm during lunch, and boy was I wrong! He decided to be fussy so I ended up having to carry him in one arm while I ate my lunch! Luckily for me (but not so much for the other patrons), my lunch companion had the exact same issue.

On to the ratings!

Accessibility: ⭐️
I definitely give accessibility one star because I absolutely could not have eaten here if I was alone with my son. This restaurant was not designed to accommodate strollers at all. We both struggled just to open the door (which should have been our first clue), then asked to sit on the patio. I admit that I expected someone to let us enter the patio from outside, but instead we had to wheel our strollers through the whole interior of the restaurant, then onto the patio to get to the corner table where our strollers would fit without being in the way. If that sounds inconvenient, the space between the tables were not wide enough to accommodate strollers, and we ended up having to push all the tables out a little so that we could get through. This wasn't so terrible going in when the restaurant was relatively empty, but by the time we had finished our meals, the place was full, and we had to ask several people to stand up and move their chairs/tables so we could exit again. This is the epitome of interrupting other people's meals and I hate that I was that person.  The washrooms were also small and downstairs, meaning it would have been impossible to take the stroller down, and I definitely would not have been able to change my son's diaper if that had been necessary. Granted, I found out afterwards that there was a wheelchair washroom on the main floor, but navigating my stroller there would already have been a pain, and the fact that I had not seen it initially probably means it isn't very obvious to other patrons either. I also did not notice any high chairs, nor were any offered to us (although our babies clearly are not old enough to hold up their own heads so potentially this is why no one mentioned this), so not sure if this restaurant would have been more accessible for an older baby.

Service: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
To their credit, our server did quite a good job given the circumstances. She put together a four person table and removed two chairs so that our strollers could fit, and she was quick to come over and ensure our water glasses were filled and our food was served promptly. She also very patiently explained different aspects of the menu, since we decided to ask a bunch of questions despite trying to soothe our crying babies. I did not feel rushed at all, which is nice considering how quickly the restaurant filled up. That being said, no one helped us to move the tables and chairs out of the way when we were entering and exiting the restaurant, and no one told us about the wheelchair accessible washroom, so I had to take off one star.

Food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I ordered the baby size Jerusalem bowl with falafel. I'm just going to quote the menu's description here: "flax hummus, grilled spinach, tomato, cucumber, parsley, red onion, sunflower sprouts, olive oil, tamari, lemon, mixed herbs & chili powder". Given my craving for healthy food, I very much enjoyed it, and I would definitely come back again and order take-out if I am in the area. Everything was fresh and tasty and it was easy for me to eat with just a fork (important given that my left hand was occupied with my son). The name "baby size" is very deceptive - this is definitely a perfection portion size for lunch.

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Food and service were great but the accessibility factor is very problematic. I would recommend coming to get take-out and then enjoy a nice picnic in the park, but unless you can fold up your stroller and carry your baby in your arm, I would say this restaurant is not mommy-friendly.