The Oakwood Hardware Food & Drink

Hello friends! I know it's been a while - it's so hard to write updates now that I'm back at work and I can't just blog during my son's naps! Thanks to those of you who are sticking around (all...two of you?); hopefully I can catch up on my posts at some point! Anyway, back in July (only a month ago!), my husband had been talking about trying Oakwood Hardware for so long so I agreed to give it a shot.

Restaurant: The Oakwood Hardware Food & Drink

Location: Wychwood

Meal: Dinner

Day: Saturday

Son's Age: 15 months

It's actually technically in Oakwood Village but there aren't really a lot of restaurants in Oakwood Village so I'm just grouping it into Wychwood. Also I'm not sure what the theme of the restaurant is because it seems to be trying to do a lot of things at once, but I suppose that could be a good thing if you are with a group of people who have diverse tastes. Plus the place is run by Chef Anne Sorrenti, who is a Chopped Canada champion, so that boded well. 

Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐

The restaurant certainly touts itself as family friendly. There is clearly room for strollers to come in, and they have several high chairs as well as a kids' menu and crayons. 

The washroom, unfortunately, has neither a change table nor counter space. In fact, the sink looks like one big tub. 

The good news is that it is in the back (ie not down the stairs) and it is quite large, so I'm confident that you could fit a stroller in here. If your stroller reclines, at least you can use that in a pinch!

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The staff was extremely friendly and clearly accustomed to dealing with children. They came to check in on my son and gave him his own cup of water as well as his own plate (although I opted to bring his baby cutlery). They were very helpful with menu selections and they were cautious to keep hot plates away from my son.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I must say, the food was quite good, albeit confusing, as I said upfront. We started with drinks because we heard the cocktails were good here, and they have their own specialty cocktails.

I ordered the Pisco de Mora, which is made of Chilean Pisco, rum, sweet vermouth, blackberry and mint compote, lime, and egg white. This was such a refreshing drink with just the right amount of sweetness. I can't remember what my husband ordered but he really liked his drink too. For food, we started with the Oakwood meze.

This is obviously a Mediterranean inspired dish, served with fried cauliflower, naan with za'atar and cheese, baba ghanoush, and tahini. If you are unfamiliar with a meze, the description in he menu could mislead you to think the cauliflower was the star of the dish, when it was actually just a small portion. Everything here was delicious, though, and my son was a big fan of the naan. Mom tip: if your kid is like mine and just really loves bread and nothing else, remember that hummus has chickpeas and baba ghanoush has eggplants, so it's an easy way to sneak in some protein and veggies. With this particular dish, one watch out is that those little red pickled things are small chilli peppers and not mini tomatoes - luckily I tried one before my son got to it but he was definitely getting ready to eat one. Anyway, for my main, I ordered the lentil shepherd's pie.

This meal had stewed lentils, shiitake and cremini mushrooms, carrots, and celery, topped with mashed potatoes and cheddar and jack cheese, with a side of salad. It was such a comforting dish, and very filling, considering that it's a vegetarian dish. It's also a bit jarring to go from a Mediterranean appetizer to a British classic, but probably not as much as my husband ordering the KFC Korean fried chicken.

This was served with kimchi fried rice and sautéed vegetables. If you've ever had Korean fried chicken, you know it's way better than North American fried chicken, and I think this dish captured the distinct quality of the Korean version. It still catered to the local palate (I'm pretty sure I never saw sautéed vegetables in Korea), but the inspiration was evident. Overall, the food was all delicious and certainly a great introduction to different flavours, but I rated it as four stars because in trying to do a bit of everything, the food wasn't quite the best at anything.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The place is rather baby friendly, and I found the service to be more than accommodating. The food is definitely worth trying, especially if you are craving different flavours at once. It's definitely one of the best restaurants in the area, so if you're bringing the family, this is worth a try. 

Isaan Der

A new Thai place opened up in the Junction that looked pretty interesting, so I was excited to finally give it a try.

Restaurant: Isaan Der
Location: The Junction
Meal: Dinner
Day: Sunday
Son's Age: 14 months

We originally showed up with the stroller, but upon assessing the space, I decided to put the stroller back in the car while my husband and son got a table. The hostess seated us in the back of the restaurant, which was nice because there was a little side table that I could put my diaper bag on.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
In case you didn't get it from my opening, this restaurant is not stroller friendly, which is shocking considering its location in the Junction. There is a step at the entrance, and there is no room to park a stroller, let alone bring it to a table. They did manage to provide a high chair, though.

The washroom is located downstairs and does not have a change table or counter space, but there is a toilet seat lid.

It's not ideal, but better than changing a diaper on the floor. Then again, if you have an older baby, you could also change a diaper while your baby is standing.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The servers were nice to us and greeted my son as they walked by, commenting about how impressive it was that he eats Thai food. They also didn't seem to mind when my son decided he wanted to practice walking around after he finished eating. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
They were out of papaya salad but substituted it with a mango salad, so we started with that and the golden bags.

The golden bags are deep fried pastries with water chestnuts, carrots, and mushrooms, served with chilli sauce. The mango salad was pretty much a traditional mango salad, so it was good but not extraordinary. The golden bags, on the other hand, were different and delicious. Next we ordered the pad Thai.

The pad Thai is made with rice noodles, chicken, bean sprouts, tofu, oyster sauce, chives, and lime. My son loves eating this, and I'd say it was quite good too, although similar to the mango salad, there wasn't anything about it that was especially memorable. We also got the guaytiaw gang. 

This was very good and I highly recommend it. It's rice noodles in curry sauce, bean sprouts, tofu, beef, and boiled egg. The curry sauce acted as a soup and was so hearty. My one caution is that I read a review that described this as the Isaan Der version of Khao soi, and I find that description inaccurate, as there isn't really anything that provides a crunch. If you don't go in with that mindset, though, the dish is really tasty. 

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½

The food is good, and it's not just your typical Thai restaurant. The accessibility isn't ideal, though, especially if you have a younger baby and you are a first time parent. The service is decent, though, so if you have an older baby, this place is probably worth checking out. 

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!

Indie Ale House

Before I became pregnant, I was pretty much a regular at Indie Ale House. I don't even like beer, but for some reason I really enjoy some of the beer here. It's local and original and there are so many options to choose from. Bonus - the food is fantastic. You'd think a place that focuses so much on beer would treat food as an afterthought, but not here. If you asked me where to go in the Junction, hands down I would have said Indie Ale House. Fast forward to pregnancy and birth, and I hadn't stepped foot in here. I assumed it was inappropriate to bring a baby to an ale house, and besides, people might judge a breastfeeding mother for indulging in a flight of beer. Then, one day, after taking my son to the OEYC, I decided to pop into the bottle shop to bring some beer home. I noticed a stroller parked in the front and commented that I'm clearly not the only parent bringing my kid here. The seller, totally serious, proceeded to inform me that there were always children here, and that was in fact their stroller parking area. So what do I do with this information? Immediately plan dinner with my husband and son!

Restaurant: Indie Ale House
Location: The Junction
Meal: Dinner
Day: Saturday
Son's Age: 12 months

We decided to go at 5:30 on a Saturday and discovered that they weren't kissing - the place was packed with babies and kids! Immediately I felt better knowing that I wouldn't need to worry about my baby being out of place. Please note that the place does fill up and they do not take reservations so if you want to come a bit later you may have to wait.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The entrance was full of strollers that were parked at the door.

There were actually more strollers but someone was standing in front and I didn't want to photograph someone without permission. Even with all the babies, we were still able to get a high chair.

Yes, that's my kid with all the beer. We are teaching him good values at an early age, obviously. On top of all this, the washroom actually has a proper change table!

The actual layout of the washroom is not the most convenient, because the change table blocks the entrance to one of the two stalls, but given how many families there were, people were pretty understanding.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Our server was great and very accommodating to my baby. He brought extra coasters which my son loved playing with, and he brought a little teapot of hot water to warm my son's food. 

I think he is more accustomed to older children rather than babies, however, because he seemed surprised that we didn't want to order something off the menu for him (they do not have a separate kids' menu) and then brought an extra plate for him to share our food (given his penchant for banging and throwing plates, he can't really be trusted with anything breakable). I totally get why restaurants expect you to order off the menu but I think that, unless they specifically have a baby menu, allowances should be made for babies who are just learning how to eat. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Since I hadn't been here for so long, my husband and I agreed to buy a flight of beer and split it.

They rotate their beer so what we had isn't always available, but from left to right you are looking at: Spadina Monkey, Ritual Madness, Broken Hipster, Breakfast Porter, and Rabbit of Caerbannog. Disclaimer: I am not a regular beer drinker so I don't know all the proper lingo, but Broken Hipster and Breakfast Porter are my usual go-tos. The Breakfast Porter is similar to a Guinness but with a hint of coffee flavour, while the Broken Hipster is a Belgian wheat beer. The Spadina Monkey is more of a sour cherry flavour, and Ritual Madness is also a fruity flavour (I don't recall what it tasted like exactly, just that I wasn't a fan). The Rabbit is a white IPA that my husband really enjoyed. For our food, I ordered the short rib royale burger with a side salad.

This burger is not kidding around. I'm taking the description from the menu, but it's stout braised, shredded short ribs, quarter pound patty, gruyere cheese, crispy onions, and roasted garlic and thyme aioli. I love this burger and it is ridiculously filling I highly recommend you order this. The side salad was underwhelming on its own but worked well to offset the heaviness of the burger. My husband got the BBQ duck pizza.

This came with pineapple, caramelized onions, fior de latte, tomato sauce, cilantro, and chillies. The pizza was pretty good and my husband liked it, although I must admit that I'm not a fan of pineapple on my pizza. Otherwise, it's very good, and definitely not your average pub fare.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
There's a reason I used to come here so often, and discovering that the restaurant is in fact very baby friendly is such a great bonus. If you are looking to try a great craft beer with delicious food, but you don't want to bring your baby to a pub, this is definitely the place to go. 

Beaumont Kitchen

Some friends wanted to meet up in Etobicoke, so we decided to try Beaumont Kitchen, located inside Sherway Gardens.

Restaurant: Beaumont Kitchen
Location: Etobicoke
Meal: Dinner
Day: Sunday
Son's Age: 10 months

This is another Oliver & Bonacini restaurant, and Sherway Gardens is an extremely baby friendly mall. The nursing room is quite nice (although I personally prefer Yorkdale), there's lots of space to navigate a stroller, and there's a Lego store with the larger Duplex blocks that my son could play with while we were killing time. Generally speaking, restaurants located in these malls tend to be baby friendly as well.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
There is a handicap accessible entrance to the restaurant from within the mall, so we had. I trouble getting our stroller in. Right away, we were presented with a high chair, and we were also able to park our stroller next to the table.

I did not get a chance to check out the washroom here, but there are plenty of washrooms inside the mall that are large and have change tables, so there should be no trouble doing diaper changes.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Our server was quite pleasant and brought us some hot water to heat up my baby's food.

One of my friends actually showed up late (we thought there was going to be a no show), so we were able to move our stroller to the front of the restaurant to accommodate. My baby also got restless during the meal, but luckily we were there early so we weren't disrupting other customers.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
For my dinner, I ordered the lamb bolognese.

This is made with lamb shoulder, tagliatelle, and fontina. I really enjoyed it, and it was definitely a proper tagliatelle. The flavours met my expectations, as I've previously mentioned that O&B is known for quality food. My son was still hungry after his own dinner, so we also ordered the bread and dip.

I wasn't actually a big fan of the crisps, but the bread and dip were quite good. My son was a big fan of the bread. The portion was also much larger than I expected, which was a pleasant surprise but unfortunately we were unable to finish.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½
If you are coming for early dinner, this is a nice upscale restaurant that you can feel comfortable bringing your baby to.

Antler

My husband had made reservations to go to Antler for my birthday, but the entire household got really sick so we had to postpone.

Restaurant: Antler
Location: Dufferin Grove
Meal: Dinner
Day: Friday
Son's Age: 10 months

Antler is a restaurant that specializes is game meat. My husband called ahead to let them know we were bringing a baby, and they informed us that they did not have any high chairs but we were welcome to bring our own booster seat. I was already a little concerned to hear that, but hat hasn't stopped me before and I appreciated the heads up.

Accessibility: ⭐
As far as accessibility was concerned, my hunch was correct. The entrance is a bit narrow so bringing a stroller would not have been a good solution. Luckily, I had a booster seat that clips to a regular chair.

I love how this makes my son look like he is just sitting at the table like an adult! As for the washrooms, they were downstairs and cramped with no counter space, so diaper changes are pretty much a no go.

If you are really desperate, there was a table and chairs right outside the washroom, but I wouldn't recommend using them if you don't have to.

I suppose that, given the concept of the restaurant, they did not expect a lot of kids to come, and they designed the restaurant accordingly.

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Despite the restaurant itself not being baby friendly, the service here was phenomenal. Our server seemed delighted to meet our son and was very warm and helpful. She was able to get us a container of hot water to heat up baby's dinner, too.

She also made sure to put all hot plates on the table as far out of my son's reach as possible, which was very considerate.

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Since we were celebrating, we started with drinks. I got the rose canseco and my husband ordered the hunter.

The rose canseco was made with elderflower liqueur, mulled pomegranate seeds, lemon juice, egg whites, sumac bitters, and prosecco - and yes, it tasted as good as it sounds, but then again I feel like you can't really go wrong with prosecco. The hunter was bourbon, herring cherry, amaretto, and bitters. I find bourbon to be too strong but my husband enjoyed it. Since there were so many things on the menu that we wanted to try, we decided to split everything. We started with wild boar gyozas.

If you like dumplings then I definitely recommend this. The chillies added a small kick, and the wild boar gave the pan fried dumpling a nice, gamey twist. We followed this up with a Jamaican venison patty.

This was piping hot when it arrived at our table, but once it cooled down it was so delicious. The dipping sauce is also legitimately spicy. My husband preferred to forego the sauce but the patty tastes great either way. Next, we got the pappardelle. 

The pastas are handmade and made with braised rabbit, buttered leeks, apricot preserve, Parmesan, and sautéed greens. The rabbit was tender and my son actually ate some and enjoyed it. I would say this was the least exciting part of our meal, and it was still so good. The best part, on the other hand, was the spiced ash crusted rack of deer. 

This was served with parsnip purée. If you only order one thing and you are a fan of red meat, you have to try this. It was perfectly cooked medium rare, and it made me wish I could eat deer more often. Who needs steak when you can get this?

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½ 

The food and service make this restaurant worthwhile, and if you come for early dinner, there aren't a lot of customers whose dinner your baby might be disturbing. That said, you need to be prepared with your own booster seat, as this place is clearly not designed with babies in mind.

Jump

My sister was celebrating her birthday and wanted to go somewhere for Winterlicious with my mom, my husband, baby, and me. My friend had recently started working as the chef de cuisine at Jump and I had been meaning to visit, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Restaurant: Jump

Location: Downtown Core

Meal: Dinner

Day: Friday

Son's Age: 10 months

I actually found out after the fact that there is parking available, but since I didn't know that, I chose to park at Eaton Centre and walk the Path all the way over. I figure this is worth noting if you are obsessive about keeping your baby out of the cold in the winter like I am. Jump is an Oliver & Bonacini restaurant so the expectation for food quality was quite high.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
This restaurant is located downtown and is more upscale, so clearly the restaurant is not designed to accommodate babies. There are stairs to go up just to get to the door, so it's a good thing we chose to forego the stroller. The good news is that they did have a high chair available.

The washroom is nice but does not have a change table. Luckily I did not need to change diapers, but if necessary, there is counter space by the sink.

Not ideal if you have a squirmy baby but it'll do in a pinch. 

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
As I mentioned, this is an O&B restaurant so expectations are high, and the staff certainly met them. They had the high chair ready for baby and they checked in to make sure we had everything we needed. Our server brought a bowl of hot water to heat his food, which I forgot to take a photo of, but it's in the background of this photo of drinks.

The server happily interacted with my baby and was also very cautious to keep hot dishes out of his reach. I have a mild tree nut allergy (among other things but let's not dwell on that), and the server made sure my food and my husband's food was but free, since I mentioned I would try some of his. The chef also came by our table to chat, and he was so friendly (okay yes I said I know him! But I promise he's usually friendly too!)

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
So unfortunately, since I am two months behind in my blog posts, I don't remember exactly what my drink was, but I know it was specialized for Winterlicious. I started my meal with the keys salmon and spinach turnover.

This was a great start to the meal, served with jalapeños and dill crema. The flavours all complemented each other nicely and the dish was light and satisfying. For my main, I ordered the duck confit.

This came with braised cabbage, currants, a cheese pierogi, and salsa verde. The duck was so rich and juicy, and it was a great offset to my appetizer. The pierogi was an interesting choice that I would normally not expect to be paired with duck confit, but it actually worked really well. For my dessert, I got the Ontario aged goat cheese.

I tend to have mixed feelings about cheese courses as desserts because I find that it's so easy to get lazy with them. This was served with caramelized honey and preserved fruit compote, with rosemary and a small biscuit. The accompaniments actually kept the dish sweet enough to serve as a dessert without muddling the taste of the goat cheese. I felt it was a nice ending to a delicious meal.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The food is definitely worth the visit and the service helps make it easier to bring baby, but it's clear from the setup and ambiance that babies are far from the target market. If you do come, I recommend you visit at off peak times (we had dinner at 5:30). 

Tich

One of my girlfriends recently had a baby, and we decided we should get together for dinner with our next generation. We thought a good meeting point would be Etobicoke, so one of my friends made reservations at Tich.

Restaurant: Tich
Location: Etobicoke
Meal: Dinner
Day: Saturday
Son's Age: 9 months

Tich is a modern Indian restaurant that was also featured on You Gotta Eat Here, so we were pretty excited. My friend had called ahead to let them know that our party would have two babies in tow, and both babies would be arriving in strollers. We ended up having to call and push the reservation back a few minutes because we were running late, which typically occurs when you are going places in big groups and/or with babies.

Accessibility: ⭐⭐
Since we were a group of 5 adults and two babies, the restaurant was prepared for us and seated inside where we had space to park our strollers.

As a warning, there is enough space to push the strollers through as long as other patrons push their chairs in, so we had no trouble getting to the table; however, when we were finished, we pretty much had to interrupt every table on our way out to ask others to make room. Also, there is a step at the entrance. The washrooms are located in the basement, so the stroller definitely isn't going there. I didn't actually use it this time so I can't report on the diaper changing situation, unfortunately. 

Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

As I mentioned, we made reservations ahead of time, so the staff was prepared for our group. The server seemed accustomed to explaining the menu (there aren't a lot of Indian restaurants in the area), but was relieved not to have to explain it to our party. I was able to get cup of hot water for my son's food. 

Overall, our server was quite friendly and helpful. However, when we called to say we would be late, we were informed that there was a reservation after us, so we would still need to be finished within the allotted time. Since two of us had babies that needed to be home for bedtime, we were fine with this, but at the end of our meal when we were paying the bill, the server announced that the next reservation had arrived. He politely asked to remove one of our tables, since it was supposedly just a party of two, and we agreed. He moved the table over and set it up while we finished paying the bill and putting our coats on. When we were leaving, the table he had removed was still empty, and we didn't see anyone at the door. As such, I'm not sure why we were rushed out, but it was one strange hiccup to an otherwise pleasant evening. 

Food: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
We started with the assorted tandoori platter, which included the tandoori chicken tikka, hara mirch tikka, jumbo prawns, lamb chops, and achari paneer.

This was so good. I really liked the hara mirch tikka, and the achari paneer had a nice amount of heat to it. We then ordered a few mains, and to be honest this visit happened in January so I don't remember everything we ordered, but I know I asked for the Hyderabad lamb shank.

We all ordered mango lassis, and I know there was a lobster and prawn curry and the Bengali fish curry.

There is also a chicken curry and another lamb but I forget exactly which ones we ordered. Everything was delicious though, and not just the same food you get at traditional Indian restaurants. We also weren't sure how many sides to order, so our server brought us some saffron infused basmati rice and a mix of plain naan, butter naan, garlic naan, roti, and lacha paratha. Everything was tasty and it was the perfect amount of sides to go with the food, which was more than enough for the group. I highly recommend coming in a group so you can try different menu items because there was no low point to the meal.

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐½
When it comes to the food, the show didn't lie - you really gotta eat here. It's not the easiest place to bring a baby, though, but if you have a larger party, not only can you try more dishes, but hopefully your dinner companions will take turns entertaining your kid!