Restaurant bans kids after too many tantrums

Restaurant owner Liam Flynn has banned kids from his Queensland eatery. Photo / Facebook

A heated stoush between an Australian mother and an upmarket restaurant's management has led to a complete ban on all children under seven.

The ban is backed by top New Zealand restaurant owner, Tony Stewart of Clooney, who says other diners must be considered as well as the tone the restaurant is trying to set.

Restauranteur Tony Stewart from Clooney. Photo / Babiche Martens.

"We see it a lot," he told the Herald online, and said he is forced to ask people with under-twos to leave his high-end Auckland establishment every three months or so.

It's usually overseas guests he said, who don't have anyone on hand to look after little-ones when they go out for dinner.

"We try to not encourage people to bring young children but there's also going to be situations where they just show up ... and I would never turn someone away having made a booking but I also believe it's their responsibility to ask us if children are welcome."

Stewart said Clooney wouldn't impose a blanket ban, but "we just try to discourage it".

Flynn's Restaurant in Yungaburra Queensland, a boutique, award-winning French and Italian restaurant, has banned young children at its dinner sittings for the last two years.

However, following a Sunday morning dispute between a toddler's mother and staff, the ban has been extended to all opening hours.

In a Tripadvisor review the mother, Christine Hall, said the family lunch became "memorable for all the wrong reasons".

"We were a family group of four with a two-year-old. Unfortunately she became upset over lunch and was crying in her high chair."

However, Mrs Hall denied her child was being disruptive, as they were in the "furthest corner and only two other guests in an adjacent dining room".

While she didn't agree with children running riot, she claimed her little one was not "misbehaving or wreaking havoc".

The mother also said the owner was quite rude when he asked them to keep the noise down.

"Within a few minutes he returned and asked us to take 'the child' out of the restaurant."

She said a heated discussion followed and within half an hour of their departure the no child policy ban had been enforced.

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However, owner Liam Flynn, told the NZ Herald he had given the parents a chance to appropriately deal with their upset child and while he admitted being brisk, has denied being rude.

He said the child was not just crying but "screaming, I could hear her from my kitchen, so I knew the other guests could hear her too".

He added when the mother left, she told him "if you think that's screaming you can f*** off".

The review posted on Tripadvisor.

Mr Flynn, who had a 14-year-old son, said he had nothing against children and would be happy to have them in his restaurant, if the parents managed them appropriately.

"When my child had a tantrum I would have removed him."

But he said in his 14 years of running the restaurant the majority of parents had not done the same.

"The majority seem to be in a state of denial over their child's behaviour."

And so he decided to enforce a complete ban.

Last month a Facebook post on the restaurant's page showed an image that indicated a preference to dogs over children.

"Everyone gets a feed. Even the dogs! We always pat them and serve a bowl of nice beef goulash," said the post.

But Mr Flynn said the image was not there to whip up controversy or a dogs versus children debate.

"We are dog lovers, we accommodate dogs at our restaurant, because dogs are well-behaved.

"We like children too, but we like well-behaved children and better still parents who manage their children well and know what to do when they misbehave."

Nevertheless some members of the public have lashed back at the restaurant.

Suzanne Santarossa wrote; "Might take our dog. She's a working dog with bad breath and she moults and drools. But hey, all dogs welcome...shame our well-behaved kid will be sitting in front of the shop next door watching the dog get a feed."

Another, Kerrie Small, said she wouldn't let her dog eat where her children' weren't welcome.

But not all parents were upset with the ban.

Brittnee Robinson, who had a two-year-old, loved the idea.

"This is definitely a place I would go for dinner on a night off. I wouldn't want to go out for dinner without my son and have to listen to everybody else's kids go nuts when I could stay home for that."

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