Families NOT welcome

If you have young children, you would be well advised to avoid La Cantina Del Vino. As an illustration I will outline our experience in the Farnham Common branch today. We have just returned from a lunchtime visit, where our two children (aged 3 and 1 years respectively) behaved nearly impeccably (or as close as children of that age get to it) for about one hour. It was at this stage that my wife took our 3-year-old daughter to the bathroom, following which our one-year-old son had a little whinge/cry for maybe a couple of minutes, despite my attempts to settle him down. The manageress immediately descended on our table and said 'I'm sorry, I need to ask you to try and keep the baby calm. We need the children to be calm if they are in here.' When I pointed out that I had actually been attempting to do just that, she said 'I'm sorry, but it's been quite excessive.' At this stage I indicated that he had only had a couple of minutes at most of crying, and that my only other alternative was to remove him. I asked her if she wanted us to leave. She replied 'No, but we can't have this excessive crying in here.' I was slightly bemused by her use of the term excessive and asked her what exactly she expected from small children. I pointed out that if they felt they couldn't tolerate this sort of behaviour, maybe they should have a sign up stating that small children are not welcome. She replied 'Nobody is making you unwelcome'. I pointed out that her actions had done just that. She then launched into a further justification of her position. At this point my wife returned from the bathroom and we decided to leave without waiting for our desserts. While paying for our mains (though I was sorely tempted to refuse on general point of principle), the manageress stated 'I have been polite, I have not used any bad words'. I reiterated that it was her attitude and not her words that were upsetting - she failed to understand this at any stage. In my opinion, if a restaurant cannot tolerate a brief period of crying from a small child during the DAYTIME, then it should simply make it clear that children are not welcome at all. I should in fairness add that the waiters and waitresses were excellent with the children, but the policy from the top seems to be 'seen but not heard'. Anyone who has had any dealings with a one year old will tell you that 'not heard' for the entire duration of a meal out would be a rare thing indeed. In summary: if you have a family, go somewhere else.

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