days out, tried and tested
A kinderrestaurant in the strict sense barely exists; what you want instead is a place that does not flinch when you arrive with a three-year-old. Thirteen are listed. Four are in Amsterdam, De Hallen food hall and the Amstel Boathouse among them, and the rest are a train or a drive away: beach pavilions at Callantsoog and Enkhuizen, farm restaurants at Haarlemmerliede and at Den Burg on Texel, an ice-cream parlour in Bussum and a lunch and chocolate café in Amstelveen. Five have high chairs, five run a children's menu, seven do coffee properly and six have free parking.
13 restaurants in the Netherlands
Every town with something in this category has its own page. The number is what is listed there today.
Five of the thirteen listed here state that they have high chairs, and five run a children's menu. The farm cafés and beach pavilions are the reliable ones for this; city restaurants vary and it is worth a phone call at the weekend. Every listing shows the facilities the restaurant publishes itself.
The beach pavilions — De Stern and Woest at Callantsoog, the pavilion at Enkhuizen — put the sand directly outside the terrace, which is the whole point of them. Inland, the farm restaurants at Catharinahoeve on Texel and De Ettingen in Haarlemmerliede pair lunch with animals. Six of the thirteen have free parking, which tends to go with having space around the building.
Dutch restaurants are generally relaxed about children early in the evening — six o'clock is a normal family dinner time in the Netherlands, and most kitchens open for it. Later than about half past seven, city restaurants in Amsterdam especially turn adult. Of the thirteen here, the food halls and beach pavilions are the ones that stay easy all day.
