Dome Cafe at Gleneagles Intan

Location: Dome Cafe, ground floor of Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre, hospital wing.

Baby chair: a plain sturdy wooden affair, complete with safety belt.

Entertainment: Nil. But I got a table in view of the hospital's drop-off & pick-up point, so Sam could have his car-watching.

Kids' utensils: Nil, a big minus, as the plates used in the cafe are heavy ceramics.

Kids' menu: the separately designed Junior Menu has both drinks & food for children. I ordered Sam's fav fish & chips, which was reasonable with its thick slab of sole.

Have no chance of trying any of the drinks though, since Sam doesn't really like chocolate and every drink on the Junior Menu is of that flavour.

Service: service was average, prompt. About the only complaint I have for the entire affair is that the takeaway for the remaining fish & chips was a single paper bag, which means the paper was totally oily by the time I got home.

Sakae Sushi in Suria KLCC

Location: Sakae Sushi, on level 4 of Suria KLCC.

Baby chair: a booster chair that raised Sam so high, his knees are nearly level with the table!

Actually, now that I look again at my own photo, I realise the booster seat could have been lowered to a more comfortable position. But I wasn't enlightened then, & the waitress didn't even secure the bottom strap to the seat (she only secure the strap to the chair back, & even that took her 2 tries), so Sam spent his whole meal "1 head above the rest"!

Kids' utensils: a plastic bowl and a soup spoon was provided upon request. Now what on earth makes them think a toddler of Sam's age would use such a large soup spoon instead of a teaspoon??

Service: refer to above segments.

Entertainment: Nothing specifically designed to entertain children, but Sam's interest was held by the LCD displays - meant for taking orders electronically - at the other tables. He spent the meal commenting on the photos of food flashed on the screen: a "nooooooo" every time I asked him if the dish looks good!

Kids' menu: I didn't realised it when I was ordering (being in a rush, I just got the 1st sensible dish I saw), but there's actually some junior meal served in a fancy boat-shaped plate available. This I only found out when watching the LCD display while I was eating.

A note on the menu - there's acutally fried lotus root chips (renko chips) available, which Sam loved. At least I didn't feel so guilty about giving him fried food & he's actually eating some kind of vegetable!

Little Penang Cafe in Suria KLCC

Location: Little Penang Cafe, on level 4 of Suria KLCC.

Kids' utensils: Nil! And that's a headache in the place, cos their bowls & plates are all ceramic! Luckily Sam wasn't in a play-with-plate mood that day........

Service: average. Waiter did not offer any alternatives when informing me they had no plastic utensils for my child. I had to ask specifically for a bowl & spoon - and they gave a ceramic soup spoon!

Baby chair: a nice wooden affair.

Entertainment: Nil. In fact, the full pane windows opening to the shopping aisle are a terrible distraction to my little boy, cos now he's tall enough to scramble over the low window ledges.

Kids' menu: Nil.

The TV in LiJin

Location: LiJin (Chinese Fusion Cuisine), in level 6 of Pavilion.

We decided to eat there simply because we wanted to repay our 'debt': Sam had embarassed us too many times in the past by running into the restaurant to watch the live seafood tanks, so we thought we should at least eat there once.

Service: Good, maybe cos we're one of the 1st few customers. The waiters wisely placed the teapot & order receipt on the opposite side of the table, & served the food from the other end too.

Baby chair: a pink metal affair, looks more suitable for a coffee shop than the mid~high end restaurant.

Kids' utensils: a normal plastic plate and a pair of red plastic fork & spoon (slightly too big for Sam's age, I thought) were provided upon request.

Kids' menu: none, as usual for a Chinese restaurant.

Entertainment: that's about the only thing I would consider going back to LiJin for (cos the food's really not value for money!).

We didn't sit near the wall of live seafood tanks cos that's supposed to be the smoking section, but turns out there's a TV mounted near the ceiling in the non-smoking section. Sam was kept occupied by the playing of a DVD - repeated after abt 40 min - consisting of clips (no sound) of ocean creatures & nature scenes, so I could eat my dinner in peace.

The Fish in Kiku Zakura

Location: Kiku Zakura (菊樱), in Upper Concourse level of Avenue K.

Service: Oh, it was good! Maybe it's because the place was deserted at 7pm on the Saturday night, but the waitress was very nice: I asked the restaurant to prepare a table with a view of the fish tank while Sam was still running on the ramp along the corridor, & the waitress very wisely placed the baby chair directly facing the fish tank. Hence, Sam was happily entertained throughout the meal. A great blessing!!!

Baby chair: The clean sturdy-looking wooden chair was comforting at 1st sight with its safety harness. However, halfway through the meal, I found Sam no longer facing the table. Apparently, the chair can be rotated around on its legs (dunno for what reason. for ease of storage?), & Sam had loosened the locking peg by simply shaking around in his seat!

I spent the rest of the meal trying to forestall Sam shaking to loosen the peg on purpose!

Kids' utensils: No plastic versions available. A metal teaspoon & a small ceramic bowl was provided after I requested for utensils for Sam. Fortunately for me, Sam wasn't in a playing-with-bowl mood today. ;P

Kids' menu: Nil. However, the menu includes ochazuke (rice with various ingredients in tea), which is perfect when Sam's not in the mood to chew rice.

Entertainment: No planned ones. However, the fish tank, so obviously for good fengshui, turns out to be a great distraction for Sam. He kept wanting to show the fish his cars & made several tries asking the fish to stop swimming!

The ring-shaped chopsticks holder provided also turned out to be an unexpected toy. Sam had a lot of fun wearing it as a ring on his finger & charting it around on his toy cars.

Child-friendly Tony Roma's

Had a very good lunch today. Well, as good a lunch any mum can get when she's alone with a tired & hungry male toddler.

Brought Sam to Tony Roma's at Midvalley Megamall, cos saw they were having a promotion: children <12 yrs can eat for free on Mon ~ Wed, provided the adult ordered a main entree, of course. So, I tried my luck, and I'm definitely going back again, even if I have to pay the next time!

Firstly, they have both baby high chairs & booster seats for older children. Then, they provide crayons & an activity sheet (colouring, maze, puzzles) for the kid to play. Sam, being his 1st exposure to crayons, scared me to death by putting the crayon in his mouth!! Luckily I got it out before he bit it!!!

The starters for the kid's menu is carrot & celery sticks with dip. The waiter very wisely served this when I was still going through the menu & Sam was going "mum-mum-mum". And when I was scrambling for a wet wipe to clean Sam's not-so-clean hands, they promptly provided a wet wipe for the task!

And they didn't hurry me to order drinks or anything like that, just let me take my own time to read the usual menu after I've order fish & chips (RM$16.90) for Sam.When I've decided on their set lunch, fish & chips too (great value at RM$19.90, includes soup, coleslaw & drink), the manager even reminded me I've already ordered a juice for Sam, so do I want the extra drink?? Wow! I'll gladly give them the extra business just for this kind of service!!!!

The fries were good, makes me feel a bit less guilty abt letting Sam eat them cos they still have the potato skins on. ;P

And the fish were really, truly lightly battered! Cos picky Sam doesn't like to eat the batter, I usually have to spend a lot of effort scraping off the batter (& usually end up eating it myself) at other restaurants before I can feed it to Sam.

But Tony Roma's version had a very thin batter layer, which Sam barely noticed through all the fish, so I could spend the time eating my own delicious fish instead. Great!

I felt bad not finishing the dessert (Dirt Cup = choco pudding + Oreo crumbs) from the kids' menu. But silly Sam refused to take even a single bite, and I was feeling full & fat after eating half the dessert, so..........next time then!

When we were done, they served up another 2 warm wet wipes, one for me, 1 for Sam. Never have I been offered a wet wipe for the child before! The feeling was wonderful!

I'll definitely bring Sam back there again! Maybe next time let him try the Cheezy Pizza or the Chicken Strips while I enjoy a proper steak.............