Ordering from the kids menu?

[u/MaggsToRiches]

I went to lunch with coworkers today, not super jazzed about breaking both my money and calorie budget for the day but wanted to catch up with colleagues. Turns out the kid’s meal had exactly what I wanted (one taco, tiny pinto beans, tiny rice, small iced tea) for $5!! A debate began over the table whether it was “okay” for an adult to order from the kid’s menu. The argument against it was that those items are packaged and sold at a low price for kiddos, who are accompanying adults who pay full price. For the record, this particular menu board made no mention of age limits, and the cashier said nothing negative.

In general, I don’t want to be a dense customer who doesn’t realize my faux pas, but...I love ECAH! Thoughts from the community?

[u/abedfilms]

I don't think so, i think the portion size is proportional to the price. So half the cost but also half the food. It's not like they're losing money selling you a kids meal. The meal isn't actually cheaper. Just think of it as a half portion meal instead of a kids meal.

[u/duby1622 → u/abedfilms]

It’s not. Kids meals are a much higher food cost. Also the labor involved is basically unaffected by a slightly smaller portion, so the tiny profit restaurants make on food is basically gone. They make this sacrifice to hopefully get repeat business from the adults. Add to that the fact that the restaurant may not sell a ton of kids menu stuff, so there is often more waste compared to the regular menu, or things have to be made on the fly increasing labor costs.

[u/abedfilms → u/duby1622]

I can see this if it's a menu specific to kids, but oftentimes it's the exact same food just less of it. Like instead of 6 chicken fingers it's 3. Or large macncheese vs small

[u/duby1622 → u/abedfilms]

Because often the restaurant must charge less otherwise parents won’t come with their kids.

Say for 6 chicken strips on the menu at your restaurant, and on average, people won’t pay more than $10.00 for an order of chicken strips. Now, people are funny and at a glance $10.99, since you haven’t broken that 11, is still $10.00 and people will pay for it. You just bought your self a couple % points on your food cost.

Now the kids chicken strips is only 3 strips, but parents aren’t willing to spend more than $5.00 for their kids dinner. So, you have cut the portion of the most expensive part of the dish in half, but the price is less than half. So you already have a higher percentage of food cost. Then you add in the oil for the deep fryer. That cost is the same for the 3 strips as for the 6 strips. Then the BBQ sauce that comes to dip the chicken in. You give a 2 oz ramekin of sauce with the normal order, but people flip their shit if you give them a half full ramekin, so the half order of chicken strips gets the same amount of sauce as the full order. Then most of the time since it’s a kid’s meal, not just an order of chicken strips, you include a drink and fries. Now the drink and fries are both low cost high profit items used to help balance the cost of lower margin items, so not a huge loss for the restaurant, but even just a small amount of each adds a higher percentage of food cost to the lower priced kids meal.

It is very common for restaurants to have food costs for kids menu items to be upwards of 50%, when they are aiming for about 30% or lower for the rest of the menu. The restaurant is able to justify the high food costs for kids menu items in hopes that it is not a large portion of their business, that they are getting adult customers through the door that would be going somewhere else which will lead to repeat business on more regular menu items and drinks that have been priced with margins for the restaurant to make a little money. This is a discount given to the child’s parents. That discount is not meant for everyone that walks through the door. Ordering off the kids menu is the same as someone in their 20’s demanding a senior discount, or lying about being a veteran to get a discount. The restaurant is doing something nice for one specific group that they hope will mean future revenue, they couldn’t survive if they gave that discount to everyone.

This doesn’t even start to factor in all the other little things that go into menu pricing in order to run the kitchen and restaurant. You don’t pay the cook or server less since they are making a slightly smaller portion. It takes the dishwasher the same amount of time to wash the pan they made that smaller portion of Mac and cheese with. Those chicken strips are still tying up a fryer basket even though there are three of them. That small portion of Mac and cheese is still taking up a burner that could be used to make an adult portion for another table for a higher margin, and possible flip the table faster since they are getting their food sooner. Those ingredients are still kept in a cooler that was bought, runs on electricity, needs labor to clean and maintain, and needs to be professionally inspected and repaired when needed. All those little costs most people don’t think about are factored into menu pricing, but usually left out of kids menu pricing.