Fancy restaurant with a toddler?

My grandparents have always had a love for fine dining. One of the restaurants they love and that we have been going to for years is a restaurant called Jonathan's in Lexington, Kentucky. We have always had SUPERB service there. And the food? YUM! I usually get the shrimp and grits for my entree and we always order a variety of appetizers and salads. The desserts are always wonderful as well.The picture below was taken at one of the best meals we ever had there. It was a happy occasion because I was 6 weeks pregnant with Kennedy and had just told the good news to my family.

 

We went to Jonathan's over spring break. The last time we brought Kennedy she was 4 months old. We carried her in her carseat/carrier and she slept most of the meal. I left once to go nurse her. This time was a different story, as she is now 16 months old.  Nick and I knew she would get restless and were prepared to take her out of the restaurant if need be. We definately are not the type of people to let our child fuss and disturb other people's meals. When we got there, the waitress brought out the high chair. The strap was broken on the high chair. We left Kennedy sitting in it ( we were watching her carefully) while the waitress went to get a new one. Before we knew it, Kennedy had slid down in the high chair and had gotten stuck! It scared me to death! My step-dad and Nick were able to get her out but I was in tears and she was in tears! The waitress finally came with the new high chair but did not seem very concerned about Kennedy. I took her outside to calm down and checked her all over. She was fine but I was still a little peeved.

 

Went back inside. Kennedy was content with eating bread and playing with toys I had in her bag. Our appetizers came. We quickly realized that the boiled peanut hummus we ordered was amazing, however, there was not enough pita bread for the amount of hummus they had given us. We wanted to ask our waitress for more pita bread but she was MIA. We waited and waited for her to come back and she never did. Finally my grandmother went and asked the hostess if she could please find our waitress. The waitress came and we told her we needed more pita bread. FIFTEEN MINUTES later she finally returned with the pita bread. As Nick said " I guess she had to go to Greece to get the pita bread."  Hahaha. The waitress brings out Kennedy's food. Kennedy is entertained by eating her food while the adults are talking and drinking wine. However, I keep hoping they will hurry up and bring our food so Nick and I can eat while Kennedy is preoccupied. Kennedy finishes her meal and still, no food. I pull out some banana cookies from her bag. She eats those, still no food. At this point we have been waiting on our entrees for over an hour. Meanwhile since she brought out Kennedy's food, the waitress is MIA again. Kennedy has finally had enough and starts to fuss. The entire wait staff gives us the evil eye.I give them the evil eye right back, we have been waiting for almost 2 hours! Nick takes her outside. Our food comes and the waitress makes no apologies for the wait. I eat, then swap with Nick so he can eat.

 

We arrived at Jonathan's at 5:30. By the time we were done eating, it was 7:45 and we had a 45 minute drive back to Carlisle. When the waitress asked if we wanted to see a dessert menu, I could have slapped her. I love their dessert and would have loved some dessert but did I have time to wait? Ummm no! I felt bad because my grandfather has a sweet tooth like me and I know he wanted dessert but he was understanding about the fact that it was past Kennedy's bedtime and we had to go. He told the waitress "honey I wish we could but we can't risk waiting  that long again." Again, the waitress offered no apologies. Nice...

 

I guess I just feel like they could have been quicker and more accomodating to the fact that we had a toddler but I got the feeling that they were not accustomed to having kids at their restaurant and they didn't really care to have kids at their restaurant. For the most part Kennedy is very well behaved at restaurants but expecting a toddler to sit in a high chair for over 2 hours is just ludacris!

 

What do you think? Have you been to a fancy restaurant with your kids? Do you think it's silly to even attempt a fancy restaurant with a toddler? Do you think we should have known what we were getting into?