Review of My Toddler's Pretend Restaurant

The service and food are terrible, but I love it anyway.

Momlogic's Momstrosity: Since I've become a mother, I don't get as many chances to try out the latest hot restaurant getting all the buzz. Yet, there's one restaurant I've been to almost everyday for the last month -- sometimes more than once a day. My two-and-a-half year old, Lily, has opened what she calls "The Cafe Restaurant" and although the service is terrible, the food inedible and you have to sit on the living room floor, it has become one of my favorite eating destinations of all time. What makes a visit to The Cafe Restaurant so special is you never, ever know what you're going to get.
Here's an example of a typical ordering experience:
Lily: Order something, please.
Mom: OK, do you have coffee?
Lily: No. No coffee at the Cafe Restaurant. Only water and tea.
Mom: OK, tea please.
Lily: No tea. Only water.
Mom: OK, water.
Lily: Do you want coffee?
Mom: Well ... actually, yes.
Lily (Handing me a toy tomato) Here.
Hey, the restaurant business is hard. Most of them fail in the first year. She's probably just working the kinks out. Here is my review of her establishment -- if you ever stop by my house when it's open from 6:30 AM til bedtime.
Signature Dish: This is what I got when I ordered the spinach quiche and salad with a side of cottage cheese. Beautiful presentation but, alas, indigestible:

Service:
You can wait for your food for hours -- sometimes until after nap time. Depending on her mood, the customer sitting next to you (dad) might get served while you're ignored. Be prepared to get your hands dirty -- at her whim she can ask YOU to run the restaurant while she orders instead.
The Menu:
Varies from day to day and minute to minute. Sometimes all you get is cake. There's no alcohol served. Lily will not have a liquor license for roughly 18 years.
Cleanliness:
I've seen the chef sneeze directly on the food and serve it to me. She often doesn't wear shoes and has even served me food items tucked between her toes. Cracker crumbs cover the floor. Sometimes she pees her pants. If a Health Inspector stopped by, I'm pretty sure he'd shut her down.
Cost:
It's not cheap. Currently she says everything costs "20 miles." But no worries. Sometimes she dips into her little cash register and pays YOU instead of taking payment.

Still, despite the poor service and the plastic tasting food I HIGHLY recommend this restaurant. But you better hurry. Even as I write this, I think the restaurant might be shutting down. We got her a little doctor's bag this weekend, complete with a stethoscope -- already the restaurant counter has been serving as a hospital triage. The toddler doctor is in.
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I agree… a nice break from all the seriousness of every day life. Thank you for sharing this story with us. :)
Hysterical. It sounds like my kind of establishment.
I absolutely love this post. It sounds like you have an adorable little girl. Thanks for sharing! :-)
This is so funny and cute! My daughter still does it at 8, I love playing restraunt with her.
Excellent! We have a branch of that cafe at our house as well. It’s so fun to watch them mirror what they see us do and hilarious to experience the dialogue that goes through their minds as they share the experience. My daughters cafe does serve coffee and red bull, apparently, and the specialty of the house is Bananas. Thanks for sharing this story. It made me smile.
This is beautiful! Thank you so much for posting. What a lucky gal to have a Mom like you!
Very very funny. What an imagination and what a cute age.
Save me a seat for lunch!
I have a daughter (age 3) who does a similar thing. She even throws the food at you and dribbles on it. Haha. Fun to read, give her a big cuddle.
That was GREAT!! Thank you for making me laugh this morning…
awesome
Reminds me of a restaurant in North Korea actually, where I got sick.
A moment of light heartedness in my otherwise quite rubbish day, thank you. Lily is beautiful.
I don’t have any kids…and won’t have any for a long time (I hope). But I imagine it would have moments such as these ^^. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Wow, she is a cutie! And a good cook too :)
Such an excellent post. A very entertaining read. You should make this up into a mock newspaper article and have it printed and saved for when she is older.
~Shepy
Awesome. More people should write blog posts about their kids that are actually funny and interesting!
What a cute story! You sound like a great mom and your daughter sounds delightful.
great post. had me laughing
absolutely wonderful.










thanks :) this is too cute and i really enjoyed reading it :)