The art of catering for young visitors

Where to eat with children

Few London restaurants bother to grapple with these dilemmas. Most now provide high chairs, without which it is hard to eat out at all with children aged under three. But while restauranteurs fritter vast sums on decor, few take the time to think about the - mostly very inexpensive - things they could do to make families with small children more welcome.

How about boxes of crayons and some paper? Unbreakable cups? Fold-down baby-changing stations in the loos? None of these should be as rare as they are.

And while the few self-consciously child-friendly restaurants, particularly chains such as Giraffe, are fine, they are not, frankly, places I would choose to eat without kids in tow.

Which is why the Tate's new offering of children's food is so exciting. Both the Tate Modern restaurant and the Rex Whistler restaurant at Tate Britain now offer children's-sized portions of adult mains. I had already been impressed with the Tate Modern restaurant's relaxed approach to kids, but surely the more refined Rex Whistler would be a challenge for my children, aged two, four and five?

I shouldn't have worried. Waitresses bustled; crayons appeared before the drinks, while the back of the children's menu is intended to be drawn on. The standard children's menu is better than most - salmon goujons with lemon mayonnaise? But we managed to persuade them to have small portions of the plaice (sauce vierge held at my son's request); the cauliflower and goat's cheese gratin with tomato and lentil sauce; and roast chicken with vegetables and morels.

The portions were in fact too large for such small children, and would have been plenty for a 10-year-old - leaving me no choice but to help Clara, the eldest, finish her utterly splendid chicken. They ate up well - although I was glad we hadn't risked a portion of the steak tartar.

By this time I had finished my very good salad of bacon and quails' eggs, well partnered, at the sommelier's suggestion, with a terrific South African oaked sémillon. Our main courses of veal escalope with parsley, anchovy and caper salad were also delicious (as was the Santenay Vieilles Vignes I drank with it; not for nothing is chief sommelier and wine buyer Hamish Anderson renowned as one of the best in the business).

Thus with vast portions of ice cream we ended a meal enjoyed without major dramas or spillages. Then, as we prepared to leave, my four-year-old son, Max, discovered that he had lost a front leg from his model tyrannosaurus skeleton. So it was that both I and the head waiter found ourselves scrambling on the floor until we found the limb concerned. Any restaurant with such dedication to small children's needs - and a serious menu and wine list too - gets my vote.

The Rex Whistler restaurant at Tate Britain: 0871 332 7360, www.tate. org.uk/britain/eatanddrink. Children's main portions: £6.95.