We’ve all been there: You sit right down to a pleasant, stress-free dinner at a comfy restaurant and abruptly you’re surrounded by children who’re screaming, crying, misbehaving … or all three.
And generally these children are your personal.
However one California man is decided to vary the sport.
You You Xue, an brisk 28-year-old restauranteur, was exasperated by the conduct of youngsters in his Bay Space restaurant, Chez Xue. In spring 2025, he added a observe on the high of his restaurant’s digital menu.
It reads: “Please management your kids. Chez Xue is a family-friendly restaurant. Nevertheless, we’re not a playground. Please guarantee kids REMAIN SEATED always and respectful of fellow company and the eating surroundings. Working round, shouting, making noise with utensils, and so on. WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!”
Not too long ago posted on X, the observe went viral and garnered hundreds of feedback and many media consideration.
Although the coverage might look harsh in print, Xue, who doesn’t have kids of his personal, tells TODAY.com, “This isn’t an anti-child marketing campaign.” The truth is, he factors out that the restaurant has loads of excessive chairs and caters to massive households. Xue’s situation, he says, is “dad and mom who don’t do their jobs.”
He explains, “We’re not confronting kids on the restaurant about their conduct. We’re not banning kids. We’re not discriminating towards kids.” Xue additionally wouldn’t chastise a dad or mum actively making an attempt to corral their misbehaving little one. Reasonably, it’s the dad and mom who don’t listen that infuriate him.
The price of misbehavior
Xue, who additionally owns a Michelin-recognized restaurant named fantastic, offers examples of problematic conduct, like dad and mom ignoring kids whereas they’re screaming or banging their utensils on the desk repeatedly.
“I feel it’s the accountability of the dad and mom to show to their little one and say, ‘Hey, we don’t try this right here.’ And to be sincere, if kids don’t cease their disruptive conduct, it’s truly the dad and mom’ accountability to take them exterior the restaurant,” Xue says. As soon as they take the time to settle down, they’ll return to the desk.
The distinction in Xue’s method, he says, is that he has proactively determined deal with problematic conditions.
“My servers are all skilled to take the suitable motion to guard the restaurant surroundings,” he says, noting that he tells them to be “agency {and professional}” with dad and mom. He additionally tells servers that he’s “all the time at their disposal” in the event that they want backup.
“The very last thing they need to take into consideration is run a daycare,” he says of his waitstaff.
Xue factors out that misbehavior could be a security situation, like when a toddler runs in entrance of a server carrying scorching soup. It could possibly additionally trigger bodily injury.
His web site lists the price of objects that have been broken by kids and billed to their dad and mom:
- April 2025: a shattered bank card machine price $327.03
- December 2025: child-led desk carving price dad and mom $109.38
- January 2026: a smashed teacup price $5.47
“We’re not within the enterprise of creating individuals break issues and purchase them,” Xue says about administering fines to folks. “However something that breaks comes straight out of my pocket … We need to present clients who may need doubts about our coverage that we imply enterprise.”
Response to the coverage
Although web reactions to the coverage is split, Xue says that his patrons have usually reacted positively, and frequent diners are particularly grateful.
The quantity of incidents “has simply mainly gone to zero,” says Xue.
Although he says he could be the solely individual “daring” sufficient so as to add a parenting coverage to the menu, Xue is thrilled that he’s “sparking a dialogue which will find yourself serving to different eating places which have been dealing with robust instances in a post-COVID world.
Dad and mom permitting their children to “trash” a restaurant “simply feels so insulting, it feels so disrespectful,” Xue says. “Perhaps I’m taking it too personally, however on the finish of the day, that is my child. I’m making an attempt to run a restaurant.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. Extra from TODAY:
