Fine Dining. Minus the Fine. Plus a Toddler.
In April 2025, a child at Chez Xue - a Chinese restaurant in Foster City, California - picked up a credit card machine and dropped it on the floor. The screen shattered. The parents were charged $327.03.
In December 2025, a different child used a dining utensil to carve two designs into a wooden tabletop. The parents were charged $109.38.
In January 2026, another child knocked a teacup off a booth seat. The parents were charged $5.47.
The owner, You You Xue, posted the policy online. Over one million people read it. The comments were overwhelmingly supportive. Xue explained his position simply: "This is not an anti-child campaign. The target is parents who don't do their jobs."
He also added: "Parenting has become so relaxed, and I know if I acted some ways these children are acting, I would have gotten my a-- beat."
And a million strangers on the internet agreed!
It's not just him.
Nettie's House of Spaghetti in New Jersey banned children under 10, citing "crazy messes" and servers being knocked over by running children. A restaurant in Georgia added a $50 surcharge to bills for "adults unable to parent." A Chick-fil-A in Pennsylvania - a Chick-fil-A!!! - banned unaccompanied under-16s due to noise, property damage and what they diplomatically called "unacceptable behaviours."
If Chick-fil-A has lost patience, the situation is serious.
A bit of data.
A 2026 survey of 1,000 US adults found that 75% support adults-only dining options. The most enthusiastic supporters? Parents! The people who have actually met children are the most eager to eat dinner without them.
Lightspeed's 2026 State of Hospitality report - covering the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium - found that diners across all seven countries overwhelmingly prefer restaurants where they don't have to worry about children disrupting their meal. (The same report found they don't mind dogs, however.)
The parenting culture.
Bored Hotelier is not against children. Some children in restaurants are delightful - curious, quietly eating their food like small civilised humans.
This post is not about those children.
It is about the shift in parenting culture that has made the other kind increasingly common. Children who grew up in the 70s, 80s and 90s understood - through direct and efficient feedback - that running through restaurants was not acceptable. Screaming was not acceptable. Carving artwork into furniture with a fork was certainly not acceptable.
That feedback loop has been largely dismantled. What replaced it is visible in restaurants everywhere: children treating the dining room as a playground, parents looking on with the practiced helplessness of people who genuinely believe there is nothing they can do, and waitstaff quietly parenting other people's children while trying to carry three plates of food.
You You Xue put it plainly. His staff were being forced to parent children on behalf of their parents. That is not their job.
So what about the hotels?
Hotels running fine dining outlets are some of the worst offenders. Often too scared to enforce an age policy. Too worried about the TripAdvisor review from the family with the toddler. Too committed to the idea that a hotel restaurant must welcome everyone because the lobby does.
And to be absolutely clear - nobody is suggesting children should go hungry. There is an all-day dining restaurant in every hotel on earth, with its dedicated children's menu, its high chairs, its crayons and its remarkably patient staff. There are excellent options. The eight-course tasting menu with the wine pairing is simply not one of them.
The restaurants need to make a choice about their identity - they are either pro-family or pro-experience. Some hotels seem to think they can be both at the same time, in the same room, at the same table.
They can't.
xoxo, Bored Hotelier 😉