But Think of the Children...

Thank you, Karolina E., Brooklyn, NY for your review of LaGrande Orange in Pasadena, CA.

Perhaps this is a polarizing opinion, but here we go:

The restaurant is not required to provide a kids' menu.

Do your kids eat food? Yes? Great! There's food at restaurants.

I believe I'm one of the last generations raised without being catered to on hand and foot, and their parents expecting everyone else to do the same. Back in my day (lol), my parents ordered what they wanted, and I got... an extra plate. Maybe I'll eat my words once my son has food preferences beyond breast milk, but I ate what they ate. End of story.

No one expects a parent to order a separate entree for their child - that would get expensive - but for parents to expect a restaurant to have a shorter, cheaper menu of foods generally served at a bowling alley is unreasonable. We are the adults, they are the kids, she says as she caters to every whim of her tiny six-week-old dictator, desperately begging him to find her entertaining.

If you don't like the chicken tacos, just say that. Please don't make it about the restaurant's shortcomings for children, and certainly don't bring the rotisserie chicken from Costco into it! Have you ever even eaten it?! Have you ever even been inside a Costco? Obviously not, otherwise you would have noticed a line of people waiting specifically for the rotisserie chicken. It's incredible, it's affordable, and if they sold a side of just the skin, I would buy it.

ANYWAY...

To address the rest of your points:

1. Food is just mediocre

2. Not kid friendly

3. Overpriced

4. Too busy and too crowded

Everything is overpriced.

I don't think #4 would be a problem if more people agreed with #1.

Maybe things are different in Brooklyn where people fear the Park Slope Mom Mafia (that's a thing, right?), but you don't wield this kind of power in Pasadena.

And as much as I may dislike your review, I know this will be helpful for the many parents who are (unfortunately) like you, which means it may also be helpful for the restaurant since I'm sure they are tired of the dreaded question, "Do you have a kids' menu?"

Two out of five stars.

See you next Tuesday.