Award-winning Flynn’s Restaurant in Yungaburra bans children
A FAMILY with a screaming child was the final straw for an up-market Tablelands restaurant that has decided to ban children.
The award-winning Flynn’s Restaurant at Yungaburra has introduced a new policy requiring diners to be a minimum of seven years old, in response to an angry mother’s bad review on TripAdvisor.
LAST STRAW: The owner of the award winning Flynn’s Restaurant has banned children under seven-years-old from eating in the Yungaburra establishment. Restaurant manager Sonia Tymecka and owner Liam Flynn made the decision after several complaints from patrons about their younger diners. (Picture: Brendan Radke)
The mother, who dined with her family during a busy lunchtime on Sunday, was approached by chef and owner Liam Flynn after the woman’s two-year-old daughter was crying loudly.
“The owner asked us to keep the noise down quite rudely,’’ she wrote on the review website. “Within a few minutes, he returned and asked us to take ‘the child’ out of the restaurant! I don’t agree with any children running riot while people are dining at home, or out. Our little one wasn’t misbehaving or wreaking havoc.”
Flynn’s was named the Best European Restaurant for North Queensland at the Restaurant and Catering Queensland Awards in 2013, beating competition in Port Douglas, Palm Cove, Townsville and Cairns.
It also won the same award seven years earlier.
Mr Flynn, who opened his restaurant nearly 14 years ago, said when later approached by the screaming child’s father, he tried explaining that the toddler was annoying other customers who had paid for a relaxed dining experience.
“His wife came out from the toilet out the back and she came past the counter, and said ‘if you think that’s screaming, you haven’t heard anything, and you can get f----d’, in front of other customers, and stormed out the door,’’ he said.
He said the experience was the final straw for him.
“This problem happens often,’’ he said.
“We realise that when we do say something to people, they are hypersensitive to the fact that they’re being told off for their parenting, basically.
“That’s how they view it when you say something to them. They are basically outsourcing their misery to everyone else.”
He said he had settled on seven as the minimum age to indicate to parents only children who knew how to behave in high-quality restaurants were welcome.
Restaurant manager Sonia Tymecka said they had also had issues with children who broke crockery, and damaged expensive tiles and upholstered chairs.
“We’ve had some nice families coming with babies, but there has to be a line drawn, so we are no longer taking children under seven any more,” she said.
Restaurant and Catering Australia deputy CEO Sally Neville said the restaurant was well within its rights to refuse service to families with children, if they felt it was in the best interests of their business.
“They obviously feel that there is a demand for a restaurant that doesn’t have children present,’’ she said.
“There are various styles of restaurants around Australia and the world – some are child-friendly and some aren’t.
“They’ve obviously pitched themselves as a fine-dining couple’s or function restaurant, as opposed to a family one.”
Source: The Cairns Post, Daniel Bateman, July 7th 2015
