I was sent an interesting link to EatKidFriendly.com a few weeks ago and had been on my to do list now for a while of things to check out. I finally got around to checking it out. What is it? Well it appears to be a community driven website where members (parents, caregivers, etc) can flag and review restaurants that are kid friendly. One thing I found nice about the site is that you do not have to be a member or sign up on the website to use the features, only to contribute to the listings.
The site is still listed as being in beta, so I would assume there may still be a few bugs needing to be worked out. The service does require location data so you will need to either allow your browser to provide this information or you will just need to enter in your address or just a zip code. A map will show up with locations around you that have already been flagged. There is a little color key to the flags so be sure to check those out as well. I thought this was a great way to easily indicate if a location is kid friendly or not. However, I will say that the Not and Limited Data flag colors are a little close and might be hard for some to distinguish.
I can find this site extremely useful if you are a parent looking to check out some new places to eat but are not exactly sure how kid friendly it may be. The only drawback I see at this point in time is that the website relies on user submitted data. So if you do not have anyone participating you won’t get a lot of feedback. I see this as being somewhat like Yelp, but for parents/caregivers. Yelp will tell you a lot about what’s out there to eat and may have great reviews and ratings but this site is specific to kids. So it has a very specific purpose. Is the restaurant kid friendly, does it have high chairs, changing tables, etc… Without someone to fill in those answers you won’t know. The app shows you all the restaurants in your area, so there is data provided, many of those places may just have limited data available. It is really easy to create an account so, go for it, while you’re there.
All in all EatKidFriendly.com is a great startup that I can see a big potential in its value. I have tested it on my iPhone and it works great there as well as on my laptop. So be sure to bookmark the link and check it out the next time you are looking for a tasty meal with the family.
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