If dining out with rugrats isn't your idea of a good time, check this restaurant out next time you're in Rome: Family-owned seafood restaurant La Fraschetta del Pesce, located near the city's historical district, has declared a ban on kids under five, according to The Telegraph.
"They run slalom among the tables, " owner Marco Magliozzi told Italian news site La Repubblica. "They throw olive oil on the floor, they upturn the water, they send the salt cellar flying across the room, they try to dismantle the furniture, they shout, they cry and above all, they hate fish." Magliozzi decided he'd had enough a few months ago and posted a sign on the restaurant's front door that reads, "Due to some unpleasant incidents caused by a lack of manners, children under 5 are not allowed in this restaurant."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the new policy netted La Fraschetta some negative TripAdvisor reviews; Magliozzi has responded to each of them in kind, telling one reviewer, "In Rome there are about 11,000 restaurants with a lot of choice ... if I wanted [to serve kids], I would open a nursery."
And despite not having been updated in more than 2 years, the restaurant's Facebook page has been flooded with responses to the ban. Some fully support the restaurant's new rule, noting that "the place is small and the tables are placed very close together," making it difficult to navigate around strollers and high chairs; one commenter says he hopes more establishments adopt the no kids policy, as finding peace at local restaurants has become "more and more 'difficult because of brats screaming out of control. But many others are considerably less understanding, with one declaring that five-year-olds are more intelligent and polite than La Fraschetta del Pesce's owners.
Restaurants banning kids is getting more and more common these days, and such policies are seemingly always met with backlash — though one restaurant in Australia claims it's busier than ever after barring children under 7 from its dining room. Other restaurants have taken slightly less drastic measures in an effort to stem bad behavior from pint-sized customers, such as the Mexican restaurant in Houston that offers tables written instructions on how kids ought to act while dining there.