Dea Birkett's Eating with Kids: Eurostar

The most important part of a journey is the point of departure. If you set out as you mean to carry on, the break usually goes well.

So on a short break to Paris, we’ve decided to go by train. It’s by far the best way to start our weekend away, landing only a couple of hours later in the heart of the French capital, rather than spending just as long struggling to get into it. Like many city breaks, ours begun at breakfast, dining on the Eurostar.

We had croissants with that wonderful unsalted French butter, apricot jam and limitless coffee. We came out Leisure Select and are going back Standard class. In Leisure Select, meals are included with your ticket; in Standard, you buy from the buffet. The buffet prices are reasonable (under £5 for a salad), but you might be better off looking for a bargain Leisure Select fare and considering it one of your holiday meals out, as the food on the train is not bad at all and rather French.

Eurostar have even introduced a Leisure Select children’s menu. This isn’t compulsory – your seven year old can still have ‘Zander and prawn mousseline in saffron sauce with snap pea risotto’ or ‘sliced chicken breast with basil butter served with Carmargue red rice’ if they prefer. And you have to request a child’s meal when you book, just like on a plane. But it’s far better than the fast food cardboard box many airlines offer kids. This is ‘child-friendly gourmet food’, more French than American-inspired.

In fact, eating on the Eurostar is a great introduction to the rest of the weekend. But we made a couple of mistakes. We should have made sure we booked seats around a table, so we could all eat together. And, if we’re going to go one way by Leisure Select, it should be the return and not outward journey. You get free alcohol as well as food, which is attractive at 6.30pm but not 6.30am, when we set off. And oddly, the buffet doesn’t offer child’s meals at all, just sandwiches, salads and, of course, croissants. They also handily stock wet wipes for any spillage from the saffron sauce.

Next meal: Self Catering in Paris

Useful information about Eurostar:

Find out more about Eurostar and book tickets. You can get on Eurostar at St Pancras, or the intermediate stations in the UK including, Ebbsfleet International in northwest Kent, Ashford International in southeast Kent, or at Folkestone (vehicles only).

See Take the Family's Trains page

Do you have something to share about eating out with kids? Do you have tips on how to making eating out easier? If so we'd love to hear from you!