That depends on how you define “kid friendly”.

We always feel a little bit happier when families with children come in and we see the family sharing our wholesome food with their little ones. Also, we enjoy the sounds that kids make–from the giggly squeals to the talking to the crying and even screaming–because for us, those sounds are the sounds of life and community. To us, kid noises are comforting, homey sounds. And as many of you know by now, Hernande’z is basically an extension of our home and children will always be part of our lives–so, from that perspective we are “kid friendly”. We always want you to feel comfortable with your children and breast feeding is encouraged.

However, we don’t have what are considered to be “kid friendly accoutrements” ie. high chairs, booster seats, kid menus with the usual suspects of hot dogs, chicken fingers etc. When ordering for kids, you may wish to ask the Cashier to “hold the salsa and /or cilantro” on the tacos. If you decide to do this, we will hold the item on all the tacos. It is not possible to modify one or two of the tacos. That means that if you were sharing with the kids and you wanted to eat the salsa, etc. that you would have to order these items separately (salsa is .74, sour cream is .74, cilantro is .25). Again, these decisions have been made to keep the kitchen labour efficient and cost-efficient. We suggest that if you want to order food for your kids that is different than what you’d like to eat, that you may want to consider ordering them either a power bar (3.00), or a side of rice (3.00) or beans (3.00) modified for whatever they would like. That leaves you to eat a full order of tacos, however you would like!

Also, since we share a space with others there have been a few times during the day when someone from somewhere in the building will come over and “correct” my people when they are accompanied by children, especially if the children are making anything resembling “kid noises”. This will never happen after 5 pm when we have the run of the place because every one has gone home and it will never happen on weekends (when it becomes the most perfect kid friendly place because the kids have the space to move around and play while you eat!) . BUT–if it does happen, I’d like a phone call immediately (250-884-5313) so that I can have a talk with this person right away because I find it offensive and unprofessional for someone to do this. In the meantime, don’t take it seriously or personally–just yesterday my beautiful and well behaved daughter was “corrected” by a woman who wasn’t even our customer, or a neighboring business person, but only a person sitting at one of our tables to read her paper!!