The only happy meals these kids want come with three Michelin stars.
Chicken fingers and fries no longer hack it as dinner for Manhattan’s posh preschoolers, as demanding foodie tots are flocking to top city restaurants such as Per Se and Nobu to dine on pork liver and edamame.
Oliver Stern, 3, who lives on the Upper East Side and attends a private nursery school there, won’t eat Chinese unless it’s the $33 crispy beef from Mr. Chow.
He loves the $25 black cod with miso from Nobu, the famed sushi eatery co-owned by Robert De Niro.
“He knows how to order,” said his mother, Lyss Stern, 37. “At Phillipe, he asks for the chicken satay. He loves the spicy tuna rolls. He loves Peter Luger’s, Pastis and Norma’s for brunch, where he gets french toast with walnuts.”
At Fred’s at Barneys, an Upper East Side mecca for the ladies who lunch, Oliver’s go-to dish is the $25 chopped chicken salad.
The days of high-end restaurants shunning kids are over. Now top eateries go out of their way to offer up “twee-sine,” with James Beard Award-winning chefs even hosting children’s birthday parties.
“We take our daughter out to dinner about four times a week because we want her with us as much as possible,” said Jane Notar, 32, whose 5-year-old daughter, Harlow, has the eating habits of a slender adult.
Harlow, whose dad, Richard, is a part-owner of Nobu, fell in love with salmon sushi when she was 2. Now she snacks on raw nori (seaweed), drinks sparkling water and makes herself green juices with celery, broccoli, beets and a touch of ginger at home.
Harlow is a regular at Le Charlot, a French bistro on the Upper East Side, and at the SoHo model-magnet Da Silvano.
The refined palates of city kids stands in stark contrast to their suburban counterparts.
“When our friends from Long Island come to visit, the kids want to go to McDonald’s,” Stern said. “Our kids will say they want sushi, and our friends look at us like we’re crazy.”
British restaurateur Jason Hicks, who recently opened the gastro-pub Jones Wood Foundry on the Upper East Side, said there are so many junior gourmands around these day that he’s made his restaurant kid friendly.
“Children in New York are definitely more adventurous eaters,” he said. “It’s the culture of eating out and ordering off a menu instead of having mum cooking at home.”
Elementary-school epicureans have even infiltrated the Columbus Circle quarters of Per Se, one of the city’s priciest restaurants.
“We encourage the more adventurous kids to try the tasting menu,” said general manager Anthony Rudolf, referring to the $295-per-person, nine-course sampler that takes over four hours to consume. “We have hosted children that have enjoyed offal preparations, such as ris de veau [fried calf glands].”
Eliana Wong, 8, the daughter of Per Se’s CFO, recently said her favorite dish there was the asparagus velouté, Rudolf said.
But at least one of the city’s top restaurateurs thinks parents may be forcing gourmet cuisine down their children’s gullets.
“The only food I ever see children enjoy at any of my restaurants are the pizzas at Pulino’s,” said restaurateur Keith McNally, who also owns Balthazar and Minetta Tavern. “That’s all children ever want to eat. Anyone who says anything else is lying.”