Any server who has had to wait on a family with small children at a restaurant can admit that the experience doesn’t always go smoothly.
They can often be unruly, loud, and take a while to decide what they’d like to order.
One server posting on r/Serverlife, for example, titled their post, “I’m so tired of children.”
They go on to explain that the restaurant they work at mostly receives guests with small children. “I can’t take it. the screaming children and the unhappy parents are driving me crazy,” they added.
Many in the comments could relate to the sentiment, writing that they put most of the blame on the parents for not properly managing the situation.
According to one server on TikTok, however, @modafick, not every child behaves that way. In fact, he says he came across someone he considers a “niche kid.”
What are restaurant ‘niche kids?’
In his video, which got over 1.8 million views, the server describes an oddity he had just experienced.
“Nothing surprises me more as a server than when kids oddly know what they want,” he says. “Now, if you’re a server, you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
He had recently served a family of three. When it was time to take the child’s order, the boy surprised him.
“He’s probably 10 or 11 years old, and he wanted to order off the adult menu,” he says. “Now, most of these kids just say that because they’re tired of feeling like a kid and want to get all grown up.”
The server then asked whether he wanted soup or salad on the side.
He expected some hesitation.
“Most kids would look at their parents all frantically, like, ‘Um, uh, um,’” he says. “But he tells me, ‘Yeah, I’ll take a side of blue cheese.’”
That answer caught him off guard.
“It’s like, d-mn, I didn’t know I was serving Boss Baby,” he says. “Where do you learn to even dabble in something like blue cheese?”
Viewers share stories of other ‘niche kids’
In the comments, parents of “niche kids,” former niche kids themselves, and other servers shared similar stories.
“I love it when they order med rare surf and turf or like just med rare filets in general i’m GAGGED LIKE OKAY,” one commenter wrote.
“I love those kids I let them run the table. One kid ordered waters for the table,” a second server said.
Another parent said their 9-year-old already has a very specific restaurant preference.
“This is my 9yr old daughter..who strictly wants to go to certain restaurants that serve French onion soup…so she can judge them and find her favorite one,” they wrote.
“My daughter asked our server why they didn’t have the swordfish bites with watermelon chutney on the kids menu,” another wrote. “Bc in her mind the bite size pieces were prefect for kids! She loves seafood.”
One viewer said their adventurous ordering started young too.
“I was ordering a full rack of ribs at 7 lol,” they wrote.
@modafick
Subplot News has reached out to the TikToker via TikTok direct message for comment.
