Under-Age Eating?

[Tarser]

Can a 14 year old boy and a 16 year old girl go into a 'Weatherspoons' pub/restaurant on their own to have a meal (no alcohol). I've googled it many times and I'm amazed at how such a simple question doesn't have a clear answer.

My lad and his girlfriend want to go out for a meal (without adults spoiling their fun) but we don't know if they will be breaking the law. It's a licensed premises, so is this a pub or a restaurant? Surely eating is never a problem with the law....

[EDDIE51]

hc4361 Our local Weatherspoons opens at 7 am 7 days a week including Sunday and it serves alcohol as soon as it opens until it closes at midnight or 1 am ! As far as I know they are all the same. So there is no time an under 18 can go in alone. Where else can you get a burger and a beer at 7 am on a Sunday ?

[Peter Pedant]

// I wish I had had a 16 year old girlfriend when I was 14.//

why only at 14 ? surely as a red blooded englishman you want a 16 y o gurl-fren' NOW !

[EcclesCake]

Hopefully not PP.

[ummmm]

PP...you're such a twonk sometimes.

[Mamyalynne]

Hope you can find somewhere nice for them to have a meal together, a shame for them to be denied that opportunity or forced to eat burgers etc.

[murraymints]

same rule here about 2 drinks per adult with kiddies..sensible I think

[murraymints]

there must be a local restaurant somewhere that is not a pub !

[ummmm]

Murray...Not for the price of Weatherspoons.

[Sycamore3House]

They could go to a restaurant eg Pizza Hut or Nando's no problem. But these are not as cheap as Wetherspoons.

[bednobs]

pizz hut must have an on licence?

[-SharonA-]

What about going to TGI Friday's??

[Sycamore3House]

Restaurants do not primarily serve alchohol which means children would be served. Wetherspoons is a public house/pub that primarily serves alchohol but also serves food and therefore a child would need to be accompanied.

[EDDIE51]

Sycamore3house You are wrong. It is the fact that the premises has a licence to sell alcohol that causes the problem. It does not matter if it is a pub , bar, or restaurant the licencing law applies equally to all of them.
They could not go into a Chinese or Indian restaurant apart from to order a takeaway if it has a licence.

[rockyracoon]

I never knew this about restaurants. We took my daughter and 8 friends to the local Chinese restaurant, saw them to their seats and went in the pub next door to wait til they had finished (the thought of sitting with 9 14 years olds was not appealing). They got served their food and cokes no problem.

[EDDIE51]

^ the restaurant would have assumed you were supervising them rocky, I bet they didn't expect you to leave them.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm wondering what the end decision/result was. Although a day wasn't mentioned so it may still be still in the future.

[rockyracoon]

They did. I told them when I booked it.

[Sycamore3House]

Eddie51 check out the link provided and section 4.

[EDDIE51]

^^ That link is several years out of date, it relates to when alcohol was not permitted to be served before 11am . Since the licencing laws changed to allow 24 hour alcohol serving, ALL 'Weatherspoons' are required under company management policy to serve alcohol at all permitted times. So as mine does they all sell alcohol from 7 am to midnight 7 days a week.

[Sycamore3House]

The link is from the 2003 Licensing Act. If you actually read all of the thread you may then understand that I am also saying that Wetherspoons is a pub but restaurants are different. So therefore I am not wrong. I am also a personal licence holder in a restaurant.