Petit Prince set in his high chair. Eric Rochat Jr., Petit Prince to his enchanted elders. Before him a broiled lobster. In one hand a lemon. In the other a nutcracker. Squirting and smashing and splintering, he devoured his royal feast. Petit Prince, two years old, a budding sensualist, a petit gastronome in his apprenticeship. Having grown up lambchopped and Jell-O’d and innocent, I was charmed.

          But adventurous moppets are rare. At four and a half, Samantha Susskind devours an artichoke at Le Mistral and adores “fick soup” -- hot vichyssoise. But even this town’s most sophisticated culinary pros spawn pizza freaks and wary little hamburger kids. You can drag a finicky eater to tarragoned oeuf en gelée, at the risk his tears will curdle your mousseline sauce. And surprisingly, your more civilized siblings are sure to be fussed over where you might least expect it.

          Mme. Henriette at La Côte Basque is delighted to introduce the Clifton Daniel brood to haute cuisine. Jacques Franey, eight-year-old son of Le Pavillon’s former chef, gets a tour of the Côte Basque kitchen. The Otto Preminger tots get oh’s and ah’s and cookies. At the Four Seasons, youngsters are served frozen soufflé in a spun-sugar cocoon. There are hot dogs from the bar for kiddies at the Ground Floor, and cotton candy. If Le Pavillon’s Stuart Levin can hook a kid on quenelles of pike before the child succumbs to the soybean cult, there is hope for us all.

          So, let’s pamper and indulge the ideal restaurant child. He tastes and adores. He does not fidget or bounce or whine or explode. He does not play with his food, tell how old mommy is or worry aloud about how much everything costs. As for the hebephrenic majority…let us give them run-around space, a tolerant waitress, non-destructible décor, something to distract and amuse, recognizable edibles at modest prices, an exotic setting for birthdays.

          Mothers like: Chinese restaurants: “Anything goes.” The Great Outdoors: The Zoo Cafeteria and Bethesda Fountain Café…“Kids can run around between courses and be amused by hippies and seals.” Exotica, Japanese style: Benihana…“It’s fast and like theater and they can see what goes into each dish.” Chinatown, especially during New Year and the festival of October 10…for firecrackers and dragons. Little Italy, certainly in June and late September for the Festivals of San Antonio and San Gernnaro -- open-air gluttony, zeppole, sausages of exotic genesis, leaden calzone, ices and games of chance. Coney Island and Nathan’s for lobster rollups. And corn-on-the-cob. And all the obvious classics like Schrafft’s and Stouffer’s, Zum Zum and Chock full O’Nuts and the Automat where a nickel doesn’t open all the doors it used to.

          Kids like: the Autopub, the Cattleman and the computerburgers of McDonald’s. “Do you know the city of Saratoga made McDonald’s take down their golden arches,” reports Rhys Ludlow, nine-year-old son of the Conrad Ludlows. Five-year-old Matthew, son of the Claude Allens (he is with Chase Manhattan) was perfectly happy at Wetson’s till he learned to read. Oh, cruel hoax. He’d thought it was McDonald’s.

          And Miranda, eleven, peripatetic offspring of traveler Horace Sutton, first celebrates the S.S. France. “They make crêpes. I don’t like crêpes, but it’s fun to watch.” She is nostalgic for champagne and caviar on TWA. “I like caviar on toast with a little lemon juice. And once I was on a plane where they served hot ice cream with hot melted cherries.” The she confides, “I really like McDonald’s.”

***

Restaurants That Children Like

(Compiled by A. L. O’Hara)

          Chris d’Amboise, eleven (son of Carolyn and dancer Jacques d’Amboise: “I like the Harbin Inn because they have great fried shrimp and I’m crazy about fried shrimp and you don’t have to be quiet. You can be as loud as you want.”

          Celia Converse, ten (daughter of Carol and actor Frank Converse) “Mexifrost probably, because they’re not crabby. I like Mexican food, especially tacos and tamales. In very expensive restaurants, the waiters are always crabby. Some restaurants keep you waiting too long. I bring a book with me.”

          Allan Converse, eleven: “Luchow’s for special occasions. The atmosphere is festive. They have a bandstand where musicians play brassy German music while you eat. The waiters aren’t stiff. They’re not rubbernecked. And they’re always willing to make substitutions.”

          Anthony Gould, ten (son of Lois Gould, author of Such Good Friends) “L’Etoile. I like to be able to pick out my own food at the buffet. You get to see what you’re having. Sometimes in restaurants you order something and when it comes, it’s not what you expected and you’re stuck with it.”

          Roger Gould, eight: “The Cattleman…best of all. The Indian gives you a sheriff’s badge and you can take it home. I like the cartoons and the stagecoach ride. It’s bumpy and fun -- especially if they let you ride on top.”

          Charley Prince, seven (son of Judy and producer Harold Prince): “My best restaurant is Trader Vic’s. It’s dark and very Polynesian. It’s a special-occasion place…not like your everyday living kind of restaurant. I’m glad you’re asking kids. We kids don’t live like you people, you know.”

          Samantha Susskind, four-and-a-half-year-old child of the media: Samantha sits on a pile of folded tablecloths…not so slippery as phone books. She has her own artichoke, shares Mother’s entrée and eats all the pommes soufflées. At Pearl’s, she likes the lemon chicken. At Maxwell’s Plum she likes to run around and feel the naked marble statues. “I like every kind of food.” French. Fish. Hee Hee. Fish any kind of way. I don’t mind if it gets burnt. I love artichokes so much. I could eat all the artichokes. Maxwell’s Plum. It’s pretty and I like all the animals and the animals at the other place [Rumpelmayer’s]. I love croissants. They’re so juicy and fine. And Chinese food. Yes. Num, num. And vegetables because it’s good for you and nourishing. When Daddy’s not home we eat vegetables. Daddy owns all the money and he’s the boss of this house. Carrots, corn, string beans and peas and um, mushrooms, num, num, turnips.” Is there anything Samantha doesn’t like to eat? “I hate to eat worm soup.”

          Jacques Franey, eight (son of Betty and Pierre Franey, former chef of Le Pavillon, now a guiding executive at Howard Johnson’s): Long, long pause: “I guess…Howard Johnson’s. No, no one told me. I just thought of it. I like the ice cream there. Chocolate chip. And the fried clams.”

          Marella Consolini, ten (daughter of Karen [Du Pont Sales Promotion] and Robert [Creative Learning] Consolini): “La Crêpe. I like crêpes, and well…I like crêpes. And you can’t get them anywhere else. Hot apple is best. The bacon is good, too. I like the costumes the waitresses are in and the way they have it fixed up.” Marella was once treated rudely in a restaurant. “I was five and I think I was being a pain in the neck.”

          Kenny Levin, twelve (son of Le Pavillon’s proprietaire, Stuart Levin) : “Le Pavillon is very nice, very elegant and the food is very, very good. But I come in from baseball practice and if I’m eating at Le Pav, I have to get all cleaned up and change. Getting all dressed up in a suit and tie…it’s a real pain. Then I take two buses. And I always seem to be in the rush hour and that’s a pain, too.” Kenny menu selection: Quenelles de brochet [pike dumplings], brook trout, sauté meunière, pommes soufflées and chocolate mousse. “Also, I like Steak and Brew.” You can’t go like a slob, but you don’t have to get all dressed up either. I like the beef brochette…the meat is good and you get to break up the sticks. After a baseball game, nothing tasts better than a couple of hot dogs. Daddy loves hot dogs, too. We go to a stand or one of those pushcarts. When you see the Sabrett sign, you know they’re going to be okay. At least they’re organized and not going to poison you.”

          Blanche La Salle, ten, and Manuela La Salle, six (daughter of Martin La Salle and Harper’s Bazaar editor China Machado): “The Autopub.” Manuela: “You can eat inside the cars. Hamburgers and Coke is our favorite lunch.” Blanche: “For American things, the Autopub. I like Chinese food, too, and I’m not very picky or very fancy. P.J. Clarke’s is a nice restaurant where mostly grownups go.”

          Maureen McGrath, nine (daughter of actress Constance Towers and Eugene McGrath): “I like Blum’s. It doesn’t have as good ice cream as Baskin and Robbins, but you can sit down.”

          John Kosner, ten and a half (son of Alice and Newsweek senior editor Edward Kosner): “The Palm. I think the food is great. It costs a fortune, I bet. There is no menu. A guy comes over and says [imitating tough guy], ‘Whaddya want?’ We had lobster. Biggest I ever ate. It took me 30 or 40 minutes to eat it. I was taking my time. I don’t think the waiter even noticed I was a child. He treated me like a man.”

          Anthony Kosner, nine: “The Autopub. The hamburgers are enormous. They’re big as a pie. The idea of that restaurant -- whoever designed it must have taken a couple of weeks at least. We were supposed to go to Benihana for my birthday but either it’s Daddy’s late night or Mommy’s teeth. By the time I go I’m going to forget why I’m going. They cook in front of your eyes. I use one chopstick and just stick it in like a spear. I should take my pencil sharpener along -- it’s be much easier.”

          Jennifer Rose, ten (daughter of Marian Wiesel and real estate man Peter Rose): “Howard Johnson’s because a lot of children go there. I like the chocolate ice cream. And La Crêpe because it’s sort of in the olden days.” Her favorite: “The ice cream crêpes.”

          Muffie Gifford, twelve (daughter of publicist Michael and Ed Gifford): “I like McDonald’s an awful lot. There’s no fat in the hamburgers. You can see the fries being made and sometimes someone is peeling them so you know it’s really fresh. And I like Allen’s for the chili. It’s hot enough so you know it’s hot and not hot enough to burn your tongue off. And Mary’s. The spaghetti tastes like each piece is made separately.”

          Adam Teague, four and a half (son of Matt and telecaster Bob Teague): “I like the pizzeria. I have one whole piece and a Coke. At Forlini’s I had spaghetti and meatballs and milk…only Mommy made me be quiet.”

          Katrina Charmatz, ten (daughter of Marianne and commercial artist Bill Charmatz): “Blimpy’s. They have ten different heroes, I take number 5. It’s made with some green shredded stuff and green and red pepper and coleslaw and tomato and bologna and cheese. Only I just take the cheese because I’m a vegetarian. Since she read about the Canadian seal hunt in Life magazine.)

          Joshua Heimann, twelve (son of Margaret and John Heimann, investment banker): “King Dragon. It’s a Chinese restaurant. I’m very partial to Chinese food. I order chicken, won ton soup, pork fried rice, beef with pea pods and spareribs and fresh pineapple. You know, there are people who eat to live and people who live to eat. I live to eat.”

          Deirdre Haizlip, seven and a half (daughter of Shirlee and Harold Haizlip. He is director of the New Lincoln School.): Howard Johnson’s. They are nice places and they have good food and they’re clean and don’t have many flies. They give you a place mat you can write on and little toys and games you can take with you.”

          Melissa Haizlip, six: “The Moon Palace. They have sweet and sour chicken and I just love sweet and sour chicken.”

          Pamela Talese, six (daughter of Nan and Gay Talese. She edits for Random House. He writes.): “Le Drugstore. It’s a very nice place with lots of animals inside and beautiful music and mirrors all over and trees with real candles and you can climb up the stairs and eat on a beautiful table with a gold top.”

          Michael Guinzberg, twelve (son of actress Rita Gam and publisher Thomas Guinzberg): “I like Kenny’s Steak Pub because football players go there. And Benihana even though an awful lot of tourists go there. And Kegon. It’s more authentic. Yes, I eat the raw fish. I’ll try anything once. My favorite restaurant is Joe and Rose. They’ve got cooks from the four corners of the earth. Even though those are fancy places, I still like hot dogs at Shea Stadium.”

          Johnny Fried, twelve (son of Eunice and physicist Herbert Fried): “I have eaten Chinese food in America, England, Austria, France and California. In Austria it was extremely sweet and heavy. In London it wasn’t so great. My favorite is Lotus Eaters on 23^rd Street. It’s nice looking. The always bring you fortune cookies and don’t charge. I order hot and sour soup, moo shu pork, beef and bamboo shoots and dumplings. I love to eat.”

          Rhys Ludlow, nine (son of Joy and dancer Conrad Ludlow): “The Brittany du Soir is good for escargots and frogs’ legs. Those are my favorite food -- escargots. Victor’s I would recommend. Their black bean soup is very good. And Trader Vic’s. It’s a different kind of food. The first thing is a certain kind of meat and you cook it over the flame and I usually cook it so hot that the toothpick burns up. Trader Vic’s is probably my favorite, but it’s expensive and the service isn’t so good.”

***

A Saloon for Moppets

          Looking at the The Cattleman through misopedic eyes, it is impossible to see why any sane human over the age of twelve would brunch here. It is The Sunday Children’s Hour in this handsome balconied saloon.

          Downstairs is almost civilized, with scattered brunching adults, sedate families with gelled smiles and nervous daddies exercising their weekend custody rites. Upstairs: sheer bedlam. “They’re having birthday parties and noise and happiness,” explains the hostess with a beatific smile. Randolph Scott preserve us, the dear really means it.

          Today we have brought two well-traveled sophisticates, recent repatriates from Tangiers -- Nicholas “Bato” (that’s Yugoslav for “Hey Kid”) and Leila (Arabic for “beauty of the night”) Wolfert. And they absolutely love it.

          Leila is glued to that chair with exquisite joy, dazzled by the Indian chief, a rather sad, runty chap, and his gift: a stagecoach charm dangling from a gold bracelet. Bato is everywhere, racing upstairs and down. “They’re showing Born Free,” he exults. Then up and down again. “It’s all chopped up,” he complains. Youngsters sweep past in herds. No one minds us at all.

         Buffalo Bill stops by to announce the stagecoach departure. He is from Flatbush, he confesses, and does indeed like children…he works nights in a children’s home. “See, Mom,” says Bato, “he’s on our side.” A thin blue-nosed clown does magic twists with balloons -- creating a powder blue pussycat, a green poodle and “a psychedelic swan crown” for Bato. “You get Mom to bring you back for your birthday,” he tells Leila.

          There is a special menu for kids under twelve -- fruit juice, “casino burger,” “crackling French fries,” “string beans Redman’s style,” “weary traveller’s flask of ketchup,” “maverick surprise dessert” and “milk, Coke or sarsparilla.” But our two jaded junior palates don’t trust any hamburgers but McDonald’s. So we all share in the $4.50 patrician repast for adults -- “spirited appetizers,” eggs and sausage, bacon or ham, eggs Benedict or chili omelette or broiled minute steak topped with a fried egg (75 cents extra).

          “This fat is tough,” Bato complains, cutting into a fair-sized steak. But he assures us that his soggy fries are “at least half crackling.” If the o.j. was fresh-squeezed as promised, it was also slightly watered. The biscuits tasted tough as fourth day out on the prairie. No toast or hot bread ever appears, and the non-stop flow of champagne dammed up after the first glass and did not start flowing again till after dessert (à la carte and pretty ghastly). Oh well, it’s food. Not worth working up a rage over…obviously food is of little serious concern to the pioneers who trek to this ersatz West.

***

Restaurants That Like Children

East Side

Howard Johnson’s. All over town. To save a thousand arguments and hysterical fits, take your sheltered little darlings to HoJo’s. Children’s menu, game sheets and sometimes, lollipops and balloons. Most units have birthday clubs, too.

Luchow’s, 110 East 14^th Street, 477-4860. The basic oompahpah escalates during the periodic festivals, but especially at Christmas, when there is a dazzling giant tree on a revolving base. Seven-course dinners for $4.25. À la carte menu, too. Portions may be split between children. Monday-Saturday 11 a.m.-midnight. Sunday noon-midnight.

Riverboat, Empire State Building, Fifth Avenue at 34^th Street, PL 9-2444. Dokey the Clown makes balloon animals for kids. Free toys and candy, too. Adults can watch or dance. $7.50 for adults, $4.50 for youngsters. Sundays 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Patricia Murphy’s Candlelight Restaurants, 260 Madison Avenue near 38^th Street, 685-1710; 12 East 49^th Street, 421-6464; 1703 Central Park Avenue in Yonkers (914 779-5700). The children’s menu offers complete lunches from $1.50, dinners from $2. Straight-arrow American food with Southern accents. Free lollipops and mints. Sunday brunch 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., dinner 2-8 p.m.

Trattoria, Pan Am Building, 45^th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, MO 1-3090. There are pizza, spaghetti, fettuccini, and other Italian specialties, but the sweets are really spectacular. Especially the rich, elegantly flavored ice cream. A chorus of waiters sings “Happy Birthday” on request. There is a “Gingerbread Village” on display at Christmas that goes to a local orphanage after the holidays. Entrees start at $3.95 (lunch), $4 (dinner). Monday-Saturday 7 a.m.-2 a.m., Sunday 2-10 p.m.

Top of the Sixes, 666 Fifth Avenue (at 53^rd Street), 757-6662. New York from the top can be glorious for kids too, I guess. Here à la carte lunch entrees run from $2 to $4, complete lunch from $2.95, dinner from $6.95. Menu doesn’t say so, but if you ask, you can get smaller portions at smaller prices for children under twelve. Weekdays 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., dinner 5-midnight; weekends dinner 12:30 a.m.

Laurent, 111 East 56^th Street, PL 3-2729. If you are ready to introduce your hamburger kind to haute cuisine, here it is. Entrees start at $6.50. Half-prices for children. $1 cover. Monday-Saturday lunch noon-3:30, dinner 6-10:30 p.m. Closed summer Sundays.

Hyde Park, 998 Madison Avenue (at 77^th Street), 734-0196. Crayons and placemats to color and mind-teasing games for the older youngsters. Toys too. Monday-Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday-Saturday to 1 a.m., Sunday 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Lunch from $1.95, dinner from $3.50. Children under twelve half-price.

West Side

Manero’s, 126 West 13^th Street, 242-4767. The motto here is “Always Bring the Children.” There are complimentary “Shirley Temples” (ginger ale “cocktails”). Adult dinners from $3.50, children under ten from $2.95. Monday-Thursday lunch noon-3 p.m., dinner 3-9 p.m.; Friday dinner 3-10 p.m., Saturday 5-11 p.m.

Nathan’s, Broadway at 43^rd Street, 594-7455. There are puppet shows at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. and “Skeeter, the world-famous Duncan Yo-Yo player,” on Sunday. Open 1-5 p.m.

Steer Palace, 2 Penn Plaza (at Madison Square Garden), 947-3060. Three-ring family plan whenever circus is in town: one child free, second child $1, each additional child half price. The regular children’s menu $2.95, adult entrees start at $5.50. Lunch Monday-Friday 11:30 a.m., dinner 4:30-11 p.m., Saturday 2-10 p.m., Sunday 2-9 p.m.

Mama Leone’s, 239 West 48^th Street, 586-5151. It’s big and noisy and still not too expensive but it gets much noisier at the pre-Lenten Carnevale, when there are balloon makers, clowns, waiter in costume, a cook’s band and décor. Children under fourteen may order from the à la carte menu. Monday-Thursday 3:30 p.m.-midnight, Saturday 3 p.m.-midnight, Sunday 2-10 p.m.

Hawaii Kai, 1638 Broadway (between 50^th and 51^st Streets) 757-0900. Obviously Polynesian food was invented for children. Dripping South Seas décor, The gastronomic insult quotient is high here. (See New York, October 19, 1970.) But kids love it. Children ten and under may share a grownup’s dinner at no additional charge. Entrees start at $3. Dinner Friday-Saturday 4:30 p.m.-1 a.m., Sunday 1 p.m.-1 a.m.

La Fonda del Sol, 120 West 51^st Street, 757-8800. It used to be brighter and bigger and less booze-oriented. Strolling guitarist Wednesday through Sunday, chocolate cake for birthday parties. Entrees from $4.50 (lunch), $5 (dinner). Monday-Saturday lunch 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., dinner 5-11 p.m., Sunday dinner 2-8:30 p.m.

Red Coach Grill, 782 Seventh Avenue at 51 Street, 245-2500. The Tally Ho menu for youngsters offers such guaranteed pacifiers as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Complete children’s dinners $1.25 to $1.95, adult entrees $5 up. The Red Coach Birthday Credit Card entitles its owner to a free dinner anytime during the month of his birthday…it expires at age twelve, alas, when cruel reality sets in. Friday 11:30 a.m.-midnight, Saturday 11:30 a.m.-midnight, Sunday 11:30 a.m.-11p.m.

***

Dining à La Car

          Vroooooom…the Autopub is very racy…a Licorice Kandy Kolored Chrome Flake Streamline Monster baby in the lower chassis of the General Motors Building -- a gas from Longchamps. It is Manhattan’s freshest must. Absolutely obligatory for kids and visiting home folks. Clearly, a fortune has been spent to create an autobug’s fantasy: all those upside-down racing cars and carburetors and muffler mockups, the racing helmet fixtures, the bucket seats, the tufted vicuña colored leatherette of the Eldorado Pullman car…the bus boys in Getty overalls…the unpretentious Loreleis in hot pants…what prepubescent under 60 could possibly resist?

          Prices are middling for these inflated times: lunch entrees from $2.75 for ham and eggs to $5.95 for steak. Brunching begins at $2.25 and complete dinners hit a top of $6.95. The menu was spewed forth by giant computer plugged into the cerebellum of the Great Unawakened Masses. It is one step beyond Gerber’s mashed apricots, and there is not a gamble anywhere. It is All-American Most-Likely-to-Succeed Pap: spaghetti and meat balls, filet of sole, steak, steak, steak and hamburgers, chef’s salad, hot turkey sandwich, bacon-lettuce-and-tomato. Even our pint-size champions of the Autopub’s chrome-coated glory were properly cynical.

          “The food isn’t good,” Christian Rojas (Gloria’s son) confided after reciting a litany of carburetors and rumble seats and hot pants. “They either cook it too much or they don’t cook it enough.” And the widely traveled eight-year-old Patrick Sutton (Horace’s son), nostalgic for poi and the fire dancers from a long-ago luau at the Kahala Hilton in Hawaii, describes the dichotomy: “I don’t like the food. I like sitting in the cars. They keep running out of things. We asked could we have some lettuce and the waitress said, ‘I have to walk a mile for it.’ And the toaster didn’t work.”

          There are some pleasant touches: The slice-it-yourself loaf of bread is excellent (not the spun cotton stuff). There is fresh-grated horseradish with the pink shrimp cocktail ($2.25) and an interesting mix of fresh fruit in a handsome goblet (95 cents). And the desserts are a joy: good down-home rice pudding (95 cents), the velvety pop voluptuousness of soft ice cream and super goodies from Miss Grimble’s magic ovens. And the help is part-waif, part-hippie, unskilled and charming. Clearly pessimistic about locating a peppermill, our waitress returned triumphant: “There’s only one in the whole house,” she announced, “And they keep it locked up. So don’t lose it.”

          But mostly the food is drearily mediocre and consistently tepid: the sliced steak is tough but tasty. The eggs Benedict with their black olive “truffles” are slightly undercooked. The giant omelette must be pre-cast. The moon-sized hamburger on its sesame roll is gristly and juiceless, the filet of sole predictably anonymous. Even the toasted almonds have no flavor. The portions are giant and plates come overflowing. Oh, well, it’s not the food that matters here, it’s the Indy high.