The maxim that timing is everything has never been truer than when eating out with babies and small children. Get the timing wrong and even the most child-friendly eatery will fail to ensure you have a good experience

I admit it: I am what you might call a snob. Having been lucky enough in pre-baby days to have eaten in some of the best restaurants in the world, I have developed a set of standards below which I am rarely prepared to go in relation to eating out. If I’m paying for it, I expect it to be good. Or better. How then, you might wonder, did I find myself in a Beefeater restaurant last Sunday lunch time

Stewart & Co. at Meldon Park is an amazing child-friendly food-loving garden-enjoying find on the way to Wallington Hall from Morpeth. It’s in the Meldon Park estate, which has been in the hands of the Cookson family since 1832 and is particularly beautiful with wonderful views, a walled kitchen garden, walks and a shop selling local produce