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For parents of small children, eating out with the kids is a mixed affair. Yes, there's always the White Spot, but - Pirate Paks aside - the attractions are limited. Worse, you have to eat out with everyone else's kids, too. Even if your little one isn't picky and behaves beautifully, there are times when you'd just rather not be worrying about spillage and snotty noses.

Call a babysitter, you say, but finding someone reliable and available isn't always easy. That's where Freedom Night at Chambar Belgian Restaurant comes in. For hungry and harried parents, it could prove a godsend: $30 per child guarantees fun and food for the little ones, while the adults get to dress up and eat a posh dinner.

Karri Schuermans and her chef husband, Nico, own Chambar and its daytime sibling, Café Medina. They noticed a gap in the market and decided to provide a service for affluent parents with no reliable babysitting network. "We have two young children, and find that it's not worth taking them to the restaurants we want to go to," explains Ms. Schuermans. "We just can't relax."

After a trial night with friends and family went well, they decided that on Thursdays throughout the summer, they would offer a two-hour window when parents could eat comfortably at Chambar, safe in the knowledge that the kids were having just as much fun next door at Café Medina. It sounded too good to be true: The only way to check was for me to sign up my family for the opening night.

The age range for Café Medina is given as 3 to 7, but when I explain that means that my nine-year-old, Jay, will need to eat with Mom and Dad, I'm told it is flexible. Though he was rather looking forward to joining the adults at Chambar, Jay is game enough to hang out at Café Medina and keep an eye on his three-year-old brother, Sacha.

When we arrive at 6 p.m., Café Medina is bustling with preschoolers climbing all over the furniture. A stock of toys donated by a local children's store, Dandelion Kids, is being enthusiastically ransacked by the more boisterous, while a few hungry children sit patiently at the tables hoping dinner will be served soon.

Plates and cutlery are brought out - not the fine crockery of the Schuermans' trial run, but brightly coloured plastic. In one corner, Gabriella Benito of Ask Your Fairy has set up her makeup studio and hung rows of dress-up outfits to entertain the throng and keep their minds off where Mom and Dad have gone.

My offspring head in expectantly. Sacha goes straight for the toys, while Jay heads for the oldest-looking kid in the room and into a serious discussion about spacecraft.

Caregivers from Nannies On Call introduce themselves and hand us a wooden block with a letter "D" etched in its side to put on our table at Chambar - to help service staff find us, should there be a problem.

For one couple, the problem starts before they even reach the adults-only restaurant. When they get up to leave, their little boy isn't having any of it. He doesn't want to be left here. "He just rolled out of bed the wrong way today," shrugs his father, Dean Philp. A panicked look crosses his face. "Please don't write anything negative about this - it's such a great idea."

With our two kids happily ensconced, we move next door to Chambar's sultry room. There's a full house and the noise level is about the same, but instead of the overexcited, shrill commotion of Café Medina, here we're soothed by the clink of glasses and an adult hubbub. When the server asks if we'd like to order a drink, the switch from parent to person is complete.

We certainly have a very relaxed dinner; nary a thought about the boys crosses our minds as we tuck into an excellent lamb tajine and tasty five-spice-rubbed duck breast washed down with a bottle of red. Our only quibble would be that two hours goes by a bit too swiftly.

"Guests have said they'd like another 30 minutes or another hour," says Ms. Schuermans. "But they'd drink more. We thought it would be irresponsible of us as a restaurant to give them that time."

We dutifully pay up and head next door for the 8 p.m. cutoff. It's not a cheap affair - Chambar is one of the city's best restaurants and you can expect to pay $35 to $60 per person before drinks, tax or tip. Still, a nice dinner with no one tugging your sleeve or racing toy cars across the table is not to be sniffed at.

And the kids have had fun at Café Medina. My boys have been transformed into musketeers, with alarmingly effective painted black eyebrows and twirled mustaches. There's a parade of princesses with sparkly eye shadow and updos, and tired, happy faces all around.

How was it? Sacha had a great time; Jay not so much. Nine was pushing the age range, it seems, and he needed another meal when we got home. The portions of pasta and waffles were too small, he complains.

But his biggest problem was having dinner with a bunch of preschoolers: "Someone pooped on the floor," he reports, aghast. "Next time, I'm eating with you guys."

Chambar Belgian Restaurant: 562 Beatty St., Vancouver;

604-879-7119

Café Medina: 556 Beatty St.,

Vancouver; 604-879-3114