Restaurant Fines Parents Up to $327 When Kids Trash the Place and the Internet Is Loving It: ‘Valid Charges’

A California restaurant is done with unruly kids.

You You Xue, who runs Chez Xue in Foster City, just south of San Francisco, posted a parental advisory to his Chinese restaurant’s menu this year after watching children run laps through his dining room, break equipment, and scribble into diners’ furniture while their parents looked the other way, the New York Post reported on Tuesday, July 7.

The policy, shared by a user on X, has gone viral and since racked up millions of views. “My staff, my servers were being forced to parent children on behalf of other parents. That’s not their job,” Xue told the Post.

The advisory is blunt — “Chez Xue is a family-friendly restaurant. However, we are not a playground.”

According to the viral X post, three documented incidents illustrate how the policy works in practice. A parent was charged $327.03 in April 2025 after their child dropped a credit card reader, shattering the screen. In December 2025, another family was billed $109.38 after a child carved into a table with a utensil.

A January 2026 incident involving a broken teacup cost a parent $5.47. Parents are not charged for genuine accidents.

The policy triggered a wave of support for the restaurant and its policy online.

Venture capitalist Camilo Acosta wrote on X, “‘Gentle parents’ are raising mini terrorists change my mind.”

User Zach Stevens, as cited by the New York Post, suggested the restaurant “should give discounts to parents who publicly discipline their kids when they act up or for kids who behave wonderfully.”

Others piled on in agreement. “Excellent!  All restaurants and businesses ought to make a similar stand,” one user wrote.

“Valid charges,” wrote another in support of the policy.

Another chimed in and wrote, “If your kids are smashing credit card machines and carving things into furniture, they don’t belong in restaurants. End of conversation.”

Not everyone was on board. One critic pushed back, writing, “Parents are financially responsible for their kids, but putting this on your menu reveals you are in fact very hostile to children and families. Very negative.”

One commenter questioned whether the $5.47 teacup charge was taking things a step too far, writing, “The teacup one might have been a bit much. Restaurants should expect stuff like that to get damaged.”

“Honestly just sounds like this person shouldn’t run a restaurant. Charging people $5 for a broken cup is batshit insane”, wrote another.

Another offered a more measured take — “There appears to be no generally accepted middle path between society’s overall hostility towards children, and many parents abandoning their responsibility to get kids to behave. And so restaurants are stuck having to mediate this [Expletive].”

Xue said behavior has dropped “precipitously” since the notice went up and he has no plans to change course.

“The policy of respecting the restaurant and other guests, and not treating it like a playground … is just common sense,” he said, as per the New York Post.

Chez Xue’s sister restaurant, Wonderful, in Millbrae, was recognized in the 2021 Michelin Guide.