They turn rowdy without touching a drop of alcohol, they are always accompanied by a minder, and a stern word can make them burst into tears.

In pubs across Britain, they have become the most unpopular customers among other drinkers. Because no one seems to know just how to deal with other people’s badly behaved children.

An increasing trend towards more “family friendly” pubs has not created the atmosphere of similar establishments on the Contintent. The “baby lager louts” who run wild and are left unchecked by parents have triggered a record number of complaints to compilers of The Good Pub Guide 2009.

Rising numbers of protests about children in bars have been registered from pubgoers who say that relaxing over a pint or a meal out is increasingly likely to be ruined by children’s unruly behaviour.

Fiona Stapley, joint editor of the guide, said: “People have finally snapped. Children are driving them mad. This is not about the weather keeping kids inside the pub, this is everywhere. Lots of people have reported it to us. Of course it is the parents’ fault. Children get tired and then get disruptive, so they start tearing around the pub.”

She suggested that as 90 per cent of 55,000 pubs in the guide welcome children – up 10 per cent in four years – more should adopt the JD Wetherspoon rule. The pub chain introduced a two-drink rule for parents or adults with young children as a means of preventing bad toddler behaviour on the premises.

Feedback from pubgoers included remarks such as “I am sick of going into a pub and feeling I’m at play school.” Another noted: “No longer can one enjoy an adult evening without feeling that one is dining in a crèche.” Others blamed undisciplined parents for the problem. The guide states: “This is a peculiarly British problem – in continental restaurants and cafés it’s normal to see families with children, not normal to see kids spoil things for grown-ups. So we have considerable sympathy with the landlord of one Sussex pub who told us he had decided that it ‘just didn’t suit children’, as he didn’t want to do plates of chips or burgers, and didn’t want to have to look after customers’ children while they had a meal and a few drinks.”

Alisdair Aird, who also edits the guide, said: “We confess that we can’t see an easy solution. It’s easy to say we could start treating parents who let their children run riot with the disdain normally reserved for lager louts. But would that have any impact on people who think they are entitled to a thoroughly relaxed family day out? And can you imagine the retort when a publican asks a badly behaved family to quieten their children – ‘We’ve just spent over 50 quid here, do you want us to leave without paying?’.”

On a cheery note, however, pub food prices are being kept in check – in the past year the average food prices are up only 2 per cent. The average cost of a main meal at a good pub across the country is £11.51, compared with £11.39 last year. Average starters cost £5.50 compared with £5.20 last year and puddings are now £4.71, from £4.58 in 2007. The cheapest pub food is in the West Midlands, which is also home to the cheapest pint.

Surrey is the most expensive for food and beer, with a pint costing about £2.88. Also expensive for food are pubs in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Kent, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Berkshire. Ms Stapley said: “These prices are fair if the food on offer is of the right quality.”

The most popular pub food is steak pie in its many forms – steak and kidney, steak and ale, steak and mushroom – fish and chips and steak. The price of a really good rare-breed steak might be as much as £17 and it appeared impossible to find a steak under £10. Prices of fish and chips varied from £4.49 to £13.75 and a steak and ale pie from £4.50 to £13.50.

This year’s winner of the Pub of the Year 2009 was The Golden Heart, near Brimpsfield, Gloucestershire, for its “affordable food, good beers, welcoming atmosphere and bags of character”.

— The Good Pub Guide 2009 is published by Ebury Press and released today at £15.99. The Tom Cobley in Spreyton, Devon, was Beer Pub of the Year.

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