That being said, when you go to a restaurant you MUST ensure your children behave in a suitable manner.
Here are some examples of non suitable behavior.
At a family friendly restaurant there was a children's party happening up the back of the restaurant. As soon as we sat down we could see that even though the party was at the back of the restaurant the children from that party had taken over the place. They were running up and down the restaurant, in between tables and around other patrons while the adults and staff didn't nothing. One child nearly ran into me and I sternly told him he needs to walk inside the restaurant. Some moments later one of the children at the party realised that if he sucked air in through the straw they'd all been given with their drinks it made a high pitched whistling sound. So all the children start tooting on their straws which was seriously irritating, high pitched and loud and one child asks his mum, "Is this a whistle?" to which I stood up and yelled across the restaurant, "No it's not!" Finally parents and staff get a backbone and begin ordering the children to sit down and behave.
At another family restaurant there was a mum and dad with a baby boy in a high chair, around 1, with 3 year old girl. They had clearly gone out for a night off, not having to cook or wash dishes and in this case even tidy up after or actually feed their children. The parents had given their children plates of spaghetti bolognese to eat with their hands. As you can imagine these young children eating with their hands with no parental supervision what so ever resulted in the food going everywhere and I mean everywhere! Looked like they'd been having a food fight on and under that table. Come time to go the parents got up and left that despicable mess for the staff to clean. I felt bad for the staff having to deal with that big sty and was annoyed at those parents because they wouldn't leave their own kitchen table that messy, why do that to someone else! If I'd gone to their house and left that mess for them they'd never have me back.
A friend of mine who works at a restaurant experienced a similar situation with the parents leaving an ungodly mess for the staff to clean up. This friend said the same thing I said, you wouldn't do it to your own place, don't do it to someone else. It is NOT the job of waitresses to clean up messes like that. They are there to take your order and bring your food and drinks. Not pick piles of pasta up off the floor. And it is your job as parents to make sure you and your children treat that place as if it were your own. If your rule is to sit at the table and eat over the plate (which it should be) then those rules apply when you're out. Again you're raising adults and adults need to sit down at the table and eat over their plates. Some mess is ok but too much mess is you not being diligent enough and not teaching table manners.
A mum and her friend are in a restaurant with their children who are not behaving, not sitting, not eating, not doing what they're told. The mums keeps making idol threats, "Do this or we're leaving, do that or no dessert." Even though the children fail to do as asked again and again the mothers don't leave AND the kids get dessert! If you're not going to uphold your threats stop talking! Not just because other adults have to listen to you be weak and soft with your children but because your children KNOW you're a liar! You have no intention of following through on your threats and they're going to get away with misbehaving.
Of course if you really can't control your children, get them to behave at restaurants and be respectful of staff, other patrons and the rules... then maybe don't take your children to restaurants.
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