Review of the American Girl Bistro Birthday Party

A couple months ago my little lady celebrated her 7th birthday. Nearly a year before, she had declared that on her seventh birthday we would make the pilgrimage to the American Girl Store in Atlanta (technically it's in Alpharetta, GA). Having just spent hundreds of dollars on a birthday party for her and quite a few of her friends I started thinking that her idea of celebrating at American Girl might not be such a bad idea. After all it wouldn't be that much more expensive than what we had just done for her 6th birthday (Build A Bear in case you are wondering) and she could pick out exactly what she wanted. I told her that I liked the idea so long as she understood that going there and picking out a few things would replace her having a birthday party with friends here in town. She was all for it and reminded me frequently right up until the month before her birthday.

Notice I said the month before her birthday. Tip: Don't wait until a month before your child's birthday to schedule a party.

In my defense, I had no idea you could actually have a party in the Bistro. I decided to go ahead and make us just regular dinner reservations for our family of 4 and the family of 4 who graciously offered to allow us to stay with them for the weekend. While I was looking up the phone number on American Girl's website I stumbled upon party options. Honestly, the prices gave me a slight heart attack but my daughter had no clue such a thing as a Bistro party existed so why even consider? I called to make our reservation for dinner and found out that there was nothing, and I mean nothing for the entire day open for a party of 8. I dumped the Dads from our party which got us down to a party of 6. I tried to reserve dinner, lunch, or even tea time but all the reservations were gone. Once again, do not wait until a month before your child's birthday to reserve a table! There was still the brunch option out there so I called and was able to book that for a party of six.

I thought all was fine and we were ready to go but no matter how hard I tried, I could not get that birthday party add-on option out of my mind. All I could think was that she will only turn seven once and what little girl wouldn't want to say they had their birthday party at American Girl complete with a cake and goody bags for their dolls? Typically I am not one to overly splurge but for some reason, this splurge was eating at me. I gave in. So....maybe now this will be a little more than Build A Bear.

Before I move on to tell you about our actual experience, I must tell you about Willis. Willis is my son's American Girl Bitty Baby. That's right, my son's. No, it wasn't always his but over the past year he took a real liking to his sister's doll, renamed it, and made it his best friend. Also, Willis does not like to wear pants. When I called to add on the Bistro party, the operator asked if I was sure my son would want the goody bad which came with a doll size tiara. I assured her that this doll size tiara would be a necessity for Willis.

 Finally the big day arrived. After we all got seated and all the dolls were set up in their little clip-on high chairs, we were given an appetizer of mini cinnamon rolls. Yummy! The girl's and my funny boy asked each other ice breaker questions that were in a little bowl on the table. These were questions like "What is your favorite color" and "What do you dream of doing", etc.... while we waited on our food to arrive. All of the food was typical breakfast fare. I knew we weren't going for the food so it didn't matter to me that is wasn't the greatest breakfast I had ever had. It was good enough for me and no one else complained about it either. I will say that the brown sugar cinnamon apples that come with the Apple French Toast are delicious!

Her first Shirley Temple.

After our meal, the most beautiful birthday cake arrived at our table and the servers gathered around to sing Happy Birthday. My, my those women could sing! They told me they would take the cake away to cut so I was under the assumption that maybe that beautiful cake was just the display for the day that they use at every table and that we would be brought slices from another cake that would be split among other parties on the same day. I was wrong! That whole yummy cake was ours and we were given the remainder in a take home box! Also to add in to the whole experience each girl, and in this case boy, were given a goody bag full of little American Girl goodies for themselves and their doll.

Afterwards we went on a little shopping spree in the store. Family members had given enough birthday money that we were able to walk away with a new doll and several new playsets and accessories. Loving family members also donated some fun money to little brother who chose a new potty seat and training pants for Willis. Finally his bottom is covered.

While we were there I realized that all of this was so much more than eating a meal and going shopping. It truly was an experience because I had added on the birthday option. Would I do it again? My wallet says no but my heart says yes. Who knows, maybe someday we'll even make it to one in another city.

And yeah, Willis proudly sports his light purple "Happy Birthday" shirt that he received in his goody bag that day.

Oh Willis, put some pants on already!