Leave your phone aside, get a free meal at this restaurant

Diners will be urged to hand over their mobiles phones while they dine.

Parting with your mobile phones even for a few minutes can be heartbreaking. Checking emails, posting check-ins, uploading pictures on social media or simply fiddling the phone, diners at restaurants are often seen immersed into their phones oblivious of their surroundings.
To try and provide some quality family time, a restaurant chain Frankie and Benny's has come up with a 'No Phone Zone' where diners will be urged to hand over their mobiles phones while they dine. Parents who agree to surrender their smartphones into a box for safekeeping will be rewarded with free kids meals.
The restaurant's unique idea is based on research showing many children are eager for their parents to spend less time on their smartphones. Concerned over this, a Frankie and Benny's spokesman said, "We've found giving families the chance to part with their devices for a mere couple of hours is a great way to bring them closer and embrace family time."
The restaurant chain commissioned a survey of 1,500 parents and children and found that almost a quarter of parents admitted to checking their phone during mealtimes, while one in ten children said they had hidden their parents' digital devices in a bid to get their undivided attention.
The American restaurant chain's 250 restaurants will run the promotion until December 9 and could even make it a permanent provided the customer feedback is positive, MSN quoted the BBC reports. Frankie and Benny's refuted local media claims that the move was a "ban" on smartphones. "Our staff are actively encouraging customers and families to take part in the campaign, but of course, we can't force them to hand over their phones," the restaurant spokesperson was quoted as saying in The Independent.
Delighted over the move, parenting coach and parenting expert, Sue Atkins, said, "We live in a busy, fast paced 24/7 digitally connected world, unless we consciously plan not to be, so I love the idea of families sitting together, eating and chatting together away from screens."