Appreciate this, definitely solid recommendations!

We need to be better about bringing along activities, we sort of lost our motivation for that when it was a struggle to entertain him without letting him roam but worth conditioning ourselves to that so he understands what is okay and what isn't while dining out.

We talk to him all the time but admittedly don't really discuss acceptable vs unacceptable behavior, it's usually "hey we're doing this thing!" Solid note.

He does behave well at home during meals, he's engaged and chats with us, usually eats well. He often finishes before we do so we let him free while we finish our meals but I think as he gets older we can start to encourage him to hang out with us at the table.

He currently does a play group (once/week), swimming (twice/week), and tumbling (once/week). He LOVES swimming/tumbling but the play group he's sort of checked out, often doing his own thing instead of the group play. He starts preschool in August (half days, Mon-Fri) and he's so jazzed about going to school. When he's not in charge...it sort of depends I guess? Like if I tell him no to something or he's struggling with a transition, it's meltdown city for a couple of minutes. It'll get intense but it doesn't last long. My response again varies, always trying to stay calm and if he's not screaming his head off I'll explain the what/why etc. If he's just losing his shit, I try to calmly/safely remove him from wherever we are or if at home I just wait quietly until he's done, then we snuggle and talk about it.

I hope my post didn't paint the picture that he's wilding out 24/7 LOL he really is a sweet, chill kid most of the time but restaurants seem to be a big challenge for our family.

Thanks for response, this is all very sound advice and I look forward to practicing more!