How to take a photo at indoor restaurant

Hi I'm a newbie.
I need some advise. I wanted to take some family photo at the restaurant tonight but I always ended up with a very yellowish kinda photo finish with my SlR.
Somehow the flash that comes with the Slr is never as good as my wife Point and shoot camera.

Now, I recently upgrade to a 50d and hoping some of you can give me few tips on the usage.

Btw, I tried to do the white balance adjustment but with success. Any more suggestion is greatly appreciate.

turn up your ISO and get an external flash.

I'm afraid that you've run out of time.

External that I have but I was hoping I didn't have carry another item. I have 3 small children and again compare the point and shoot, I just wish it can handle better.
Thanks for the suggestion though

use a point and shoot.

Fast lens like a 50/1.8 and high ISO will usually do the trick. It makes for a relatively light and compact setup too. Shoot raw so you can easily adjust the white balance and/or push the exposure when you get home.

The yellow cast in your shots most likely is from the incorrect white balance. Mixed indoor lighting as you are apt to find in a restaurant is tricky. I'd strongly suggest you shoot in raw. That way you can adjust the white balance quite easily in post-processing.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Obviously tonight was not gonna happen. I honestly don't know how to shoot raw and post adjustment. Few years ago I took a class on PS but because lack of practice, I mostly have forgotten most of it. Is there a good book to learn post mod on raw photo and what would be a good program for recreation user?
Thx again.

Digital Photo Professional, the program that came with your camera, can handle RAW images. It has several settings you can experiment with as well as an eye dropper that you can pick an area of your image that should be white, black or gray. It will adjust the image white balance according to the sample you select.

Check it out. Take a few pics in your kitchen with your camera set to RAW. Then play with them in DPP.

when your camera is on; click the menu button.

and under quality (or rather, next to); you can select what images are produced (I now use both RAW and JPG.. mainly, as I just worked it out an hour ago :P )