The Best Kid-Friendly Restaurants?
Parents magazine has released its list of ten best family restaurants (warning: extremely naggy, ad-ridden website). At the number one spot: Legal Sea Foods. Not bad. “The greatest thing about Legal’s kids’ menu: Even if your child insists on ordering the chicken fingers or grilled cheese, they arrive with grapes and corn on the cob,” they write. My first thought was, “Even in February? What kind of lesson does that teach?” but possibly I’m outside the target audience.
The rest of the Parents list (not necessarily in order): Chili’s, Mimi’s, Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes, Red Robin, Old Spaghetti Factory, Claim Jumper, P. F. Chang’s, Denny’s, and Uno. (Plus many runners-up.)
My reaction to this list is basically selfish: I don’t like most of these restaurants, so why would I take my kid to one as long as we can come up with a restaurant that we’ll both like? Then again, I know millions of adults do like these restaurants, so maybe they’ll find this useful, if they can slog through Parents’ website.
I’ve been taking my daughter to restaurants since she was a couple weeks old, and the most kid-friendly restaurants in our experience are local Mexican, Chinese, and Japanese places, the kinds that wouldn’t make sense to round up in a national magazine. But our favorite sushi place is part of a local chain, Blue C Sushi, so I’m not philosophically opposed to chain restaurants.
For another take on the list, see Rebekah Denn’s blog in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Denn points out, for example, that chain restaurants generally make life easier for people with food allergies than do independent restaurants.
About the author: Matthew Amster-Burton lives in Seattle. His work appears frequently in the Seattle Times and Seattle magazine. He also maintains the blog Roots and Grubs. His favorite food is pad Thai.
View other entries from Cooking With Kids.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
10 Comments:
Those chain restaurants are largely irrelevant for a New Yorker like me. I'd like to see a list somewhere of kid-friendly places in New York City. Anyone know of such a thing?
I'll start one here with my recommendation: Ditmas Park's The Farm on Adderley, in addition to being a great restaurant, is also very kid friendly especially earlier in the evenings.
jamieforrest at 11:31AM on 06/30/08
I haven't actually read the book _Frommer's New York City with Kids_, but I know the author and she's a serious foodie, so I assume the restaurant section goes way beyond Times Square. And it was updated last year. That's probably a good place to start.
On our last trip to New York, my wife and daughter had a fabulous time at Geido sushi in Park Slope. I couldn't make it, because I had an appointment at Ssam Bar. Poor me, I know.
mamster at 12:01PM on 06/30/08
This list could also be called "10 places lo82070 will avoid like the plague". I hate "kid-friendly" and "family" restaurants - screaming misbehaved brats have ruined too many meals...
lo82070 at 12:59PM on 06/30/08
tell us how you really feel lol
sweetpotato at 1:42PM on 06/30/08
@ sweetpototo - Sorry, that sounds super harsh and bitchy. But I do just wanna say seriously people, control your kids!!
lo82070 at 2:01PM on 06/30/08
Control is such a relative thing. There have been times in my daughter's life when the fact that she wasn't at your table, eating your breadsticks, showed that I was controlling her to the best of my ability. Even if she was at my table, shrieking her tender heart out.
I have written fairly often about the "family-friendly" chains. I live 100 miles from Manhattan, in the lovely Hudson River Valley, where the "fine dining" restaurants are extremely expensive and the chains are the most reasonable places to get a full meal and a pleasant evening for all.
(Incidentally, some of my sandwich-generation buddies will tell you that the older folks can be just as negative and behavior-averse in a fancy restaurant as the younger ones).
Chain restos are a great compromise all the way around, and there are better and worse ones available. Legal is terrific. So, in my opinion, is Red Lobster. Red Robin is a great, entertaining place with committed service. Friendly's is popular with everyone, and there's a new place in town, The Texas Roadhouse, which is getting rave reviews.
No one said you have to go anyplace you don't want to, but believe me, there is a real, positive reason for the existence of chain family restaurants.
annien at 10:32PM on 06/30/08
annien, I tried not to be too negative about the chains. The original Red Robin is in my neighborhood, and every time I've been to Red Robin I've enjoyed it.
Red Lobster, though, I went a couple years ago and found the menu and atmosphere extremely unappealing.
mamster at 12:38PM on 07/01/08
@ lo, i was just kidding around trust me i come from a suburb full of spoiled children. i usually do like kids but after working at large store in apparel and watching how some parents look after their children (allow them to knock over things, run around and make a mess in a place of business) i can totally understand
sweetpotato at 5:11PM on 07/01/08
Hey--kids can be completely undisciplined and completely out of place. La Lobster isn't for everyone. I understand.
annien at 7:22PM on 07/01/08
I'll second the Blue C Sushi recommendation.
Rosita's, in Green Lake, is über kid-friendly, as well.
stephen_spencer at 1:48AM on 07/02/08