Patch Picks: Kid-Friendly Restaurants

Patch Picks is a weekly feature highlighting editor and reader picks of great local businesses, destinations, services, organizations, ways to spend a day off and more.

You’ll find useful lists to help you, your family, friends and significant others find the best places for everything from Sunday brunch to New Year’s Eve celebrations, pumpkin patches, date-night destinations, florists, girlfriend nights out, kids party places, parks and more.

Kid-Friendly Restaurants: Taking the kids out for a meal? Chuck E. Cheese isn’t your only option, but, hey, it is an option. Here are five great Cupertino restaurants that welcome kids.

Elephant Bar has something for just about everyone, including kids. The restaurant is large with plenty of space for the entire family. The kids menu includes a great variety of choices, such as chicken quesadilla, jumbo corn dog, chicken and veggie stir fry, mac & cheese and burgers. The kids will happily clean their plates and then dig into a strawberry, hot fudge or red-velvet chocolate cupcake sundae.

Aqui is a popular restaurant. Kids love the food, and parents love the prices and the natural and organic ingredients. Both the adult and kids menus include an eclectic mix of flavors. Kids can enjoy a bean and cheese burrito, a “chicken bowl” with chicken, cheese, whole beans and green rice, a beef or chicken teriyaki bowl, cheese quesadillas and enchiladas.

It’s a family entertainment wonderland.  It’s full of games and other forms of entertainment for the kids so parents can relax and enjoy their pizza in a slice of self-contained, safe heaven. It’s not all about pizza though; there’s a salad bar and sandwiches, too.

Hobee’s is well-known for the enormous servings of blueberry coffeecake. A family of four could easily share one piece and not feel deprived, but parents can use this as an opportunity to act as if the restaurant visit is a special occasion and let the kids each have their own. There are plenty of meal options, including sandwiches, soups, salads, burgers, pasta, quesadillas and, of course, breakfast items.

Sit and listen; the plate of fajita fixin's you hear sizzle past your ear soon after being seated sets the tone. This isn’t a place where you have to whisper or constantly remind the kids to use their indoor voices—the restaurant is already loud, so if the kids get a little excited over that molten chocolate cake being delivered to the table next door, nobody will notice.