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: If you think you need to take your kids to a noisy fast-food joint where greasy food is the star of the menu, think again. Here are five great Santa Cruz restaurants that know how to treat kids right when it comes to the food they (and you) love.

Center Street Grill provides high chairs, boosters and crayons. For breakfast, the kids menu includes a “mouse” pancake with one egg and a piece of bacon, and and French toast or one egg cooked the way your kid likes it, both served with either bacon or sausage. For lunch and dinner, children can choose among entrées such as grilled chicken breast or flank steak, both with a choice of teriyaki or BBQ sauce, and also pizza, pasta with olive oil and parmesan, and hamburgers.

This is a fun restaurant for kids. Waiters bring kids not only crayons but dough to keep them entertained. The pizza crust is delicious with lots of toppings to choose from for the adults, and the all-time kids’ favorite, cheese pizza. Kids will also enjoy the spaghetti and homemade meatballs, cheese raviolis and desserts such as the warm homemade chocolate chip cookies served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. All the pastas and salads can be served family style.

Mamma Lucia is a real family-oriented restaurant. In fact, owner Lucio Fanni wanted to bring an Italian-style family eatery to Santa Cruz, and he’s not only included a kids menu—but a doggie menu as well. Children can enjoy such favorites as pasta with red sauce or butter and cheese, grilled chicken with “fun vegetables,” and cheese pizza. Mom and Dad will find plenty of delicious fresh choices on the menu including gourmet pizzas, a variety of pastas, incredible grilled chicken, and more.

Davenport Roadhouse

Your family will not only enjoy great food at Davenport Roadhouse, but you can make a day of it as you cruise up the beautiful Santa Cruz coastline to this restaurant across from the beaches and cliffs of Davenport. The kids menu includes eggs and bacon, pancakes and French toast for breakfast, and for lunch and dinner, cheese or pepperoni pizza, burgers, chicken fingers, mac and cheese and fish and chips.

If your kids are a little more adventurous, try Shogun, in the heart of downtown Santa Cruz. Once they get past the names, some of the Japanese dishes they might enjoy include yakitori—skewered chicken teriyaki, koroke—fried mashed potatoes, vegetable or shrimp tempura and udon noodle soup. You might even get them to try some sushi!