Our Nine Best Kid-Friendly Restaurants in NYC (Plus One in New Jersey)

By Robert Sietsema Fri., Sep. 10 2010 at 8:00 AM

Categories: Our 10 Best, Sietsema

The wacky windows at Cowgirl Hall of Fame have been entertaining kids for upward of two decades.

Bulletin boards and blogs are filled with endless discussions of which restaurants to bring children to, and which to avoid. Some sites favor places that concentrate on simple-minded food like peanut butter or mac and cheese, neglecting the fact that our children are the gourmets of the future, and should be offered as broad a range of culinary experiences as possible. Others only pick places with a theme -- the execrable Mars 2112 is a popular choice -- figuring that the youngsters will be dazzled. They won't.

Our list begins with the assumption that the food eaten by parent and child alike must be absolutely killer. Furthermore, at no place can it take longer than an hour to eat -- you know how fidgety adults can be. The places we suggest also have food that's not too fussy, decor that's not too fragile, and lower noise levels than usual, to facilitate intergenerational verbal interaction.

Here, then, find our favorite places to take kids.