Where to take kids for dinner in Santa Monica?

[jeeg]

We're going to be in Santa Monica this weekend and would love a couple of recommendations for good restaurants for dinner that are kid friendly. They dont have to be geared towards kids, just have an ambiance, price and food selections that are conducive. Any cuisine will do. Most appreciated.

[pcs]

border grill treats kids well. reel inn on the pch works great for kids.... plenty of daylight, head up to malibu seafood. tacos por favor a family fave as well

[yogachik]

Kids love California Pizza Kitchen. Next to the Promenade on Wilshire.

Montana Avenue is all kid-friendly, one after the other.

Avoid any restaurant on the Promenade itself (expensive and lousy tourist traps), but surrounding it are lots of great places like Jinky's, Jack and Jill's, Border Grill, Umami Burger (at Fred Segal), Houston's.

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Border Grill
1445 4th St., Santa Monica, CA 90401

Fred Segal
500 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90401

Jinky's Cafe
8539 W Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069

Umami Burger
850 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036

California Pizza
16960 Van Buren Blvd Ste D, Riverside, CA 92504

[Emme]

second counter as well.

how adventurous are your kids? open to anything aside from standard fare?

italian - fritto misto is kid-friendly.

places on montana are very kid-friendly like cafe montana and 17th st cafe and babalu

[wienermobile]

Two places my kids love are the original The Counter, for custom made hamburgers and great shakes on Ocean Park Blvd. in SM. Or maybe Baby Blue BBQ right next to Santa Monica in Venice for good BBQ and mac and cheese

http://www.thecounterburger.com/
http://www.babybluesvenice.com/#/home

[bulavinaka]

>>Or maybe Baby Blue BBQ right next to Santa Monica in Venice for good BBQ and mac and cheese<<

And some great eye-candy as well. :) I even caught my 10 year-old son checkin' out the candy jars. :) The kids will probably like the creamed spinach, corn and the banana pudding too. As long as they're meat-eaters, the baby backs are a slam dunk. I don't know if kids still drink Kool-Aid, but either way, they have that too.

Great call on The Counter as well. I'm not a huge fan of their burger patties but I really like the concept and the menu works for everyone. Our kids also like Lemonade on Abbot Kinney and Venice Blvds in Venice. They take surprisingly well to most of the salads, love the mac&cheese, sandwiches and stews, and of course the desserts and lemonades.

http://www.lemonadela.com/locations/l...

[wienermobile]

I second Lemonade. Great tasting and on the healthy side.

[bulavinaka]

Great tasting and on the healthy side - especially their pot roast and mac&cheese sandwich! ;)

[Phurstluv]

That sandwich is killer....My kids also loved the Counter, we go to the one in MDR.

I've taken my kids for mexican at Lula's on Main St. It's was decent, fresh food. Haven't made it to Casa Linda yet on AK in Venice.

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Casa Linda
1357 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291

[coffeebrownies]

I just noticed Tavern's very appealing children's menu--although it is in Brentwood, which is adjacent to Santa Monica. I don't have direct experience with brinigng kids there, but others might.

[gordo26]

Kay n Dave's on 26th is fairly kid friendly. The staff must see a lot of kids since they have plenty of crayons available.

Also La Grande Orange Cafe on Main street is great since kids eat free until six on saturday and sunday.