Eating Out With Kids: Child-friendly Restaurants
Our favourite family-friendly restaurant list...continued.
If you think we've missed out a real family gem, let us and other parents know by clicking here.
Cumbria: Gilpin Bridge Inn, Nr Kendal
Keep the kids happy and their parents will have a great time; that's the thinking behind Craig and Melanie Thorpe's award-winning pub. Although there's fish fingers for the fussiest of eaters, all courses can be served in child-sized portions and there's a huge new outdoor adventure playground.
We like: the cupboards full of building bricks to keep little ones happy
Where: Bridge End, Levens, Nr Kendal
Price: £3.75 for choices from the Kids Menu.
Click here for the Gilpin Bridge Inn website
Manchester: Head Over Heels, Chorlton
This huge indoor family experience boasts the perfect combination of children's entertainment and top-notch food. It's no wonder then, that Head Over Heels, was voted as one of the best kids' restaurants in the UK in this year's Observer Food Monthly Food Awards. Let the kids run up an appetite in the play centre and then tuck in at the restaurant, knowing there's no fast food in sight.
We like: the food ethos - locally sourced and freshly cooked.
Where: The Albany Trading Estate, Chorlton, Manchester
Price: Main courses start at £2.95.
Click here for the Head Over Heels website
North West England: Olive Press
Set up by Michelin-starred chef Paul Heathcote, the four branches of Olive Press promise no chicken nuggets on their menus and all the burgers are chargrilled. Instead, kids get involved in the cooking process, by making their own pizzas.
We like: that 29p is donated to Childline for every children’s meal sold.
Where: Preston, Manchester, Liverpool, Warrington and Bolton
Price: £6.99 for a main course and a dessert
Click here for the Olive Press website.
North West England: Ego Restaurants
Based on the premise that the Italians and Spanish know how to eat and have fun, the Ego chain of restaurants promises good food in a laid-back environment and a promise that everything is cooked fresh.
We like: that any dish can be served as a children's portion.
Where: Chester, Heswall, Liverpool and Stockton Heath
Price: £3.95 for two courses with the Little Ego menu
Click here for the Ego restaurant website.
Wales: Talardy Hotel, St Asaph, Denbighshire
Jelly Beans playrestaurant at the Talardy Hotel might not have the most innovative children's menu on the planet - most main courses include chips - but it does have the added bonus of a huge soft play area. If the weather's good, families can eat outside in sight of the sandpit, bouncy castle and toddlers lawn.
We like: that there are two age ranges on the children's menu, taking account of older kids' appetites.
Where: St Asaph, Denbighshire
Price: £7.50 for main courses on the children's menu and £8.95 for meals from the Junior Choice menu.
Click here for the Talardy website.
Scotland: The Bridge Inn, Ratho
One of Scotland’s most-lauded pub for family-friendliness, The Bridge Inn has an extensive children’s menu balancing pizza and cheeseburgers with corn-on-the-cob and melon cocktail. There are child-changing facilities, highchairs and an outdoors playground.
We like: that the fish and chips on the menu is fresh haddock, locally sourced
Where: Ratho, just by the Union Canal, 5 minutes from Edinburgh Airport.
Price: £3.50 for two courses.
Click here for The Bridge Inn website.
Nationwide: Pizza Express
Good fresh food that takes next-to-no-time to cook - what more could any frazzled parent want? Add to that, the fun of seeing the pizza chefs throwing the dough in the sky and you have a combined education/nutrition experience with garlic bread thrown in!
We like: the online restaurant finder showing if baby changing is available
Where: Nationwide
Price: The classic Marguerita starts at just £4.95
Click here for the Pizza Express website
Nationwide: Yellow River Café
Ken Hom’s chain of family-friendly restaurants actively welcomes children – Hom is firmly of the belief that kids should learn to eat healthy food when they’re very young. Food is cooked fresh to order and there are highchairs and babychanging facilities available.
We like: the weekend buffet – great for hungry families.
Where: Islington, Portsmouth, Solihull, Bournemouth, Guildford, Staines, Reading
Price: Children’s bento box, starter, main course, choice of steamed rice or noodles and prawn crackers £5
Click here for the Yellow River Cafe website.
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