Custom Itinerary: Foodie Favorite New York Restaurants with Kids - My Family Travels
meals_chinese_dimsum
chinatown-boy-orders
chintown-east-market-dim-sum_0

Q.  What happens when real foodies come to New York to chow down but have fussy eaters in tow?  Two things usually. 
# 1. Parents get childcare through their hotel and go out in the evening for a long, leisurely and expensive, to-die-for meal. And / Or
# 2. They go ethnic and bring the kids along.

A.  If you're traveling with teens the list of superb dining expands enormously, as most New York City kids have been raised to enjoy and behave in fine restaurants. There are plenty of restaurant review sites like Zagat, Yelp and Chowhound who keep up with the latest and greatest eateries and their star chefs, but for us, you can't go wrong with a family celebration at  le Bernardin, Blue Hill, Per Se, Nobu or The Moderne

For more moderately priced but terrific gourmet fare, try Benoit, the bargain yet very elegant bistro of Alain Ducasse; kids will love the roast chicken and frites.

Another favorite is Café Frida, an inexpensive and casual outpost of gourmet chef Ricard Sandoval’s Mexican food empire (parents alone can try Pamplona). There are 2 locations on the Upper West Side (1 just a block from the Museum of Natural History) and they have lots of favorites, like guacamole and chips, fajitas, etc. but also many more unusual entrees that you’ll enjoy. Great margarita menu, too. Service is good but not fussy and kids are very welcome. 

If you love the cooking of Danny Meyer (of The Moderne and many others), try any outlet of Shake Shack for cheap burgers and shakes, or all the concessions at Citifield, the baseball stadium of The Mets in Queens.

My whole family loves to eat well, and we love ethnic cuisine, so we'll hop the subway to Queens to the Jackson Diner for Indian food, or go up to Dominick's in the Bronx, or out to Brooklyn to eat at Vinegar Hill — kids are welcome at all.  New York has so many great ethnic restaurants that we avoid the touristy midtown diners and ‘cute’ pizza places (though we love Two Boots).

But when all is said and done, the place we take every family who comes to visit us is East Market, in the backstreets of Chinatown across from a playground under the Manhattan Bridge. Upstairs at East Market in a mirrored ballroom, a few hundred Chinese families revel in dim sum daily from 10am-3pm. Smiling waitresses push big carts of steaming dumplings, soups and custard desserts with paper umbrellas in them down the aisles. Kids can go up to the grill and pick out taro cakes or grilled meat and watch it being cooked, or you can order from the limited menu that includes lots of kid-friendly rice noodle dishes. East Market at 75-85 East Broadway, between Market & Henry Street; 212-732-8886 – F train stops at East Broadway one block away.

Here are more ideas for places to eat in Chinatown for foodies who want to branch out to Fukianese, Japanese, Vietnamese or Shanghainese cuisines.
 

 

Dear Reader: This page may contain affiliate links which may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Our independent journalism is not influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative unless it is clearly marked as sponsored content. As travel products change, please be sure to reconfirm all details and stay up to date with current events to ensure a safe and successful trip.

2 Replies to “Custom Itinerary: Foodie Favorite New York Restaurants with Kids”

  • nguyenrobert

    I poured my heart and soul into this!!! Hope you people enjoy! =)

  • kindercore

    Wow, this is wonderful! You are so lucky to have gotten this opportunity. You looked absolutely gorgeous at the show and the red carpet. Thanks for sharing this, it really made me smile. I used to have the biggest crush on Joe Jonas.. hahah!

  • juliakristine12

    Amazing trip!

  • jsapijaszko

    I hope that my story will inspire and enrich your lives; even if it doesn’t touch you as much as it has touched me. I hope that this will be passed on and that people will take a few minutes just to read what I had to say and try to be in the mind of these children. Try to change your day and see your house, your possessions, your income, and those many great things that you possess and find a way to share them with others. We all need a wakeup call sometimes, a message to straighten us out and look at the life we were given. I hope to go back next year to repeat the experience all over again and try to change myself even more, I love those children and I love their compassion and selflessness. Words can’t fully express what I felt or what I witnessed but my words are clear, these people see the world much differently than us, they treat possessions differently and they know how to work as a community.

  • Broncosfan102

    This is about when my family and I took a trip down to Central Florida for our Family Vacation.

  • Kendylpearson

    Hope you enjoy!

  • Adria394

    This was a vacation that taught me a lot about how my religion is organzied and gave me more appreciation for it.

  • hero1133

    I will never forget the time I spent in Germany.

  • paramorechick_3

    I hope you guys enjoyed my story!

  • Fernandinho

    Best luck.

  • Fernandinho

    I give the best luck to my paper to be found in a good hands, and be successful.

     

     

  • GWtheW1

    South Africa is this amazing country that not only is beautiful for its animals and scenery but for its people and for its ability to overcome the greatest oppression: apartheid, the discrimination of the majority. I am so glad I was given the gift of traveling to South Africa. It is an experience I will never forget!

  • YomaLuv

    It was a great trip!

  • Frenchfry3

    I hope everyone who takes the time to read The Awakening enjoys learning about my bus ride to reality.

  • ninja2643

    My typed essay about my vacation in Vietnam. It seem poorly written or should I say typed :\

  • bgray

    Bryan Gray Europe Tour.

  • christophernaso

    My vacation to Panama became suprisingly meaningful, contrary to what I had initially expected.

     

  • GoDuke94

    This was a fun and yet difficult project i truely have enjoyed sharing my vaction with you.

    Mahalo,

  • colinm64

    Have you ever been to Maine? What did you like best?

  • paigemawhinney

    This is such an amazing story and essay!!

  • cwilson

    Their were many more memories from this trip that impacted me as much as the ones that were included, but I just didnt have enough room. So, I shortened it and tried to write the best description of the trip without exceeding the word limit. But the trip was, indeed, as remarkable as I said it was.

  • Brittanyshim

    Washington is a really nice place. It has many museums and historical places. it also has very delicious foods. Chinatown was my favorite place to eat.

  • LydiaZhu

    Thank you for this scholarship opportunity!

  • LydiaZhu

    IB York was a great experience, and a great opportunity to explore new ideas and innovations

  • rodeostar94

    So now I head to college without my classmates but i will always have this wonderful experience.

  • ashpepp

    This is one of my many travel adventure stories from my trip to Europe in the beginning of the summer. Besides Prague, I traveled to Berlin, Munuch, and Nuremberg in Germany, Innsbruck in Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and France. My favorite place was Switzerland, but my favorite story was the one I shared. I hope you enoy reading it as much as i enjoyed experiencing it!

  • aliash747

    I want everyone to be able to expericence something like I did.:) Everyone desevers happines!

  • beachcrystal

    I hope you enjoyed my travel blog and I hope you plan to take your mom to the Peaks of Otter Lodge for the best brunch you will ever eat. For more information click on this link:

    http://www.peaksofotter.com/ 

     

  • kiana.roberson

    Finished product. I love PERU!

  • winterchild2

    This eye-opening opportunity has shaped my conviction toward making change and developing the community. It is a great pleasure to meet all those Leadership Award Honorees and other49 ANNpower fellows from 24 states in the U.S. I will continue to make change and build a dynamic community, excursively to ethnic, social, political gender aspects of advantage, as my milestone to become a great leader! 

  • winterchild2

               This eye-opening opportunity marks the culmination of my junior year. I am so glad to meet all those wonderful women leaders from all around the world and 49 other ANNpower fellows from other 24 states. I will continue to explore the world and make change with eagerness and confident, and overcoming disadvantage exclusively toward the milestone of a great leader!

  • melodee_groesz

    I hope everyone enjoys my trip to Catalina and Ensenada!

  • dianasida

    This trip was the best trip regarding family time. It is unforgettable.

  • MirandaElliott

    To see more photography from the trip, check out my photojournal: http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Photojournal-of-My-Grecian-Travels/213497035367351.

  • TMartin

    What a testimony!! Thanks for posting. You don't know how impactful this is. Let Jesus keep using you for His glory. 😉

    I was saved in August of 2009. I was in my parents's room and we all prayed for m, becuase I was tired of not having a desire for God. There I gave my life to Him and let Him be my Lord. I already excepted Him as Savior, but though it was a license to sin. Thatt day, though I wanted to repent of my sin and let God lead me. Lord and Savior go hand-in-hand. My life is changed. Now I have convictions and am learning so much about seeking God, because He is seeking me. It's awesome to live in the security and hope of knowing I will see Him one day in heaven. I am so glad He lives in me, because my goodness outside of Him is nothing. I don't know what I would do without Him.

  • TMartin

    Jesus used that park to bring you and your dad back together. How beautiful 🙂

  • riolivingwater

    Each place I go, I leave a peice of myself. And everyplace I go leaves a peice of itself in me. The people I have met along the way have changed me in the deepest way. Their lives have touched mine and I can never return to life as was usual. Likewise, my life has touched many along the way. It is my hope that nobody I meet along the way may return to life as was their usual. This is how each thead pulls coth and fabric together as we the people of the world cover it like a quilt. We must double stitch each peice so not to fall apart or leave holes. We need one another. 

  • thunald

    To whoever reading this, I am the person wearing blue shirt and white shorts, sligtly leaning on the panda bear statue.

  • StrawberryTravel4

    My essay that talks about my experience traveling to Lima, Peru aims toward encouraging others who are not too familiar with it to visit and appreciate the fun life changing experience they're gauranteed to get.

  • justin_nolen

    What a great contest!  Hope to see lots of terrific teen travel stories here!

  • snoopygirl808

    It was difficult for me to type a 600 word blog about an amazing experience I had in the month of July. It was also difficult for me to choose certain pictures from the ones that I have chosen, so I uploaded the pictures of my time at NeiHu elementary school. I really wished that I could have used more sightseeing photos, but unfortunately, those were too big to upload.

  • crazybluebunny

    This trip was amazing and it also tested who I am becoming as a person.  Seeing the woman in Central Park living out her dream, to the woman selling fruit throughout the day; New York is made of dreamers and hardworking people.  I loved it.  Hope I get the chance to go back.

  • lizk10345

    This was an amazing experience!  I am so grateful for everything it taught me!!

  • TravelerDE

         From research, I believe the ice cream shop was called Eisdiele Eddy. More information about the exchange program can be found at http://www.aatg.org/study-trip-faq as well as at the bottom of the page at http://www.aatg.org/NGE-awards

  • dylanmuller

    These Picutures are both of my own creation (one being an acrylic painting). When I took this picture at the western wall in Israel, the man in the photo was crying his heart out wearing a tattered down bath robe, I thought it would make for an intersting picture. So it did, it also inspired to me to create a painting in which I showed the world what I believe he really is. A man who is down on his luck but seems to still find peace in his life.

  • YetzaNoyola

    My sophomore year of high school I went to Donner Pass in California with a group called The Woods Project (www.thewoodsproject.org) . I had to apply to go , I was really anxious and scared that I wasn’t going to get. When I got my acceptance letter I was excited. I was also nervous because I had never been away from home for more than a week and The Woods project was going to last for two weeks. I had chosen to go to Donner Pass because I wanted to experience something new. I was going to go backpacking for one week and hiking the other. I had never gone backpacking before. When I told my friends that I was going backpacking they started to laugh because I am the smallest girl in my whole school and they didn’t think I was going to make it. Getting that response from my friends made me super scared of going to the trip. I thought I was going to die while backpacking!

    My dad went to go drop me off at the airport and then he left. I was already scared and freaking out at the fact that he had just left me there and I did not know anybody! . I got in the plane to California and I was already regretting going on the trip. I was going to be with complete strangers for two weeks! When we got to California we all got split .There were three groups going to different places, one to Yosemite, another to Marine Headlines and then mine, to Donner Pass. I got in a van and that’s where I met the people who I was going to spend two weeks with. We were in that van for hours! When we finally got to our cabin we had to go up a hill to get to the door.

    The first cabin we stayed in was named Clair Tappan Lodge. It was really nice . It was made out of wood, had a pool table, personal chef, jacuzzi and hot water in the showers. I loved it there! Too bad it only lasted for two days then it was time to go backpacking. They gave us our backpacking materials. I tried on the backpack and almost fell over. My backpacking week had started. We went up and down mountains, through rivers and lakes, and I thought we were never going to set up our tents. When it started to get dark we finally started cooking. The food we had was not good at all. We couldn’t bring a lot of food because of the bears and other animals. My second day of backpacking went better than the first. Everybody in my group started to know each other better and soon we became really close. We would sing while backpacking to make time pass faster and at night we didn’t want to sleep because we would play games. While backpacking I got to experience many things I hadn’t before. Even though I was the smallest girl going backpacking I was always the leader of the line because of my stamina.

    When our backpacking week ended it was time to hike. I had gotten the hardest part of the trip over with so I knew hiking was going to be a piece of cake. We would hike in the morning and hanged out at night. It was the best experience I had ever had! When it was time to go back home I didn’t want to because I knew I would miss my friends.

    To watch my video go to : http://youtu.be/FLd7W71EnyU  

     

  • jessicaburros

    My experience as a first time camper.

  • levincentclark

    i hope i win