Tips For Dinning Out With Kids

While taking road trips as a family we often find ourselves eating out and looking for some of our favorite restaurants on the road that we have found to be family friendly. Today I thought I’d share with you a few of our favorites as well as my survival Restaurant kit that I have used over the years.

Favorite Family Dinning

Our latest favorite restaurant is Sweet Tomato (Soup Plantation). We had our first experience at this great family friendly restaurant last week while on our road trip to Cali. We arrived to a very busy restaurant, which gave us a hint this just might be a good choice for our family. As we began down the salad buffet I could see the look on my kids faces that this was going to be one yummy meal for them. The large assortment of fresh salads and toppings, huge variety of homemade soups, breads, muffins, tasty pizza and pastas along with fruit, jell-o, puddings and to top it all off every 30 minutes they walk around with FRESH out of the oven homemade chocolate chip cookies. By the end of our meal we were already making plans of how we could stop in on our way back home for their Sunday brunch that has a yummy sounding menu.
WIN: Watch 24/7 MOMS Live this Tuesday night for your chance to WIN a FREE meal for your family at Sweet Tomato.
One of our all time favorite hamburger restaurants is Sonic Drive-in . We have visited Sonic in Washington, Idaho, Arizona, California, Oregon . We Google a Sonic location whenever we travel. We enjoy their onion rings, milkshakes and variety of burgers and sandwiches. Something for everyone.

Our favorite bargain place to eat is Subway and their $5.00 subs. With 7 mouths to feed this is defiantly a bargain pace to eat for us. Their large variety of sandwiches along with pizza (at select locations) appeals to our family.

When my girls and I spend the day shopping we like to visit Olive Garden for soup and salad or a yummy tempting pasta dish. Their fresh hot bread sticks are also a favorite of ours.
Where does your family like to dine out?
Dinning Out Fun- DIY Restaurant Kits
Years ago I created a Restaurant Kit -tote for my kids to keep them busy as we waited for our meals to be served when dinning out. I have changed the contents as they have grow-up .
Instructions:
Purchase a closeable plastic tote with a handle (check local dollar stores). Or other type of bag or container.

Personalize / decorate tote with paint pens (optional)
Collect items to place into your tote.

Tote content ideas:
Crayons
Markers
Pens and pencils
Mini coloring books
Mini notepads
Word search books
Stickers
Index cards for coloring / tic-tac-toe
Small games, toys
Playing cards
Pipe cleaners (for creating things)
Play-doh
Silly Putty
Slinkies
Handi-wipes
Mom Tip: # 1 Leave Restaurant kit in your car so you are prepared for those family dinning out times. Remember to re-fill your kits when needed.
Mom Tip: #2 These kits are also great for taking along to Doctor visits or other situations that your kids need to play quietly.

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7 Responses

  1. Ah…Sweet Tomatoes…haven't been there for a while, but when we lived in Atlanta we LOVED that place!

    Reply

  2. AMEN sista! Boy do I wish I could take you to restaurants when I meet with them! I dream of the day when the restaurants have the DIY kits so you don't have to bring them. I'm trying…

    Reply

  4. That is a GENIUS idea! I can't believe I never thought of that!!! With two toddler boys, we've been sticking with McDonalds when we go out to eat *gag* because it's the only place with a play place. Not anymore!

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  5. Hi Trish,
    I met you at BlogHer in the HP/MomFluence party. We talked about book reviews & it was a pleasure to meet you. I thought I'd drop you a line and say HI! I agree with your restaurant choices. I love Sweet Tomatoes, but am sad as the only close one is in Schaumburg (north of Chicago) so my friend & I go there to eat every time we go shopping at IKEA. I hope you made it safely home from the conference and hope to hear from you soon 🙂

    mel

    Reply

  6. During the warmer months I either keep ours by the front door so the crayons don't melt OR I take the crayons out:)

    Reply

  7. I love the restaurant kit idea! We use a good amount of play-doh at school, though, and I just can't imagine leaving that mess for a server to clean up. Tosha's favorite place to eat is Golden Corral because she likes to pick her own food.

    Reply

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