The 10 Best Restaurants for Families

Dining out is an excellent way to teach children about manners, expose them to new foods, and spend time together without interruptions. But as families fill restaurants in record numbers -- nearly half of parents with 6- to 11-year-olds dine out at least weekly and about one in five do it more often -- several recent studies have found that children and adults consume far more calories, but get fewer nutrients, when they eat at restaurants rather than at home.

To determine which restaurants have the healthiest choices, we embarked on a five-month project, examining the children's menus from more than 125 of the largest full-service, sit-down chains. Each menu was initially evaluated on these basic criteria: whether it contained at least two to four nutritious entrees, depending on the overall number of options; included a vegetable besides french fries; and offered milk among its beverage choices. What we found was horrifying: Most menus are filled with fried main courses and french fries, and when beverages are noted, all offer soda while only two-thirds mention milk. In fact, just 20 menus -- one out of six restaurants -- met our minimum requirements.

Each of these menus was sent to five nutrition experts for evaluation. Their scores were averaged and counted as 75% of a restaurant's grade. The remaining 25% came from the chain's child-friendly activities -- from balloons to birthday clubs -- in addition to its smoking policy, contribution to children's charities and schools, and access to high chairs, booster seats, and diaper-changing tables in both the men's and women's restrooms.

After crunching the numbers, we uncovered restaurants that combine healthy food, great fun, and family-friendly conveniences. Many of them have revamped their children's menu within the last year, so there's hope that their competitors will follow suit.