Going out to eat with kids can be a challenge, but Philadelphia has a host of restaurants that prove you don’t have to sacrifice a great meal for a family-friendly atmosphere. Forget the usual noisy chains with a lackluster kids’ menu. These spots combine delicious food with unique, fun, and memorable settings that are sure to keep everyone happy. From a retro bowling alley with great food to a restaurant on a historic ship, here are some of the best places to take the whole family out for a meal.
Great Places for the Perfect Family Meal in Philly
Honey’s Sit N Eat
This Southern/Jewish brunch mecca opened in Northern Liberties back when Northern Liberties was a sketchy neighborhood few Philadelphians bothered to explore.
Now, NoLibs is booming, and Honey’s has had so much success there, it spawned an offshoot a couple years ago in the family-centric Graduate Hospital hood. This is the one to bring your kids to; it’s big and bright and open all day. The updated diner-style menu includes plates like breakfast quesadillas, matzo ball soup, towering Reubens, tuna melts and a deep-fried banana split featuring battered bananas, chocolate syrup, toasted pecans and fresh whipped cream. Keep in mind: Honey’s is cash-only.
North Bowl
In Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties neighborhood, North Bowl offers a vibrant and unique entertainment experience inside a converted mechanic’s garage. Beyond its 17 lanes of bowling, the venue features a lively, retro-inspired atmosphere with multiple bars, pool tables, and an arcade. It’s a go-to destination for a fun evening, providing classic comfort food and a wide drink selection in a space that is reserved for adults after 8 PM.
Bing Bing Dim Sum
Funky, unorthodox dim sum gets the neighborhood’s graphic artists, indie film producers and jewelry designers in the door at Bing Bing, but it’s actually one of the most family-friendly restaurants on the Avenue. Kids will love the honey-glazed caterpillar bread, hot dogs swaddled in steamed bao and the big booths fashioned out of Chinese wedding beds. Parents will love the soup dumplings, slow roasted short ribs over congee and tiger-strength cocktail pitchers.
Marra’s Cucina Italiana
One of the longest-tenured restaurants on East Passyunk Avenue, this wood-paneled red-gravy hall dates back to 1921 and oozes old-school South Philly charm. Listen carefully, and you can hear the thwack! of the chefs pounding veal cutlets for gigantic parmigianas over the been-there-forever waitresses who will happily coo over your kids. And for moms and dads: The cocktail list has changed so little, it doesn’t even realize its Rob Roys and Rusty Nails are back in style.
Moshulu
Expect your wallet to recoil in pain, but it’s hard to beat the Moshulu in terms of a dramatic setting that kids—especially nautically inclined ones—will, ahem, go off the deep end for.
Built in Scotland in 1904, the Moshulu is the largest and oldest square rigged sailing vessel still afloat—and the only one that houses a full-service restaurant. After a long history transporting lumber, steel and grain to and from San Francisco, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Norway, Ireland and everywhere in between, the ship eventually settled on Penn’s Landing, where it opened as a restaurant in 1975, closed after a fire in ’89 and reopened in ‘96 following a full restoration.
The menu mixes continental throwbacks (iced seafood plateaus, surf and turf) with more on-trend attempts like house-made charcuterie, Rohan duck and kale salad. But really, you’re here for the ambiance. Especially for kids who can be antsy in white-cloth restaurants, the Moshulu provides lots of opportunity for distraction. Take a stroll on the decks between appetizers and entrees, for example. The staff is used to the kind of wonderment and exploratory instinct this big old ship can inspire.
Vietnam Cafe
The Lai family, refugees from Vietnam, came to Philadelphia in the late 1970s: mom, dad and eight kids. They opened a little grocery in West Philly in 1982 and two years later, a dignified sit-down called Vietnam that has become a linchpin in the Chinatown restaurant community.
Benny Lai took over the family business in the late nineties and in 2009 opened Vietnam Café, a casual, joyful offshoot near the original West Philly market. Candy-colored lanterns dangle from the ceiling and mutli-generational families gather at group tables. This is a favorite place for Penn and Drexel students to bring their visiting parents.
Vietnam Cafe is the perfect place to take kids who are slightly adventurous. Though the cooking is authentic and delicious, it’s less hardcore than what you’ll find in South Philly. Think beef-stuffed grape leaves, vermicelli bowls and brisket pho. Order a flaming tiki cocktail (for you, not the kids) for a theatrical thrill.
