Healthy places to take your family

[LauraStyles]

Hello everyone!

I'm new here so I might be a bit late to the party here...

I'm looking to find some good, reasonably-priced restaurants for family days out. We live in Brentwood but often go into London at the weekends.
I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find places to eat.

I don't want them on lettuce leaves, but I also don't like to feed my kids fast food- I don't eat it myself and I don't think eating rubbish should be associated with having a 'treat'.

It seems easy to get decent healthy grub for adults, but for children it's always something like stodgy pasta with cheese or pizza.

Any recommendations would be fab. Got 2 LOs plus a hungry husband, so nothing too fancy!

Haha yes I suppose some would say we are quite demanding, though London does have to cater to all kinds of tastes :)

Looks like there is a lot for us all to get our teeth stuck into (literally)!!

I can't imagine kids at Yo Sushi or Wagamama! Your DS has a refined pallet! It does annoy me when you go to some places and the only kids' options are chicken and chips, pizza, sausage and mash... Not very inventive or tasty!

If you are meat free too, then why not consider a vegetarian cafe? Although we do eat meat, when we go out in town we go to a couple of veggie cafes that we know. Nice wholesome veggie food with lots of veg/pulses etc. My gripe with chains is that often the food is carb heavy and not enough veg.

When we go to london we normally go to asian places and choose veg/fish based dishes that are not too spicy.
Japanese places that does Bento boxes are good. Seperate meat or fish, veg and rice, and the kids like it.

My dcs love Wagamama and yo sushi!

laux what kind of food do you find inventive and tasty but would be acceptable to your dcs?

We've always ordered off the adult menu for the kids and split one portion between the two of them when they were younger. Now they're 7 and 5 and have an adult portion each!

How about banana tree or thai square type places?

all the kids I know love yo sushi and wagamama!

sorry me again:

Gallipoli
Carluccios

In fact anywhere where you would like to eat yourself?!

covent garden - fab mexican - cafe pacifico
another mexican called 'Tortilla' - fab dorritos!

My kids are 10 and they still eat a kids size meal or split an adults. I still serve them half of what dh and I have at home.

Snowdown - that's fab and much cheaper

I don't know where ours put it. They're v slim and busy busy so maybe they just burn it off. The 5 year old eats slightly more than the 7!

It's nice to have suggestions, even if they're places I know of. Sometimes they wouldn't spring to mind immediately :) So thank you and hopefully others have found some new places to try, too!

I have tried the banana tree in Angel and can vouch for that - it was lovely. The kids would definitely eat that, but I wouldn't personally class it as a healthy option. Still a great place to eat though :) and they do 2 4 1 a lot of the time, which is fab.

My stomach is rumbling with all this food talk... time to go and raid the cupboards for something not nearly as delicious!

TelephoneTree - That's brill that your kids have such good appetites! I'll have to have a look for Snowdown, never heard of it before.

Yes but we're at that awkward age where they want to choose off the adult menu, have their own meal but can't eat more that half! And then still want an adult sized pudding because the children's choice is too dull but they can't finish that either.

Ahh is it a complex with different places? I thought it was a restaurant - silly me!

Oh wait... nope... you meant a person hahaha oh dear! Back to bed I go!

I'm really struggling to understand the kind of food you are after laux I'm not surprised you are struggling. You want something inventive and tasty but not Asian, not pizza, pasta, burgers chips or salad, not fancy and you need to feed a man who likes to eat generous portions and not expensive- is Lebanese, Turkish, Moroccan too exotic? Have you thought about just taking a picnic?

Where do you go that you rate as meeting all your needs?

ok well how about places like Bills or somewhere where you can pick protein + veg and either take or leave the carbs?

Ie. griled/baked salmon + salad with an extra side of steamed veggies etc etc. I think I know what you're after - just normal fresh food?

Other options might be jamie's italian but to be honest - most places are quite accomodating about leaving stuff out of the advertised dishes...

The Gate on st john's st (nr angel) is a vegetarian restaurant that's meant to be fab and inventive….

Haha oh dear - sorry I didn't mean to sound so picky, just talking (typing) out loud really! All of these suggestions are great - I appreciate everyone chipping in :)

Bill's is a great one!

I didn't mean that you sounded picky I just meant that I am genuinely confused at to what you are after. Now I've just noticed you're veggie too!

Veggie restaurants we've enjoyed include Mildred's in soho. The Gate Hammersmith, Rasa soho and stoke Newington, the Hare Krishna centre on Tottenham court road is well spoken of.

World food cafe in Covent garden too

Never heard of that but sounds promising ..

Just Googled it - wildfoodcafe.com/ - "Wild-centric". Now we're talking!

And raw too, lovely!