Full Moon Restaurant: Beyond Baby Friendly!

Everyone knows how tough it is to take a toddler out ... you spend your entire meal trying to placate them with books, toys, etc. and worry about people giving you nasty looks because of the noise. I usually prefer to go to chain restaurants because they are generally more baby-friendly, AND they tend to have changing tables in the bathrooms. I have, however, found a few places that are truly baby-friendly, and Full Moon Restaurant in Cambridge, MA is definitely one of them.

Full Moon
344 Huron Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138-6827
(617) 354-6699
www.fullmoonrestaurant.com

Located west of Radcliffe Quad/Harvard, Full Moon has a cozy, cafe atmosphere. Their lunch and dinner menus look great, with a variety of sandwiches, pasta, and fancy dishes like lamb shanks and grilled sirloin. There's certainly enough choices for a vegetarian like me. I went there for brunch and the menu is really good! I went for the poached eggs on grilled bread with asparagus and roasted pepper puree and it was delicious. They have a great kids menu and lots of small items like cups of cut up fruit, etc. too.

They also have a designated PLAY SPACE!!!! This area, tucked in the back corner, has a train table and buckets of toys and books! Definitely a plus for when you just can't get the kids to sit in their high chairs anymore.

The best thing was really the environment. There was nothing but a loud chorus of various babies crying and toddlers/kids whining ... it sounds weird but it was just awesome. You could totally blend in with all the noise and not worry about your kid disturbing anyone. This is the ultimate place to take your kid if you usually don't go out to eat. We were able to seriously relax and just enjoy the meal. I wonder about non-families that go there, I seriously do.

Definitely worth a try, especially for brunch!

Chevy's in NYC

We took baby & my in-laws to grab some lunch while walking around Times Square one weekend, and knowing that the more baby-friendly bets in the city tend to be chain restaurants, we ended up at Chevy's on 42nd Street:

Chevy's Fresh Mex
259 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
Ph: 212-302-4010

On the plus side, it's a large restaurant, so there's plenty of room to park a stroller or pull up a high chair if need be. They also have an elevator to get up to the second level, which is great for a restaurant in the city! The staff was actually very nice about taking us to the elevator. The bathrooms also DO have a baby-changing station, which again, is super rare in the city. The only down-side really is the food -it's lackluster ... and the prices are way too high for what they are offering. I prefer to get an Enchilada or something from the a la carte menu, it's plenty for me and saves a few bucks.

If you're meeting up with people in the city and want somewhere convenient to change baby, then it's fine, but it's really too expensive and the food isn't much worth it. I'd find somewhere else to change baby and try one of the restaurants on 9th or 10th Street!

Restaurants in Manhattan

By the time my baby was about 4 months old, we'd tested out a few restaurants in the city for their "baby-friendliness" ... the biggest issue is obviously getting there, and my last post about subways/trains talks about some of those issues, but so far we have taken him to:

California Pizza Kitchen
440 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10016
(212) 685-6700

They were pretty good about accommodating us, and they certainly have the space as compared to most Manhattan restaurants. That's the thing with chain restaurants, I know everyone dumps on them, but they are so much easier when you have a baby! Anyway we had a group of about 12 people with us and they found us a nice long table where we could comfortably fit baby's stroller at the end. There was even room in the booth for my husband to pull him out of the carrier and lay him down on a blanket in the booth next to him. They offered us a high chair, but we don't need it yet.

I forgot to check while I was there, but I called later and confirmed that they do indeed have baby-changing stations in the restrooms.

Based on that experience though, I would definitely say that it was indeed, baby-friendly. I am also biased because I love their Tostada Pizza.

Tiffin Wallah
127 E 28th St
New York, NY 10016
Phone: (212) 685-7301

The folks at Tiffin Wallah were very nice in accommodating us and finding room for baby's stroller, and they DO have high chairs available. The staff was nice and smiled at baby a lot, which is better than having people roll their eyes at your baby. I personally enjoyed the food, they had a pretty good menu of Indian cuisine, but the place was more casual.

The only downside was there wasn't anywhere to change baby's diaper.

Would I go again? Yes, but I'd have to make sure I changed baby's diaper somewhere before heading in.

I will definitely add more restaurants to this list as we make future trips to NYC.