And the kids came too

If you’re bringing the kids out to eat during next week’s midterm break, here are some suggestions that should keep them amused, and well fed

SCHOOL’S OUT NEXT week so where can you take kids to eat? Take your pick of depressing places where the unholy trinity of sugar, salt and fat are like catnip for kids. During the summer I sat in a place where they made milkshakes from chocolate bars, processing already processed junk into a gloopy portion of Type 2 diabetes in a cup. A queue snaked out the door and down the path.

But there are better options. When I bring my kids out, I like to eat in places we all enjoy.

We try to avoid nuggetsville and get half portions of decent food instead. Your choice of venue will also depend on the age of your child. A toddler shouldn’t be too worried if the wifi isn’t up to scratch. No teen is going to give anything other than an eye-roll to a colour-in menu.

Smaller children

Neon on Dublin’s Camden Street is a casual Asian street food place where the food is served in takeaway cartons and tipped into bowls at shared tables. The big hit with the children will be the serve-yourself whipped ice cream machine. Not healthy, but at least parents can be in charge of the portion control. Neon, 17 Camden Street, Dublin 2, tel: 01-405 2222.

I love The Fumbally not only for its friendly and busy vibe, but for its space, which can soak up a crowd of skinny-jeaned young folk in one corner and a gaggle of parents and kids in another. They make everything from simple, fresh ingredients, so it’s perfect for a family brunch. If a bag of frozen nuggets ever made it into the place I’d eat a hipster’s hat. Fumbally Lane, Dublin 8, tel: 01-529 8732

A great cosy spot for a weekday lunch after running the legs off them on the beach is Moloughneys in Clontarf. It’s at 9 Vernon Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3, tel: 01-833 0002

Isaacs Restaurant in Cork is a roomy, lively place with good simple food, where it won’t matter if the small diners get noisy. It’s at 48 MacCurtain Street, Cork, tel: 021-450 3805.

Jess Murphy’s gorgeous Kai cafe in Galway has the look of a storybook Beatrix Potter-meets-Tolkien, with food that will knock your socks off, such as the current lunch offering of curly kale, fennel, leek and Fivemiletown cheese quiche with tomato chutney and home-made brown bread. Kai, Sea Road, Galway, tel: 091-526003. Mexican restaurant Cactus Jacks in Dublin 1, on the Millenium Walkway at Middle Abbey Street and in Galway on Druid Lane, off Quay Street has a tasty, good value menu. The tapas approach is very kid-friendly and under-12s eat free on a Sunday with a paying adult.

Tweens

This age-group is probably the most receptive to ideas about food that go beyond fries and sausages. I’m thinking of the nine-year-old MasterChef addicts, who know their sous-vide from their Skylanders (saints preserve us).

Sam Spain’s Il Pirata restaurant in East Belfast looks cool enough to tempt older siblings in too. It’s Italian food like crab sliders, roast fig and goats’ cheese tart, and pan-fried squid. Il Pirata, 279-281 Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast. It’s so hip it’s got a Facebook page instead of a phone.

We ate our best family lunch of the year in the tiny Westmeath village of Glasson, in Feargal O’Donnell’s Fatted Calf where our lads got half portions of the great gastropub-food. The Fatted Calf, Glasson, Co Westmeath, tel: 0906-485208.

On Capel Street in Dublin, Musashi Noodles and Sushi Bar is small and busy but has plenty of choice for children and adults and is great value. Musashi, 15 Capel Street, Dublin 1.

In L Mulligan Grocers gastropub in Stoneybatter they have board games designed to remind the twenty-something crowd what it was like to be a kid. Actual kids also enjoy them in later afternoon and early evening, before things get busy. L Mulligan Grocer, 18 Stoneybatter, Dublin 7, tel: 01-670 9889.

Teenagers

A straw poll of friends with teens came up with the conclusions that teenage tastes in food can be as alien to their parents as their taste in everything else. Chain restaurants, pizza joints and all-you-can eat Chinese buffets top the lists of favourites. But there are a few places that might appeal to both groups.

Like an artfully-rearranged explosion in a drag queen’s boudoir, Foam Cafe on Dublin’s Strand Street Great (off Jervis Street) is a place to wow your teenagers. The place is packed with more stuff than you can shake a camera phone at and the food is good cafe staples. Foam, 24 Strand Street Great, Dublin 1.

Panem is the fictional nation in The Hunger Games but it’s also an Italian sandwich shop and cafe on Dublin’s north quays. According to my teenage spies (okay I’m exaggerating, one spy, Grace, aged 13) it serves “the best hot chocolate in Dublin.” Panem, 21 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin.

The nearby Paris Bakery is also cool with the kids for coffees, cakes or lunch. The Paris Bakery, 18-19 Moore Street, Dublin 1, tel: 01-804 4112.

Joe Macken’s JoBurger in Rathmines and his city-centre venue in Castle Market offer burgers with grown-up ingredients such as hummus or red onion marmalade, or rocket and almond pesto. Sweet potato fries might even sneak a few nutrients onto the plate, disguised as fast food. JoBurger, 4-5 Castle Market, and 137 Rathmines Road Lower, Dublin, tel: 01-491 3731.

Teenagers not allergic to fresh air might like Shells in Sligo’s Strandhill, where surfers go to eat burgers served with fried banana. Shells Cafe, Strandhill, Co Sligo, tel: 071-912 2938 And finally, you might try and push the teenage sense of adventure with a family trip to a sushi bar.

Galway has two great sushi restaurants: Kappa Ya on Middle Street (chicken terriyaki for the raw-fishphobe) in the city and the Galway Radisson’s Sushi in the Sky in the hotel’s fourth floor restaurant, tel: 091-538212.